Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and His Warnings for Our Future

Fahrenheit 451 is a complex novel in which Ray Bradbury sets about to warn society of a particular direction he sees it taking. The novel itself warns us of the dangers of anti-intellectualism, increasing violence, instant gratification, the dissolution of schools, the rising hum of technological devices, and many more things in his classic novel Fahrenheit 451. Each of Bradbury's characters play a particular role in this novel. Each character either helps or hinders the protagonist Montag in his quest for a deeper, more meaningful life.

In this novel Montag is a fireman in an age when fireman burn books rather than put out house fires. He is coasting along just like everyone else in life when he meets a teenager named Clarisse. Clarisse, in her silly childlike way makes Montag question everything he ever believed about life. They are walking along chattering (which is never done in this futuristic society because people rarely talk to each other anymore) and she asks him the question that changes his life. "Are you happy? She asks. (Bradbury 10). Clarisse questions Montage about many of the things he says because she knows differently by what others have told her from books. Montag begins to question his life in a variety of ways. He has never questioned his family life before but he is appalled and horrified at hearing his wife Millie talk about the burden of children with her friends. Millie has tried to kill herself numerous times. People run each other down with cars for fun. All his wife does is watch interactive TV. He asks himself if there is more to life than this, and he begins to wonder whether the answer is in books. Clarisse is the catalyst for all of this.

Before Clarisse, he was content to live his life with Millie who represents stupidity and blind ignorance. Millie basically sits around all day and watches/participates in interactive TV. They just bought the third TV wall, which cost a lot, and now she is ready for the fourth. She smokes and watches TV, and that is basically her day. The television is called her "family," and by promoting this false sense of family, she never thinks about what she is missing, like children or a meaningful relationship with those around her. She always wears her seashell radios in her ears, so she never understands much of what Montage says. These radios promote the way the government wants people to live, mindlessly. She takes many pills for all kinds of reasons. Millie represents the typical member of society; she knows herself not at all. She and her friends have completely meaningless conversations like which presidential candidate is more handsome. She represents what the world becomes when people stop reading books or stop being influenced and educated by "quality" materials of any kind. She knows herself so little but the reader cannot feel sorry for her because she is so cruel.

After Montag begins to question his life, he begins to act differently. His boss Beatty starts to catch on that Montag is reading books. Beatty is the symbol of the law with the emblem on his helmet. He also has the Mechanical Hound at his side as his enforcer. Any good dictatorship should have one. Beatty serves to confuse Montag with quotes from books in order to prove to him that books are not worthwhile. "Books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They're about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they're fiction. And if they're nonfiction, it's worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another's gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost" (Bradbury 62). He explains to Montag that books were never outlawed. People stopped reading them because they got lazier and wanted condensed versions of everything. Pretty soon novels were condensed to only a page. Then minorities began to complain. Everyone was offended by something and so books just weren't published or read. We wanted everything faster and faster. He tells Montag all of this as a way to persuade him to stop reading books. In the end, he comes to Montag's house to arrest him and Montag turns the salamander (fire hose) on him and kills him.

Montag then searches out Faber, a retired university professor in English. Faber is the second catalyst in Montage's transformation. He goes to Faber to understand books but Faber tells him that what he is looking for isn't just in books. Faber says we need three things-1) quality of information; 2) leisure time where we aren't moving 100 mph in a car or playing sports-we need time to digest the information; and 3) the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the first two things (Bradbury 84-85). He tells Montag that we had books at one point and we still picked cliffs to jump off of. Then he says, "Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore." This is the advice that spurs Montag's thinking to action. He and Faber put together a plan to copy books. Faber is Montag's instructor.

Lastly, when Montag escapes society and meets up with the book people led by Granger, is only at the beginning of his learning about himself. Granger believes the role of he and his group is to remember the mistakes of the past. Granger and his people talk about the phoenix, a mythological bird that burns itself up every couple hundred years. He tells Montag that humans can learn from their mistakes, unlike the phoenix, and the book people will be there when that happens. They will be ready to bring some of that knowledge back into the world again. The symbol of the mirror is also used here because Granger says that people need to take a long, hard look at themselves and understand the direction that life has taken. (Montag earlier talked about being reflected in the mirror of Clarisse's eyes). Mirrors are symbols for seeing ourselves clearly. The symbol of fire clearly changes in this section. Previously fire was a destroyer; now it becomes a warming comfort as people stand around the fire together and talk. In Granger's world, nature symbolizes redemption and truth as these people meander through the woods all day.

In the Afterward, Bradbury talks about the play adaptation of this book and the questions that people have asked him, like "What happened to Clarisse?" What I found most ironic is that unknowingly Bradbury had named Montag (also the name of a paper manufacturing company) and Faber (a pencil factory) in his book about burning books.

In summary, Montag begins as a drone who is a fireman because both his father and grandfather were firemen. He does not question his life. However, he meets people who change him. Like a true catalyst, it is the mix of personalities that make him question himself. Clarisse leads him to truly think about whether he is happy, whether his life is satisfying. After he thinks about these issues, he tries to figure out what his life is lacking. Because the obvious answer is books, he begins there. Beatty tries to confuse him to lull him back into his passivity, but Montag cannot be stopped now. He meets Faber who clarifies many issues for him and moves him closer to action. And Granger wraps it all up for him and will shelter him after the city is gone. Bradbury provides the reader with incredible warnings about the way we choose to live in the world and the possible ramifications of those choices.