Society Exposed In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

“My theory is that literature is essential to our society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can’t live without dreaming - as we can’t live without sleep. We are ‘conscious’ beings for only a limited period of time, then we sink back into sleep - the ‘unconscious’. It is nourishing, in ways we can’t fully understand.” This quote by Joyce Carol Oates illustrates what I perceived as one of the many themes of the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In my own words, the theme I’ve chosen to elaborate on is that a lack of literature will result in an ignorant society.
At the beginning of the novel Bradbury introduced a character named Clarisse McClellan. She is described as a 16 year old girl who doesn’t relate to those her

I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames.’
He laughed.” (Pg.6). This conversation shows how ignorant Montag is even on a subject that his job revolves around. The government had deemed literature a danger to society and eradicated it from society. The lack of accurate documentation of history has allowed the government to manipulate the truth and spoon feed its citizens what they want them to believe.
An important passage of the novel was when the firemen went to burn the old ladies books and she refused to leave instead she willing burned with the books. Her actions indicate how vital literature is to life and without it life isn’t worth living. But that isn’t why this is an important passage, the firemen’s response to her actions helped the readers understand the mindset people have in this society. “ ‘You know the law,’ said Beatty. ‘Where’s your common sense? None of these books agree with each other. You’ve been locked here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come on now!’ ” (Pg.35) In this quote Beatty is essentially calling that woman crazy for having books that have opposing opinions. This shows that the goal of this government is not to advance as a whole but to avoid conflict by having everyone agree on everything. This has resulted in ignorance towards any opinion that isn’t the

Faber is a former college professor and Montag has access to his information because as a fireman it’s his responsibility to keep tabs on potential offenders. When Montag goes to meet Faber, Faber is initially hesitant as he should be. But as they continue their encounter Faber realizes Montag isn’t there to burn his books rather he’s there to learn about them. Faber explains to Montag why books have been eliminated from society, “ ‘So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores of the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from chemistry of the earth… today, in this city, in our time, then I am completely insane. Well, there we have the first thing I said we needed. Quality, texture of information.’ ” (Pg.80) This quote emphasizes on the idea I had presented earlier, this government is using censorship to shape its citizens minds. They believe that if everyone has the same ideas and thoughts that conflicts will be reduced to a