How would the world be different if all the books were burned? Guy Montag, a fireman whose only purpose is to burn books, has never really questioned the world he lives in. Then Clarisse comes along and makes him question it. He goes mad after he takes a book from a home and doesn't know how to face the consequences. His wife, Mildred, also forces him to question society when she is in need of medical attention but doesn't receive the amount she deserves in Montag's eyes. Fahrenheit 451 was written towards the beginning of the Cold War when censorship was beginning to take over; this novel is a representation of how the world could end up.
I found the writing in this novel to be beautiful, especially the passages about books; "There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us" (83). This novel definitely pulls people together, like others of the time period, to see how censorship or other forms of control could ruin the world. Beyond that, I couldn't help but love one of the messages tucked inside these pages; "I know, I know. You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by" (104). I just think that is a great thing to remind yourself every day, but it's also interesting in the historical context of this novel. The Cold War was history in the making, and looking back on it now I think it's safe to say we learned a few things from that experience. Most of history is just learning from mistakes people before us made, but we can't be reminded of those mistakes unless there are books for us to remember them. That is true of nonfiction accounts such as my awesome American History textbook and fictional accounts such as this book.
The novel is fairly short and it's really a propaganda piece, which means there are some things left out of the story. I sometimes felt like characters were introduced and then I never knew who those characters were. Still, I don't think that is necessarily the worst thing in the world. I think what is really important with this book is to walk away with the idea of a world without books ingrained in your mind. And this novel certainly did that for me.
This novel earned an A.
I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.