Book Review: "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
As we all know, the world of science fiction is a place full of creativity. This genre has proved to be one of the most effective when it comes to critically approaching some of the most difficult problems in our society.
This book fell into my hands in my late teens. I had previously read Brave New World and 1984, and the genre, something new for me at the time, had me captivated. I did a little research to come up with other similar titles, and here is one of my best discoveries.
Fahrenheit 451 Plot Summary
Fahrenheit 451 introduces us to a world that is different from the one we live in, but which, as we read, reminds us suspiciously of it.
In this world, where happiness is not a goal, but an obligation, reading is an activity long ago forbidden. Books are capable of awaking critical thinking, and there is nothing more harmful to happiness than the capacity to have ideas of your own.
The firefighters, historically known for extinguishing the fire, now work in a different activity: Burning. More specifically, burning books. In fact, Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns, making it an adequate title for this story.
Far from being a revolutionary or an avid reader, our protagonist is a firefighter himself, that is to say, one of the men in charge of destroying those dangerous objects called books.
When the story begins, Guy Montag has been working as a firefighter for ten years. Ten years without questioning his duty, ten years without stopping to think why he is doing what he is doing.
Everything changes one night during a mission when Montag’s team receives a call informing them of the existence of several books in an old woman’s house. This tragic episode will be a point of no return for the character. Not only will he begin to wonder about the nature and importance of books, but he will also commit a crime of enormous magnitude: Stealing a book for himself.
The protagonist’s desperate and dangerous search for meaning will lead him (and all of us readers) to an unknown land of knowledge.
Dying Reading Habits of New Generations
Ray Bradbury finished Fahrenheit 451 in only nine days, with a rental typewriter in the basement of a library. More than 70 years after its publication, the topics addressed in this novel have not grown old. If anything, they correspond to the world’s reality even more than when Bradbury wrote them.
Of course, the first of these topics is the forgotten and neglected habit of reading. In the novel’s world, books are not only forbidden, but the situation is even more critical: People have stopped reading on their own accord. Firefighters are not as necessary as they once were. Their appearance is a kind of show, as one of the characters says.
Nowadays, the lack of reading habits is not a matter of science fiction; It is a reality. It seems as though most people I know have read very few books in their lives, and most of the ones they have read have been out of obligation. Schools are partly responsible for that. I have experienced it myself.
This situation ended up contaminating people’s ideas of what reading is and preventing them from discovering pleasure in the activity. Finding people who enjoy reading becomes rarer every day.
Montag's job is a part of his life, and it never occurs to him to wonder about the implications it has for the world. It all changes the night they burn that house. As I mentioned above, this is a key moment in the story. The image of the old woman being consumed by the flames is an indelible one. It makes Montag wonder: What is it about books that are so important? What makes it possible for a person to die for their sake?
I don't know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I'd burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.”
Memorable Characters
Though Montag is the protagonist and the one person whose journey we are following, other characters manage to make an impression on the reader.
Clarisse
My favorite is Clarisse. Her introduction to the story was the moment I started to find it so interesting. When I read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time, I was 16 years old, and that solitary girl, called crazy and despised by his classmates and teachers, made me feel understood and accompanied in the situation I was living myself at school.
I guess I'm everything they say I am, all right. I haven't any friends. That's supposed to prove I'm abnormal. But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays? […] Sometimes I'm ancient. I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way?”
We also have to contemplate that his friendship with Clarisse has an impact on Montag’s life. The girl puzzles and sometimes even alarms him with her “weird” ideas, but she always manages to leave him thinking. I believe she is the person Montag cares about the most.
Clarisse's death is a surprise, and it is not addressed in detail. We do not get to know much except what Mildred says about it. But despite her death, the girl does not disappear from the story. Not really, anyway. Montag thinks about her many times throughout the rest of the book.
The author even expressed after watching the 1966 film adaptation, in which Clarisse survives and joins the book men, that he rather likes this ending more than his own. I agree.
Faber and Other Supporting Characters
Faber is also a character that gives you a lot to think about. His knowledge and help are fundamental for Montag, for he knows about books and remembers the old times. He remembers how the world was before books were banned and gives the first flicker of hope: Some men still remember, but like him, they are too scared to act.
I have concluded that every one of the characters represents a kind of person that inhabits the world:
Montag is the person who perceives that things are not right but cannot figure out exactly how it all works. But he wants to. He recognizes his ignorance and tries to educate himself and find a way to make the world a better place.
Mildred is the person who, deep inside, knows that things are not okay but chooses to distract herself by the means her society offers her (TV shows, pills)
Beatty is the person who is perfectly aware of what is wrong but uses this knowledge to consolidate his power and authority. It is maybe the most dangerous kind of person.
Faber is the person who knows what is happening but feels powerless; he is too paralyzed by fear to do something.
And Clarisse is the person who lives free, despite the oppression of the world surrounding her. Her way of living should be every person’s goal.
Which Book Would You Be?
Also, we have the book men. The idea of every person becoming a book is of indescribable beauty. Those men carried the books inside themselves as treasures, as something that deserved to be protected.
The first time I read this part of the book, I had an idea that drove me crazy for some hours: If I had to choose, which book would I want to be? Dozens of titles came to my mind in the first 30 seconds, and I started to feel like the protagonist of Sophie's Choice.
We Still Have Hope
But what I find more admirable than anything else in this work is that, unlike most science-fiction novels, Fahrenheit 451 has an ending that is, if not happy, at least hopeful.
And what can be more important than that?
Going out into the world every day and seeing the pains and troubles that have been haunting humanity for so long without being solved—seeing injustice, poverty, and corruption—can be discouraging. But if we do not hope for better, if we are not capable of imagining a reality in which our world is a better place, how are we going to get there?
There is a quote from this book, on the very last page, in which Montag asks himself a question.
And when it came to his turn, what could he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier?”
We are living in a very special moment in history. We are not sure what the world is going to look like when we get back out there. The only thing that we can tell for sure is that things will probably not be the same again. The world has changed.