Understanding Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

A key to understanding Fahrenheit 451 is the history behind book burnings. The firemen in the book are fire starters instead of (like today) fire extinguishers. This is the only purpose they have; they are trying to destroy all literature of the past. Although this book is set in a dystopian society, these sorts of mass book burnings are not a myth created by Ray Bradbury. He was influenced by the actual burnings happening around the world and those that have happened in the past. Religious groups, military groups, and others have performed book burnings of various literatures for various reasons. WWII resulted in the loss of countless books, sometimes as collateral damage but mostly it was purposeful eradication of culture. Book burning destroys

It’s impossible to say for sure how many books were extinguished, but it’s estimated to be 1/3 of the books in WWII Germany. In one city alone, books were virtually wiped out. The Germans were efficient with their book burning by soliciting helps from the Nazi German Students Association and because they had specific troops whose job it was to destroy buildings and the collections inside them. By the end of the war, Poland had lost an estimated 16 million books and manuscripts. The goal was to eradicate Polish history and culture in the form of books. Though this is a high number, Poland wasn’t the country that had lost the most during the war. Through the Allied bombings, Germany lost countless universities, libraries, and museums housing innumerable books now obliterated. On May 10th, 1933 Berlin had more than 20,000 books destroyed in the largest book burn ever. Books were confiscated either by the Nazi German Students Association or Nazi troops and were then tossed into burning piles. Any book that was considered Anti German or simply not part of German propaganda was thrown in the pile. Books destroyed had included those by Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Anne Frank, and other popular

In the book the government is attempting to preserve culture by burning books to eliminate conflict. However, they are actually eliminating culture by burning their history away. In the same way, Hitler was burning books to try to eliminate other cultures to prove the German race superior. Although the intentions are slightly different, both are trying to preserve their culture by destruction of literature. The result is the same, loss. The Holocaust purged Germany of all of its culture, which is essentially what the government in Fahrenheit 451 was trying to accomplish. Reading represents the populations in regards to education and their culture. The Nazi book burnings were attempting to censor Germany of all diversity in the name of the Aryan ‘superior’ race. Although not centered on race, the government in Fahrenheit 451 wanted the entire population to be equal. This meant education wise opinion wise- the general opinion should be pre-approved and never their own. Books are considered weapons of knowledge and ideas. People may know, just like in Fahrenheit 451, but people die- books don’t. They could try and memorize as many books as possible but so much is lost with the destruction of books. We see this today by looking in our textbooks and we can see it in futuristic novels like Fahrenheit