Giselle Mata
3/9/23
Period 4
Title
“That's the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want” ( ). Envision a world where death is meaningless, where books burn and knowledge is meaningless. “Fahrenheit 451” is a story written by Ray Bradbury about fireman Guy Montag who eagerly burns books before finding the true magic and meaning within them. After going through troubling times Montag meets others on the same mission to overthrow the firemen system and restore books to his society. When comparing Guy Montag’s Fahrenheit 451 society to the United States current society, readers notice nuanced similarities and differences in regard to policing and punishment, and relationships. “Fahrenheit 451” and U.S. society
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For example, in Montag’s society they have very shallow relationships with one quote from the book reading, “He remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he would not cry. For it would be dying of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, and it was suddenly so very wrong that he began to cry, not at death but at the thought of not crying at death” (41). Bradbury writes this after Montag returns home to Mildred, his wife who had overdosed on sleeping pills while he was away. In Montag’s society Marriages are not sacred nor intimate. Montag realizes that his marriage has no meaning and is slowly falling apart. Later in the novel, Mildred has friends over, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs.Bowles. After Montag scares them off by reading a book, forbidden in their society, he sends Mrs.Bowles off with one last thought. “Go home and think of your first husband divorced and your second husband killed in a jet and your third husband blowing his brains out” (98). Montag says this, pointing out the cold hard truth that in their society marriages mean nothing, and if one husband leaves, they will simply be replaced by another. This is drastically different from our U.S. society due to the fact that our marriages are often intended to be meaningful and once (or twice) in a lifetime match, with a person you cherish and hold most