Read or Burn?

By Partha P.

Ray Bradbury, considered one of the greatest authors of his time, is renowned for his book “Fahrenheit 451”. It was his greatest literary achievement in his entire writing career. The book is set in dystopian society where books are illegal burned instead of being read. The book centers around the main character, Guy Montag, a firefighter. Firefighters in this future society burn books and start these fires instead of putting them out. They are basically the book police. He starts with the mindset that books are bad, and is focused around the parlor and “parlor family”. After coming home from the fire station one night, he meets his new neighbor Clarisse. She is different from everyone else. Her open-minded thoughts, and ideas of liberty change Montag’s view. He starts to question the rules set by the government.

 

Finally, while he is burning down a house filled with books, he takes a few and starts to read them. He realizes how much he actually enjoys reading, and keeps them in his house. He knows what he is doing is illegal, but he does not care anymore. Reading became his drug, and he could not stop. Overcome by guilt, he tells his wife, Mildred, of his crimes and tries to get her to appreciate books. She is in horror and thinks that they are stupid. Eventually, while his wives friends are over, he can’t take it anymore and bursts out about the books. He is reported by his own wife and her friends. The fire chief, Beatty, orders Montag to burn his own house down. Montag complies, and burns his house down. The fire chief ends up finding out about his friend Faber, who also reads books, and threatens to kill him. Montag, fed-up and frustrated, takes a flamethrower and burns Beatty and knocks out his co-workers. He escapes from the city to the countryside and joins a book that also reads books and memorize them.

This book is a great piece of literature. It is one of those books that is considered a classic and rightly should be. The character development of this book did not really go to in depth. It gave you what you needed to know about them and then a tiny bit more. I did appreciate the way he made the main character, Guy Montag. You are able to connect with Montag and connect with his innocence about books. His curiosity and his innocence make you like and sympathize with Guy Montag. There is a interesting deeper meaning to this book, and becomes more and more prevalent to our society today. With the newer generations forgetting about books and reading less while focusing on activities like surfing the web, watching tv, and playing video games, this book reminds us about the importance of reading. It also talks about government control and the loss of free-thought in the future, as most dystopian novels do.

This is my first and only book that I've read by Ray Bradbury. I would definitely recommend this book to others and will most likely read more Ray Bradbury books in the future myself. It is available at you local and school library, as well as many bookstores.