My Response To Literature
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is a dystopian novel about a fireman named Guy Montag starts to wonder about what was inside of books that makes the government burn them. After meeting his strange new neighbor, his curiosity is fueled even more, so the next time he went to burn a house with books, he sneaks a book out of the house, away from the grasping flames of the fire. When he tries to read the book, he doesn't understand it, so he seeks out an old Harvard professor named Faber to teach him about how to understand books. After Faber gives him a communication device so they could talk, Montag goes to his house to find his wife, Mildred, watching T.V. in the parlor with her two friends. Something urges Montag to tell them about the book and the many others he had stashed in his ventilator, so he does. It scares the women, which causes them to report him to the firehouse. Captain Beatty, as captain of the firemen, commands Montag to burn his own house by himself, which he does. But, then Montag burned the captain to death, and ran out of the city to escape from the police chasing him. Once out, he finds some other retired professors who invite him to travel with them. The book ends when a bomb from the ongoing war hits the city, killing everything in it. Montag watches as everything he knows, including Mildred, is blown up.
I liked most of Fahrenheit 451 for many reasons. I liked the idea that the setting was a dystopian future we have not yet experienced, the way ray Bradbury is suggesting this is what the future will be like if we keep advancing technology, and the part of the book stating Benjamin Franklin was the first fireman made me laugh. I also liked the characters, Clarisse who was "17 and crazy," Mildred and her friends who were not the brightest, forgetful, and easily entertained, Faber, the scared professor, Beatty, the captain that thought literature was lying to us and creating fake stories to mess us up. But mostly Montag, the protagonist who wanted more from the world, wanted to know about the books, but didn't know what to do, or how to do it, or what his feelings really meant and wanted. Some things I didn't like, though, were all of the confusing statements Beatty made. I didn't understand a lot of his speech to Montag, nor grasp the meaning of his book quotes while they were playing cards.
I learned, by reading Fahrenheit 451, that if society doesn't like something, even if some people still like it, can completely ban it and become more ignorant with the things it does like. I also learned that if enough people in society disagree with each other, or there is a big enough problem, chaos will most likely follow. But I think the most important thing I learned from the book is that I don't want to live in a world like that. What makes Fahrenheit 451 a dystopian novel are the totalitarian government, the time period in the future, the advanced technology, and the dehumanization society has gone through to make them have short attention spans, a dislike of books, and a more ignorant life. I've learned that dystopias are usually set in the future, have advanced technology, have dehumanization and a decline in society, a totalitarian government, are the opposite of utopias, and usually end in problems and chaos. I also learned that I really don't want to live in one.
Would I recommend Fahrenheit 451 to my friends and other people? My answer is, yes I would. It shows the importance of making sure we don't abandon books to watch T.V., and what might happen were we to take that path. I think Ray Bradbury successfully convinced society to keep reading, but if I don't recommend people to read this book, they may stop reading and not realize what a world without books is like. Fahrenheit 451 would then only foreshadow the outcome of the path we would take without books. Although it would be quite ironic if Fahrenheit 451 were burned should the government become that way. Also, I would recommend the book because I liked the way Ray Bradbury created his characters. Like Clarisse, who was "17 and crazy," or Mildred, who took too many sleeping pills and didn't remember it, only knew that she was really hungry and wanted to watch the T.V. parlor walls. And although there were some parts of the book I didn't like or understand, there weren't that many, which is another reason i would recommend Fahrenheit 451 to my friends and other people.
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