Sean Barrs 's Reviews > Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
by
by
![27788046](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1694286584p2/27788046.jpg)
Sean Barrs 's review
bookshelves: 5-star-reads, sci-fi
Jan 14, 2021
bookshelves: 5-star-reads, sci-fi
Read 2 times. Last read January 14, 2021.
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
The burning of books is such an effective tool for controlling the population, so the message of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is scarily real. If society’s wisdom could be taken away, then so could their freedom. If knowledge was burnt, then the people would be left in a complete state of utter innocent ignorance. There would be no room for free thought, that way they could be told anything about history and themselves. If all books were burnt, then they are just sheep to be led into a future dictated by the government. To make it worse the men who do it enjoy it.
Books have become illegal; thus, owning them is a form of disobedience against the state and a violation of the law. The books are burnt by a special group of firefighters, yes firefighters, which hunt readers mercilessly. When they find them, they burn their beloved collection and leave them to die. One woman burns with her books by her own choosing rather than submit to ignorance. The firefighters don’t know exactly why they do it, they rarely question it, they just do it unflinchingly because that is what they are told to do. And they cannot understand why somebody would fight to the death to defend the written word.
Guy Montag is one such firefighter. He lives a mundane life with an equally mundane partner. He’s miserable. He carries out the book burnings, like the others, without a second thought until one day an innocent young girl changes his life forever. She is his next-door neighbour and she is a closet book reader; she asks him a series of questions that makes him realise how stupid and worthless his existence is. He takes solace in a collection of books he has stolen whilst on the job, a symbol that he and the world could one day be free. The knowledge he gains changes his perception of the world forever.
Books have fallen out of favour as other mediums have taken priority over them. People have become hostile to books because they feel inferior when faced with an educated reader; thus, if they are removed forever everyone will be the same and minorities will be removed. Individuality would die. Consequently, when Guy begins reading, he does not know what to do anymore; he has been conditioned to act in a certain way, and when liberty presents itself, he is reluctant and confused by his new knowledge. He is a reluctant hero but a hero, nonetheless. He has stolen one of the last surviving copies of the Bible but doesn’t know what it is. However, a professor of the bygone age does and what comes after is one of the most powerful and symbolic endings I’ve ever read in science-fiction.
This really is required reading for anyone who is serious about science fiction and dystopian fiction because it really is one of the best in both genres.
__________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
The burning of books is such an effective tool for controlling the population, so the message of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is scarily real. If society’s wisdom could be taken away, then so could their freedom. If knowledge was burnt, then the people would be left in a complete state of utter innocent ignorance. There would be no room for free thought, that way they could be told anything about history and themselves. If all books were burnt, then they are just sheep to be led into a future dictated by the government. To make it worse the men who do it enjoy it.
Books have become illegal; thus, owning them is a form of disobedience against the state and a violation of the law. The books are burnt by a special group of firefighters, yes firefighters, which hunt readers mercilessly. When they find them, they burn their beloved collection and leave them to die. One woman burns with her books by her own choosing rather than submit to ignorance. The firefighters don’t know exactly why they do it, they rarely question it, they just do it unflinchingly because that is what they are told to do. And they cannot understand why somebody would fight to the death to defend the written word.
Guy Montag is one such firefighter. He lives a mundane life with an equally mundane partner. He’s miserable. He carries out the book burnings, like the others, without a second thought until one day an innocent young girl changes his life forever. She is his next-door neighbour and she is a closet book reader; she asks him a series of questions that makes him realise how stupid and worthless his existence is. He takes solace in a collection of books he has stolen whilst on the job, a symbol that he and the world could one day be free. The knowledge he gains changes his perception of the world forever.
Books have fallen out of favour as other mediums have taken priority over them. People have become hostile to books because they feel inferior when faced with an educated reader; thus, if they are removed forever everyone will be the same and minorities will be removed. Individuality would die. Consequently, when Guy begins reading, he does not know what to do anymore; he has been conditioned to act in a certain way, and when liberty presents itself, he is reluctant and confused by his new knowledge. He is a reluctant hero but a hero, nonetheless. He has stolen one of the last surviving copies of the Bible but doesn’t know what it is. However, a professor of the bygone age does and what comes after is one of the most powerful and symbolic endings I’ve ever read in science-fiction.
This really is required reading for anyone who is serious about science fiction and dystopian fiction because it really is one of the best in both genres.
__________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Fahrenheit 451.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
April 25, 2015
–
Started Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
April 25, 2015
– Shelved
(Other Hardcover Edition)
May 19, 2015
–
Finished Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
May 23, 2015
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
(Other Hardcover Edition)
February 13, 2016
– Shelved as:
5-star-reads
(Other Hardcover Edition)
February 6, 2019
– Shelved as:
reviewed-for-fan...
(Other Hardcover Edition)
January 14, 2021
–
Started Reading
January 14, 2021
– Shelved
January 14, 2021
– Shelved as:
5-star-reads
January 14, 2021
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
January 14, 2021
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)
date
newest »
![Down arrow](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/down_arrow-1e1fa5642066c151f5e0136233fce98a.gif)
![Scott](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1342822974p1/11135067.jpg)
![Cecily](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1480285828p1/1199525.jpg)
![Reshteen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1667441505p1/58845655.jpg)
I need to reread this, 1984 and Brave New World back to back, to see how they compare.
![Sean Barrs](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1694286584p1/27788046.jpg)
No - i read this back in 2015 and this is an old review reposted which got deleted somehow. I would be the the Rime of the Ancient Mariner or some other epic poem that needs to be remembered. How about you?
![Sean Barrs](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1694286584p1/27788046.jpg)
I need to reread this, 1984 and Brave New World back to back, to see how they compare."
i didn't even realise there was a film.
![Sean Barrs](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1694286584p1/27788046.jpg)
I recommend 'Burning the books: a his..."
sounds good, I'll check it out.
![Cecily](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1480285828p1/1199525.jpg)
That's a good choice for society as well as you. I'd be tempted to be a little more selfish and pick the Gormenghast omnibus because it's a wonderful and arguably unique work, but also because I could get utterly and endlessly lost and immersed in it (partly because it's so visual), and thus escape the horrors of the dystopian world.
I recommend 'Burning the books: a history of knowledge under attack' by Richard Ovenden, if you're interested in book-burning as a means of control in totalitarian societies.
"Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings" (Heinrich Heine, 1823).