Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay--last review from my Christmas break reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though it’s quite preachy, and therefore suffers as a work of fiction, Bradbury is making a critical point with this book. That point is this: We are losing our connection with nature, with our past, with our loved ones, and with ourselves because we are so saturated with technology that we are no longer reflective beings.

This point is even more significant now than it was in the 1950’s, when Bradbury wrote the book. Before television, high-speed travel, and other new technologies, we were a society, in general, of readers and reflective beings. But that is no longer true. Although the story is obviously not a literal prediction of the future, Bradbury's insight into the direction of society is astounding. Several of his predictions in this book sound eerily like today’s world. Here are a few thoughts:

1. In Bradbury’s future dystopia, no one has deep, enduring relationships with people. Their relationships are superficial, mainly because of pervasive media saturation. People would rather be listening to their earbuds (which Bradbury predicts) and looking at screens. For example, Montag’s wife and her superficial friends cannot hold an intelligent, articulate conversation because they are so addicted to their virtual world (her living room walls are made of interactive TV screens, and she interacts with a virtual family, to the detriment of real relationships). The houses of Bradbury’s future have no front porches because neighbors don’t get to know each other anymore. Bradbury’s world of people disconnected from each other sounds a lot like today’s de-incarnated world.

2. People in Bradbury’s future are also disconnected from nature. They live in concrete cities, they travel at high speed, etc. In addition, the countryside is filled with enormous billboards. Trees are “green blurs,” cows are “brown blurs,” and no one slows down to reflect on the beauty of the natural world.

3. People in Bradbury’s future are also disconnected from the self. They are not reflective. They are bombarded by advertising and by the saturation of technology—visual, auditory, etc. Because of this, no one ever slows down enough to think. In fact, the reason Montag begins to “snap” and question his whole society is that he meets Clarisse, a girl who doesn’t fit in. She is reflective, in touch with herself, with her family, and with nature. She actually greets Montag on the street, and after their conversation, Montag starts thinking about how he has never been reflective. Eventually, he realizes that he needs to change, and that his whole society is sick.

4. Bradbury shows how easy it is for the government to manipulate the people in a society dominated by images and not words. People do not question what the top-down government does because the government PR machine is so effective in controlling public opinion.

5. The education system in the book also looks eerily like today’s—a de-emphasis on the humanities (meaning and values) and the promotion of job skills-based education. Interestingly, Bradbury predicts the downfall of liberal arts colleges because of the rise of education as mere job training. One of the heroes of the book is a former English prof, and there is an underground network of former history and English educators. (I'm sure they would be a tough bunch. But of course, I have to love any story that involves an English teacher as one of the heroes.)

6. Bradbury also predicts the death of the newspaper. In a world where people value entertainment over civic duty, no one cares about investigative reporting, and no one sees a need to keep tabs on the government or stay abreast of current issues. Sadly, we see this happening today.

7. Bradbury saw that when people are not reading books and thus not thinking critically, elections are won through style and not substance. In a reference to the presidential election, Montag’s wife and her friends imply that they voted for the guy who won not because of any substance, but because he looked good on television. The other candidate, they noted, was too boring.

8. Bradbury predicts the breakdown of the family as a result of superficial relationships and media saturation. People in Bradbury's world have generally had several marriages, and parents don’t care much about their children. Bradbury even predicted the TV as babysitter.

9. The mechanical hound chase for Montag reminded me so much of The Hunger Games. Bradbury took Montag’s race for survival through the countryside and put it on national television—it was a big reality show. Americans were entertaining themselves watching a deadly machine track and try to kill Montag. I would love to continue exploring parallels between The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451, because there are a lot of them.

10. I also noticed a few parallels with The Giver, another favorite of mine. Both stories involve a utilitarian society that discourages reflection and cultural questioning, the awakening of a citizen who begins to question the culture's values, the guidance of a fatherly mentor who sees the problem but regrets not doing anything about it, and the character finally choosing to do something drastic in defiance of his culture. I would guess that Lois Lowry was influenced, at least subconsciously, by this book.

11. I loved how Bradbury incorporated classic literature into the story. In a pivotal scene when Montag is beginning to question his culture's values, he is burning down a house that contains books. As he does, the woman who owns the books and is about to be taken away quotes Hugh Latimer’s words to Nicholas Ridely as they were being executed, from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: “We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out!”

12. Bradbury clearly shows that the choice not to read books is a decision that society is making. Initially, it was not the government that made people stop reading books—the people just stopped reading because television screens were more interesting. In an interview with Bradbury in the back of the book, the interviewer points out, “One thing people sometimes forget about Fahrenheit 451 is that the government doesn’t begin by burning books—it’s ordinary people who turn away from reading and the habits of thought and reflection it encourages.”

A few significant passages:

"One time as a child, in a power-failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and drew comfortably around them, and they, mother and son, alone, transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again soon.”

“I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.”

"If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so … full of 'facts' they fell stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.”

"School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?"

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”

“The old man admitted to being a retired English Professor who had been thrown out upon the world forty years ago when the last liberal arts college shut for lack of students and patronage.”


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