When Books were Burned Fahrenheit 451 Essay -- Government Literature C

The Time Books were Burned Fahrenheit 451 The novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is a science fiction novel that introduces a world controlled by the government. Humans are not accepted in this new world. Television has replaced family. The people live the present through television. The firemen are seen as flamethrowers, the destroyers of books. The people living in this society have no reminders or memories of history or the past. In Fahrenheit 451, the society has a strict set of values and beliefs. The government has constructed its own matrix for the people in the society to abide by. It is forbidden for books to be read or seen. Books are not to be read; they are to be destroyed without a question. Since the government has such a tight hold on society, the citizens have no clue as to what is happening in their world. In Fahrenheit 451, the government has demanded that the harshest measures be put on books, which in this case is the burning of the books. Books are considered to be evil because they make people ques tion and think. In this world people believe that when books and new ideas are available to society, conflict and unhappiness take place. I believe that the government feels that by eliminating the world of conflict and controversy, that it will put an end to dispute and allows people to stay happy all the time. In Part One, The Hearth and the Salamander, Guy Montag is introduced as a thirty-year-old fireman in the twenty-fourth century. Montags role as a fireman is destroying all the books he finds along with the homes he finds them in. At first it was pleasurable for Montag to burn up books. At this point he believes he is happy. He is a smiling fireman. The smile, just like his burnt-corked face, is a m... ... are model citizens, in our own special way; we walk the old tracks, we lie in the hills at night, and the city people let us be. This group of people, instead of carrying books with them, they each just memorize as many books as they can. The purpose is to one day, when the world is changed, to be able to re-copy the books once again into written form. Montag has changed dramatically throughout the novel. He is now able to think for himself, make his own decisions, and even tell people what to do, such as Faber. This is major change from the beginning of the book when Montag was nothing more then nave. He was only a timid machine of society. Bradbury promotes the idea in the novel that man should think for themselves, not let the government or television do their thinking for them. Work Cited Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953.