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Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

Start date: October 1, 2020

Finish date: October 31, 2020

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

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Dec 26, 2015 Franky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.”

Fahrenheit 451, a book that frequents many a required reading list in high schools. It has commonly been labeled a “book about burning books”, but I think this label is a gross misrepresentation. One of the great aspects of Fahrenheit 451 is that is covers a vast amount of ground: it goes well beyond book burning. It surpasses this, and becomes a book about the future, about thought, about conversation, and about “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.”

Fahrenheit 451, a book that frequents many a required reading list in high schools. It has commonly been labeled a “book about burning books”, but I think this label is a gross misrepresentation. One of the great aspects of Fahrenheit 451 is that is covers a vast amount of ground: it goes well beyond book burning. It surpasses this, and becomes a book about the future, about thought, about conversation, and about questioning society’s norms. To offer up a cliché, it is a book “well ahead of its time.” To take that a step further, it is a book that speaks to our times, our world. It is about not-conforming in the face of a society that conforms. It is about the dangers of a “brain-dead”, superfluous society who consumes mindless entertainment over critical thought. It is about the ills of a technologically “advanced” society that has, ironically, regressed and is backwards.

In short, it is many things.

I also feel that this is a novel about waking up, changing one’s direction and outlook in life. Montag, the hero of the novel, goes about his daily routine of being a firefighter until he meets Clarisse, a free thinking teenager, who questions him rather simplistically, asking, “Are you happy?” This simple question sets off a major epiphany for Montag, who begins to question who he is, who is married to, what is the meaning of their society, and how did this all begin. In a society where free thought, individualism, and knowledge are frowned upon and outright discouraged, Montag begins to wonder “what if?” What if he tried to discover how things came to be, and decided to read, to gain knowledge, and perhaps understand? From here, Montag embraces his role as a nonconformist, and begins to seek out means to discovering and unearthing every amount of knowledge he can about the past, his world, and how to change it. But how? He remembers meeting a college professor at the park, a man named Faber….

Bradbury’s dystopian work is a bit extreme, and probably exaggerated, but surely it represents a relevant discussion piece when you consider the somewhat superficial digital, instantaneous world we live in now. Consider this scenario: You are out to dinner and observe a family of four—a husband, wife, and their two children, a daughter and a son—having dinner as well. However, you notice they are not speaking or conversing, but rather spending the entire time in the restaurant on their digital devices. Oh sure, they do look up at times—to request a refill of soda, or to get up and use the restroom—but lacking is family interaction. Their interaction is the social media on their device. This is a scene that puts Montag’s wife, Mildred, into proper perspective.

Bradbury certainly makes the case that technology and innovation, while certainly advantageous when used correctly, can be a double-edged sword if not used up to par. For this reason, Fahrenheit’s “classic” status is well suited. It applies to many society and times. This novel is more powerful each time I read it, as its message and themes go well beyond its one hundred plus pages, and I pick up something new that I missed the previous time. For that reason, it is one of my favorites.

Has our society become digressed to the extreme depicted in Fahrenheit 451? Probably not. IHowever, I think the novel symbolizes a cautionary tale about what life could be like if technology replaces thinking, conformity replaces individualism, superficial entertainment replaces human emotion. In this sense, Bradbury’s work is stunningly appropriate to us, I think. Montag is the crusader who embodies the vision of change. Once he finally begins to question, he finally begins to actually live—and think.
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Jun 15, 2014 Franky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: amazing, classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have wanted to go back and update reviews for some of my favorites, ones that I read years ago, but go back to. Fahrenheit 451 is one such novel, and it has the staying power to still be applicable to our world more than fifty years after it was published.

Much like The Hunger Games series of today, Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian that explores the ills of a government that is too powerful and controlling. However, I think Bradbury’s novel goes well beyond the scope of this type of critique; it I have wanted to go back and update reviews for some of my favorites, ones that I read years ago, but go back to. Fahrenheit 451 is one such novel, and it has the staying power to still be applicable to our world more than fifty years after it was published.

Much like The Hunger Games series of today, Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian that explores the ills of a government that is too powerful and controlling. However, I think Bradbury’s novel goes well beyond the scope of this type of critique; it is also a social commentary that explores the results of a “brain dead” and apathetic society. In this society, people fail to question, fail to challenge, fail to reason. They go about their daily lives like sheep. To take this a step further, not only has this world lost their voice, but the vast majority fail to even recognize that they have one. There are some exceptions, however.

Montag, the book’s protagonist, is woken up to the truth early in the book by his neighbor, a girl named Clarisse. She asks him a simple question, “Are you happy?” Pondering over this, Montag, a fireman who goes out and helps to burn books, questions not only his “work”, but the very nature of the world they are living. He begins to see the topsy-turvy and backwards world they live in with a different lens, and a vast emptiness and void consumes him. Seeing the world in its true colors, Montag’s experiences an awakening. This transformation and new outlook is also propelled forward by Faber, a former English professor who knows the history and power of books. Books come to symbolize the vary concepts that characters like fire chief Beatty want to crush: values, ideas, emotions, individual thought.

Although Fahrenheit 451 is often labeled as a young adult book, this is a book that anyone can appreciate and identify with because of its universal message. Bradbury’s novel has many thinking points about society’s collective consciousness, or lack thereof. If we get to a point where we are mechanically going through life without one care or another, then we have lost. Within the context of this backwards society is a scary Mechanical Hound, a watchdog of sorts, designed to keep everything in order.

There are definite similarities to another fantastic dystopian novel, 1984. I think ultimately Fahrenheit 451 has an upbeat outlook, more so than Orwell’s brilliant novel. Over all, Fahrenheit 451 is a book that has deserved all the praises it has received.

This particular edition is the 50th Anniversary edition of the publication and has a very insightful interview with Bradbury in the afterward. He sheds light on his inspirations for writing this book.

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Jan 30, 2020 Rianto Dermawan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Fahrenheit 451, the temperature level when the fire began to burn the book. Imagine there is a place where no one is allowed to own and read a book. Goodreaders must protest and take action.

"We burned a thousand books. We burn a woman. "
" Okay? "The living room exploded with sound."
"We burned copies of Dante and Swift and Marcus Aurelius. "
" Isn't he European? "" Something like that. "
" Isn't he a radical? "" I never read it. "

Ray Bradbury wrote this, a dystopian fiction book , published in 195 ...more

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Dec 02, 2016 Kendall rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If there is another book published in 1951 that is more relevant to this moment, I can't imagine what it would be.

451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which books ignite. Guy Montag, the novel's protagonist, knows this because he is a fireman. His job is to burn houses with books. The government is not totalitarian; it is giving the people what they want. The government burns books because people would rather entertain themselves to death with walls of televisions broadcasting reality c If there is another book published in 1951 that is more relevant to this moment, I can't imagine what it would be.

451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which books ignite. Guy Montag, the novel's protagonist, knows this because he is a fireman. His job is to burn houses with books. The government is not totalitarian; it is giving the people what they want. The government burns books because people would rather entertain themselves to death with walls of televisions broadcasting reality crap: "The Family."

Populism anyone? Keep up with the Kardashians?

But Guy experiences a series of events that awakens his soul, and the novel involves a battle for that soul. The contestants for his soul are his fire chief (Beatty, representing the entertainment culture) and a former English professor (Faber) who lost his job when students no longer studied liberal arts. Their words, written almost 70 years ago, are eerily prescient.

The fire chief acts as apologist for their new normal in which people pursue "[m]ore sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, [where] you don't have to think . . . ." The government banned books only after they stopped selling. "There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, . . . Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick." The government only gave the people what they wanted. Little wonder comic books and "three-dimensional sex magazines" survived.

What is needed? What is the antidote found in books? According to Faber, "Number one, . . . quality of information [authenticity]. Number two: leisure to digest it [when not racing around under the domination of the entertainment media]. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."

This science fiction is hardly fiction. You get timely ideas, written in 1950s surrealistic prose that sometimes mimics the beat poets, all wrapped in a rip-roaring story that I won't spoil here. One of the best, most entertaining, and most important books I have ever read. ...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Kacie rated it liked it

Thought-provoking work. Many ideas and implications on censorship, and the dumbing-down of our culture. We see this today.

One take-away: if you have reason to memorize a book, make sure it's a good one!

I understand and support this book as required reading for high schoolers. The Bradbury book I had to read in high school was Dandelion Wine and I remember not being a fan.

With Fahrenheit 451, I thought it could have been so much more. Better-developed characters, story more fleshed out, so that' ...more

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