The Burning Of Learning In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

The Burning of Learning

Two hundred years from now our jobs may be taken over by robots, we could drive floating cars, and books may be outlawed. Well, in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, one would get turned in for having books and the firefighters would come burn them. Guy Montag, a firefighter, decides to take a stand against this social norm. The characters Guy Montag and Mildred in Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 live in a dystopia, where relationships and dystopia culture illustrate the themes of technology and happiness.

In the novel, there are many controversial characters. One of those characters is Guy Montag. Montag is very different from everyone else in the story due to the fact that he is a fire man who enjoys reading and

The first reason why there is a cultural difference is because it takes place in a dystopia. The main thing that makes it such a different society than our is because they are not allowed to have books so they burn them, “While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning” (Bradbury 3-4). This shows that they burn books and just let them blow away like they are garbage. Since the society norm is that books are outlawed and everyone is preoccupied by their technology, it is almost programmed into their brains. Having books in their society is equivalent to being a drug dealer in our society, someone will turn you in and the you will get in trouble with the police. Another thing that is different from our society to the society in Fahrenheit 451 is the relationships between people. As mentioned before, the Montag couple is very controversial and Mildred turned in her own husband, “The front door opened; Mildred came down the steps, running, one suitcase held with a dreamlike clenching rigidity in her fist, as a beetle-taxi hissed to the curb” (Bradbury 114). This shows how Mildred is more devoted to the laws than she is to her husband. It also shows how Mildred does not support her husband and his pursuit of happiness. Thirdly, Mildred turned her husband in without a warning and she is afraid she may be caught as well. Mildred did not want to

The main theme of the novel is happiness and this is seen throughout the book. The main occurence of the pursuit of happiness is when Guy is fighting for his books and will not give up, “How many times can a man go down and still be alive” (Bradbury 131). This is proof that even Guy is surprised at how strong he is fighting for what he believes is right. It is amazing that Guy has taken so many hits and has fought through the tough times. It shocks him what he has done and he has figured out what he is capable of. The second theme is technology, the society of the novel are very dependent on technology. The lives of people in Fahrenheit 451 are literally surrounded by technology, they have TV walls, “It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed” (Bradbury 20). This quote shows how the houses in the novel are, they are walls of tv’s. The people that can afford it will potentially have a whole room of tv’s. This shows how much technology has taken over their lives and how dependent they are on it. Concludingly, the key to life is happiness, and this can be hard at times when things like technology surrounds