Watching Flames through a Window

by Peter M.

The perspective of a book often tells you a good amount about the narration of that book. When a book is in 1st person, it usually focus on a single character and how they react and develop through events in the story. When it is written in 3rd person, the narration is not tethered to a character and can make objective judgments about what is happening in the story. Often times, through this, a 3rd person narrator can take on a persona of their own. It usually does not take on a full character, but it can give the semblance of a character and often reflects the author, as it is their voice that is narrating the story. This allows an author to tell the story through their eyes opposed to the eyes of a character. However, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 differently. It is written in 3rd person, but it is almost written as if it is 1st person. The narrator does not take on a persona of its own, and pretty much invisible. Since it is in 3rd person, the reader can objectively view the main character more easily, but it without a narrator being visible, the story does not seem as if it is being told to the reader. It seems more like it is unfolding before the reader's eyes. Bradbury does not make judgments of his own in his narration that are not those of the character's, he presents the story to the us to judge as we see fit.

Fahrenheit 451 follows a change in a man name Montag. Montag is a fireman, yet not in the way we think of firemen. The firemen in our lives put out fires, yet the firemen in Fahrenheit 451's not so distant future create fires. Particularly they create fires to burn books. In the world Bradbury made, the society has turned against books, deciding that the knowledge and ideas in them is not worthwhile and that it would be better for them all to be burned. Whenever someone is found with books, their house with all their books is burned and the person is arrested. At the beginning of the book, Montag is one of the people responsible for these burnings and even enjoys his job, because of the satisfaction of satisfying the norm of burning books. Yet, he begins to question this norm. The books follows his questioning and his ultimate change. Bradbury's invisible narration allows us to focus on what is going on inside Montag's head and gives us a clearer view of his journey through his initial satisfaction at burning books, his growing questions of the society, books, and what is right, and his eventual consensus that what his society is doing is wrong.

"The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141)

At this point in the story, Montag is pondering his reasoning why he is rejecting the status quo of burning books. This sort of description and narration often comes from a narrator that is showing the world through author perspective and presenting their case for why they have this perspective. Yet, Bradbury does not do this. These are Montag's own thoughts. The whole book is written like this. What is described is only what Montag sees or hears. Any judgments that are told are Montag's own thoughts. Yet, instead of being a 1st person perspective, it remains in a 3rd person narrative. Montag never presents his own story or his own case to us. The narrative almost seems like it is experienced by the reader opposed to being given to them by someone else. This can make Montag seem even more relatable than if it were in first person by making it seemed as if the reader willingly experience what Montag went through, opposed to listening to the case he presents, leaving the reader open to make his own judgement of the story opposed to simply either agreeing or disagreeing with the author.

Fahrenheit 451 provides a great example of the usage and benefits of an invisible 3rd person narrator. It provides a tool to use in writing if you want to leave your reader open to make their own judgments on what you present and to make it seem to them as if they experienced the story instead of being told it. When the purpose of the writing is to provoke thought in the reader, this is definitely the way to go.