Why Is Books Important In Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Faber explains three things that are missing in the society that they are living in. They live in a society where thinking and knowledge are prohibited because it shows superiority. The quality of information, lesure to digest it, and the right to carry out the actions based on what we learn are the reasons why the people in this society do not want books. In Montag’s society, people do not believe that books are important or have anything but a negative impact on them. One reason why the people in this society do not want books is because of the quality of information. Faber says, “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,

The second reason why the people in this society do not want books is because of the leisure to digest it. The leisure to digest means to take the time to think about something and to really understand what the information means. Faber says, “Off hours, yes. But time to think? IF you’re not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can’t think of anything else but the danger, then you’re playing some game or sitting in some room where you can’t argue with the four-wall televisor. Why? The televisor is ‘real’. It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it inm. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest: (Bradbury 80). The leisure to think does not really exist where they live. The television already shows you how the show ends or the meaning behind it before your mind can even question what is going on. They don’t take the time out to dig deep on what the meaning to anything is. People are used to living a fast paced life where the answers are already given to them without asking ‘why’ or

There is a third thing that is missing from their society. Faber says, “And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two” (Bradbury 81). Books usually give a call to action for people to act on what they have read. However, in Montag’s society, they do the opposite. Since books are not important in their society, they are lazy and do not see the reality that is hurting who they are. There are only a selected few, like Montag, who see the importance of how books can change who we are and how we