Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit in 1953

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit in 1953, believing that the situation in the book could very possibly occur in a couple of centuries. In this future world, book reading would be banned, as well as independent thought and actions. Fires would be started in homes rather than being put out, in order to burn any reading materials Now, 54 years later, how close is today's society to what Bradbury forecast? In some cases, too close for comfort.

Fahrenheit 451 relates the story of Guy Montag, a 30-old-firefighter who is responsible for setting fire to books, which are now illegal. It is a very fast-paced world, where people are addicted to television and do not think for themselves. At first, Montag enjoys work and believes he is satisfied with his role:

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head (the temperature that books burn), and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in gorging fire that burned the evening sky red, yellow and black. (33)

It is not long, however, when Montag starts to question his job as well as life in general. His wife, Mildred, is addicted to both tranquilizers and the virtual world on her television and radio and tries to commit suicide.

Montag befriends his 17-year-old neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, whose humanism and curiosity make him take a second look at his own actions. He also hears about an older woman who loves books so much that she is willing to die rather than go on without them. "You know the law," said Beatty the fire chief to this woman before setting fire to her home. "Where's your common sense? None of these books agree with each other. You've been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in these books never lived. Come on now!" As a result of this event, Montag becomes extremely disappointed with himself and others for accepting life as it is and starts to look for answers in the books he stole from work.

Montag asks for help from Professor Faber -- a scholar who attempts to memorize books in his mind -- and discovers how reading came to be banned: Special-interest groups and other minorities objected to books that disturbed them. Soon, all books began to sound the same, as authors tried to avoid offending anybody. Eventually, society decided it was easier just to ban the books entirely and not even print them.

One night at home, Montag becomes enraged by the trivial and unfriendly dinnertime discussions of Mildred and her friends and their obsession with television. Without thinking, he pulls out a book of poems and begins to read. The distressed women, including his own wife, report him to the authorities, and Montag is forced to set fire to his own house. Afraid that his friend Farber may also get caught, Montag turns the flamethrower onto the fire chief.

At the end of the book, Montag runs away and joins a group of individuals who are memorizing books for future generations They hope that after the present war is over (one of many, many wars that occur), people will go back to reading. Then it will be important to have these words learned. Montag learns the Book of Ecclesiastes and waits for a better future. The book, itself, a philosophical essay on the meaning of human life is a symbol of what could possibly be. The author rejects all religious and ethical theories that are challenged by experience. He sees no godly plan in history, nature, or personal existence and attests that only relative satisfaction can be discovered in wealth, pleasure, family, friends, or work. The basic meaning of life is in living it fully and making he smartest possible choices.

Written in the 1950s, Bradbury's book is just as much about the fascism that occurred during World War II and Senator McCarthy's blackballing and discrimination as it is about his made up world centuries into the future. Unfortunately, despite the freedom in the Western world, the book is a warning to what is taking place in the present world as well as the one yet to come.

Ironically, for example, Fahrenheit 451 is on the list of those books most banned by schools and public libraries in the United States, because of its language and themes. Other listed books include Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter, and Tom Sawyer. Banned Books Week is observed during the last week of September every year by the American Library Association Web site, which celebrates the freedom to choose or express one's opinion, even if it might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. Many parents do not like the filthy language, such as damn and hell. In fact, in 1967 the book's publisher printed an abridged version specifically for the school market that deleted the instances of such words.

The banning of books is not the only similarity between what took place in Bradbury's novella and in present-day life. People who lived during the book's time were so busy and removed from the outside world, that they no longer even knew anything about nature. Their cars went so fast, they could not even see the sights if they had wanted to.

I don't know what grass is, or flowers because they never see them slowly. If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He'd say, that's grass! A pink blur! That's a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles per hour and they jailed him for two days." (9)

Similarly, there are too many people living today who have never walked on a trail in a park, swum in an ocean or lake, or even visited a farm. They are used to the heat and air conditioning and do not want to be the slightest worm or cold.

As in many cities across the United States, especially where gangs rule, children are violent by the time they complete elementary school. In Fahrenheit 451, the youth are violent as well. Clarisse tells Montag she is "...afraid of children my own age. They kill each other...Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid" (30) and "...afraid of children my own age. They kill each other...Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid." (30). Presently, shootings at schools, such as that which took place at Columbine High School, are no longer completely random events.

In Fahrenheit 451, cameras record people throughout the cities, privacy is a thing of the past, the army has a robot called the "mule" to track offenders down, wars that no one cares or knows about are always happening, and wire tapping is very common. One night, Montag is threatened by the Mechanical Hound, a combination of police dog, spider, and computer, whose main purpose is to track down enemies of the state (such as those who read books, for example) and render them helpless with sleep-inducing drugs.

Today, people in England are already monitored by more than four million closed-circuit, or CCTV, cameras, making it the most-watched nation in the world. Soon, even more of the same will be coming. No one will be able to drive without being watched from the air. If someone goes over the speed limit, they will be seen. If another person is driving without a license, he/she may easily be caught. Millions of vehicles will come under surveillance.

Bradbury's book is also about a society where people do not communicate well with one another. Despite his writing for the science fiction genre, one can imagine how he feels about all the people walking around with their cell phones attached to their ears and talking less and less to one another in person. Increasingly, the Western world is becoming high tech, where people would rather watch TV, listen to their CDs and talk on phones than talk face-to-face.

People are becoming so wrapped up in reality shows, that it is difficult to know where the past ends and the future begins. Also, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than four hours of television each day, or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year. In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.