Any and all progress in a society has its roots in individual people breaking away and demanding change. Without these differing views that promote discussion and innovation, we will be left blinded by by the rules already set before us by others, not daring to think outside the lines. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury contains just such a society, where all contradictory ideas and the books that held them have been gradually destroyed and banned, till none remain accessible to the common person. Free thought is no longer taught in schools, and human beings have been reduced to identical unthinking beings unaware of their own decline. The only way to regain true freedom and self-identity is to attain the courage to refuse to mindlessly
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His whole life, he had been trained by everything around him not to think, not to question, not to value knowledge. Even though he has been secretly gathering books behind the ventilation grate in his house, he never planned to do anything with or even read them, and lived in denial of their very existence. While taking the Bible from the house of the woman who was burned was a turning point for him, he was still in a state of complete disbelief when it happened, feeling like his hands had acted without any guidance from his mind. After it happened, “he gazed, shaken, at [his] white hand. He held it way out, as if he were farsighted. He held it close, as if he were blind” (38). Inside, he wanted to have the book, but the part of his mind that was the product of society, which was at that point the larger part, was completely appalled and unable to understand what had happened. Only the next day did he finally come to terms with the fact that everything he had always believed was false, a wrong to be righted. “‘This fire’ll last me the rest of my life. God! I’ve been trying to put it out, in my mind, all night. I’m crazy with trying’” (51), he exclaims to Mildred, and this is the real turning point for him, the realization that he’ll never again believe in despising books. After, even when Beatty explains to him all the logic of why their world is …show more content…
The world depicted by Bradbury is still as horrifying now as it seemed then, a society that stripped all freedom and self-identity from its members and left them empty, “faces with gray colorless eyes... gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (139). The novel makes free thought and awareness seem even more urgently necessary than it ever was, especially now as our society moves closer and closer to this world of so many people’s nightmares. One can look around today and recognize so many things from those pages, see the gradual desensitization of our world, the way everyone is constantly connected to some piece of technology, blocking out the world, the way there are constantly commercials and advertisements and pop culture blaring from every direction. If you look at our society today through Ray Bradbury’s eyes, everything seems like an apocalyptic future, flying toward destruction and emptiness. Still, our society might be different. There are still intellectual people, artists, music that has meaning. They aren’t going anywhere. Maybe, if we keep holding on to those things, the things that matter, we can be different. We can pull through and stay
His whole life, he had been trained by everything around him not to think, not to question, not to value knowledge. Even though he has been secretly gathering books behind the ventilation grate in his house, he never planned to do anything with or even read them, and lived in denial of their very existence. While taking the Bible from the house of the woman who was burned was a turning point for him, he was still in a state of complete disbelief when it happened, feeling like his hands had acted without any guidance from his mind. After it happened, “he gazed, shaken, at [his] white hand. He held it way out, as if he were farsighted. He held it close, as if he were blind” (38). Inside, he wanted to have the book, but the part of his mind that was the product of society, which was at that point the larger part, was completely appalled and unable to understand what had happened. Only the next day did he finally come to terms with the fact that everything he had always believed was false, a wrong to be righted. “‘This fire’ll last me the rest of my life. God! I’ve been trying to put it out, in my mind, all night. I’m crazy with trying’” (51), he exclaims to Mildred, and this is the real turning point for him, the realization that he’ll never again believe in despising books. After, even when Beatty explains to him all the logic of why their world is …show more content…
The world depicted by Bradbury is still as horrifying now as it seemed then, a society that stripped all freedom and self-identity from its members and left them empty, “faces with gray colorless eyes... gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (139). The novel makes free thought and awareness seem even more urgently necessary than it ever was, especially now as our society moves closer and closer to this world of so many people’s nightmares. One can look around today and recognize so many things from those pages, see the gradual desensitization of our world, the way everyone is constantly connected to some piece of technology, blocking out the world, the way there are constantly commercials and advertisements and pop culture blaring from every direction. If you look at our society today through Ray Bradbury’s eyes, everything seems like an apocalyptic future, flying toward destruction and emptiness. Still, our society might be different. There are still intellectual people, artists, music that has meaning. They aren’t going anywhere. Maybe, if we keep holding on to those things, the things that matter, we can be different. We can pull through and stay