Reflection Project

Rough Draft of Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Cale Houghton

The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about a man named Montag living in a dystopian future, where books are burned and society is brainwashed by technology. Montag works as a fireman, but in this reality, firemen don’t put out fires, they make them. Montag, his Captain Beatty, and the rest of the fire crew burn books, houses that contain books, and occasionally, the people who own the books. Their only goal is to eradicate books. To the firemen, its a great time. They all seem to love fire though. As Beatty says it, “Fire is bright, fire is clean,” (p.60).

In contrast to this though, Montag begins to steal books from the hidden libraries that he is supposed to be burning. It might seem like a curiosity at first, but Montag continues stealing books over the span of several months. And when Captain Beatty visits him at his home, he admits that he once stole books. But thats not all, he goes so far to admit that, “At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch. What do the books say, he wonders. Oh, to scratch that itch, eh? Well, Montag, take my word for it, I’ve had to read a few books in my time,” (Bradbury, 62). So, here, he is not only admitting to having read books himself, but he is also saying that EVERY firemen reads a book sometime in his career. So this brings me to the question, if firemen are supposed to despise books, but they all eventually steal a book to read, so what is it that pulls them towards books?

The reason that firemen such as Montag are pulled toward books is that their life is dull and repetitive, and books seem like a symbol of freedom that they need to save. We can see strong examples of how they feel that their life is monotonous in the connections they make to things around them. They feel like books need to be saved because they compare them to a living creature.

Montags life of destruction is very repetitive and monotonous.

One way I can tell this is that he feels connected to the Mechanical Hound, which has one purpose, to destroy.

Montag also feels connected to fire itself, which also has only the purpose of destruction in this book. At the start of the book Montag describes his everyday work as, “His hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of burning and blazing,” (Bradbury, 3). The fact that he is comparing his relationship with fire to a relationship with a human, especially a conductor to a musician, shows that he is feels very related to it. To further prove this connection between Montag and fire, later in the book when he feels like he is productive instead of destructive, he sees fire for the first time being productive, and giving warmth. This is the first time that he feels that he is being productive, (Bradbury, 146). The reason that this shows his life is repetitive is that he is comparing himself to fire. Fire follows a predictable pattern, and is used in their society for one thing: Destroying. When Montag feels a kinship to it, it shows he also feels like all he does is destroy.

The way this affects Montag is that it makes him feel bad for the books.

It’s true that at first he does feel happy when he burns books. Later in the book though, he feels remorse when he burns books.

Books also appear as though they are birds to Montag. At the very start of the book, when Montag is first introduced, the narrator speaks of the books as, “the flapping pigeon winged books died on the porch,” (Bradbury, 3). Also, later in the book the author describes that, “a book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering,” (Bradbury, 37). So here the author describes them as flapping, winged, pigeons, and able to die, on multiple occasions. If he just saw a book burning he probably wouldn’t feel remorse. But seeing an animal dying is very different. He would feel remorse that he was killing something, especially a bird, because birds often represent freedom. So, if he were to burn one he would feel like he was burning his freedom.

In conclusion, firemen become depressed in their monotonous life, and they feel guilty destroying books, so they end up saving books instead, because to them books represent freedom. The reason that I think it is books that represent freedom, and not something else, is because books are what is restricted by the government. The government is the only ones who really know the meaning of why books are restricted, and they are the only ones who know about these mysterious wars that they say will be short and easy, even when cities get blown up. So with this oppressive government, anything they withhold might make people subconsciously think of it as freedom.

Tree-Web Fahrenheit 451

Sorry if it's too hard to read, I had difficulty taking the picture in my lighting. I can try again though if needed.