"Will you turn the tv parlor off? No, they're my family." (Bradbury, page 120)
I am currently reading the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The book is set in a dystopian future, where books are banned. The main character Guy Montag ( a fire fighter who burns books) thinks his life is great and he has all the the knowledge in the world.
He starts questioning society, and everything he has ever known when he comes across this girl named Clarisse. Clarisse, is 16- years-old and is a very curious girl. She questions everything about society, she is very eager to learn, and wants to know why things are the way they are now. She makes Montag see the world from a completely different view point. Montag gets an alarm that an old lady has a stash of hidden literature, the women shock him by saying that she wants to be burned with her books. Montag takes some of the books from the lady and hides them along with many other books that he has stole from his other fires. A few days later, Montag has just heard some very tragic news that Clarisse has been killed by a speeding car. Montag's dissatisfaction with his life increases and he begins to look for a solution in all the books he has been hiding. Montag's fire chief, Beatty is noticing that Montag hasn't been him self lately after they burned the old lady along with her books and the fact that Clarisse was killed. Beatty finds out that Montag is questioning what books have to offer, and explains that every firefighter goes through the same phase that Montag is going through. Beatty explains to Montag why books were banned in the first place; A special interest group and other minorities objected that books were offending them. All writers tried to avoid offending somebody, all books looked the same, and then society as a whole just decided to burn books so they wouldn't create conflicting opinions.
I am scared for our society in the future, this books message had grown more relevant that ever before. People don't want to actually learn anything or do work anymore, they just want the shortened version of it and an answer. If we don't stop and think about what we are doing to our society it will just end up like a dystopia. We need books, books are very important. Not only do they increase your vocabulary and give you the ability to come up with things to write, they show you how other people's perspectives of the world and different topics are. It may offend you but everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyones voice should be heard.
Do you think our society today is going to become like the society in Fahrenheit 451?
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