451° fahrenheit. The temperature at which books burn. In this dystopian fiction genre, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, we are taken to a futuristic world where books are not allowed. In the terrifying future, the government wants to control the knowledge of the people through media and by eliminating books. The closed minds of the society where not many will dare to question the value that books once held, and still do. Knowledge is power.
Firemen are supposed to put flames out, but ironically in this book they do the complete opposite. As stated by 17 year old Clarisse: “Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firement to stop the flames.” (Ray Bradbuy, pg 12). Montag is a fireman who lives next to young Clarisse, he finds her ways pretty odd but fascinating. Clarisse likes to make Montag think about what is actually going on in society and makes him feel really uncomfortable doing so, but he keeps coming back for more conversation. Montag is in denial about the way the world ‘used’ to be before the burning of books. He sees no value at this point to any of the knowledge that can be gained by books.
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That’s our official slogan.” (Ray Bradbury, pg 12). Clarisse sees the importance of books and subtly questions the integrity of Montag. The government has so many people brainwashed by all of it’s media electronically that it is against the law to even own a book, let alone read a book. TV’s are the future, they can control what knowledge is put out there for society to gain. To rebel against the government comes with great consequences, ones that Montag isn’t willing to risk,