One theme in Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. The author may not have intended it to be one
of the major themes, but by reading the book it definitely stands out. Censorship is the suppression of something
seen as offensive. Isn’t this what the
firefighters were practicing when the books were banned? It is their job to enforce the law that the
lists of books are to be banned. They
might not be able to catch every person that is in possession of a book, but
they try to install fear into the hearts of the people when starting fires that
if they break the law, what happened to the house next door will happen to
them. The government knows that fear is
a useful tactic to make people obey.
Fear is another universal
theme. Many times in the history of the
world, a government used its power to create fear in the eyes of the
public. Germany, China, and Italy are
only a few of the somewhat more recent examples. Faber, although being a coward
is in his nature, did not resist when books first became banned because he was
afraid of what would happen to him if he took a stand (Bradbury 38). Faber was also afraid of Montag at first
because he was a firefighter and if he talked took openly with him he feared he
might be arrested. Mildred was
devastated when she found out that Montag had been keeping books because she
was afraid of losing the house, money, and life the way it was. Montag, even as a firefighter himself, found
the mechanical Hound to be frightening.
Another theme is the peoples’ loss
of reality. The lives of the people in
this story are so pathetic but they do not realize it. When Mildred became depressed, she took pill
after pill, perhaps trying to commit suicide.
When she isn’t overdosing on pills, she is always listening to her
seashells, watching the family or driving one-hundred miles per hour down a
road. Once in a while she may invite
some other ladies to come over and watch the family with her, but that is about
it. She became so absorbed with the
technology that she refuses to turn the family off when Montag is trying to
talk to her and she falls asleep listening to her seashells. These create the illusion of a virtual
world. Finally, some kids driving down a
street intended on running Montag over as he was crossing (Bradbury 59). It seemed like they were playing a video game
where you try to hit as many objects as you can, except this was in real
life.
By writing this book, Ray Bradbury
showed that he thinks that it is human nature to become so soaked into
something that you become addicted to it when it may not be the best thing for
you. Just because something is fun does
not necessarily mean that it is good.
Everyone makes mistakes, however.
Bradbury realized this but he also seems to believe that a person is
capable of changing. It is not an easy
thing to do. If a person is like
Mildred-not wanting to change and only doing what she wants to do- then he or
she will not go far. Montag, on the
other hand, was able to realize his flaws and get help to become a better
person.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.
This is a great blog!
ReplyDelete