Critical Lens Essay Fahrenheit 451

Would it be normal for ones house to burn down just because the individual owns books? In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, a fireman, has his house burnt down by his own co-workers because he reads and takes some books from the houses he burned down. During the era this novel takes place people do not read books, if they do there would be serious consequences. Although the media can be useful, it can lead to people forgetting about the knowledge literature gives and importance of it which can lead to consequences for those individuals.

In the society Montag lives in people do not touch books which is causing the knowledge in the books to be lost. In part two, Faber and Montag talk about how many books are left in the world.

The people in their society have no reason to touch a book so they would not know what Montag was talking about Montag asks “How many copies of Shakespeare and Plato?” Montag asks this to Faber because they are both tempted to read books. Since they are tempted to read books, they know the names of famous authors that we know today such as “Shakespeare.” Faber responds to Montag’s question by saying “None!” This implicates that their society does not care for books as much as the generations before them did. Since the people have no desire to read books, they are losing a valuable piece of knowledge they could receive by read a

People try to stay distant from books which is causing books to not be as important as they once were when people read them and not burned them. When Beatty go to Montag’s house when he is sick, Beatty says, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.” (Bradbury 57). Beatty tells Montag to burn the books, which shows it has no importance to them. If people did not want to read a book they would not burn it. In this society there is a separation between books and people which is leading to them not knowing what a book can behold. Beatty says that “Colored people don’t feel like Little Black Sambo” and “White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which tells the reader that the people are very sensitive and do not like things being said, shared, or written about them, their race, or religion. Beatty also says multiple times “Burn it.” They rather burn away the material that once told a story just because it had information about their own people. Burning the books to them is showing that it is worthless and not necessary to have in their society. People are forgetting about the importance of books, and throwing them in the incinerators because they are seen as