Books are the world’s main source of reason and knowledge. Without books, the world would be run on ignorance and corruption. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury depicts humanity’s need for literature and reading through the story of Guy Montag; a firefighter who sets fire to books instead of putting them out. Montag experiences an epiphany in which he realizes he is unhappy with life and states that: “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years,” (Bradbury 82). This realization begins his journey toward literacy and knowledge. Montag’s journey begins with a former English professor by the
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From books, people of all ages gather knowledge and experience from things they read. They gain the opportunity to learn something that they were not able to directly experience. Moreover, they see the world differently and with deeper understanding. An excerpt from author Neil Gaiman’s Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming thoroughly explains this concept: “Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.” Therefore, knowledge changes its reader, it educates them. With education comes an understanding of the world, which eventually leads to the improvement of it. Now it is apparent as to why books are important to society; without books, people would be ignorant, and society would never progress. Ignorance only brings a standstill or regression in humanity as evident in Bradbury’s future dystopia in which books are illegal and people are ignorant and …show more content…
More specifically, the stupidity sprung from censorship in Fahrenheit 451 has caused the citizens of its society a great deal of trauma. For example, the immense authority the government has over the citizens cannot be overthrown due to the people’s lack of brainpower to understand such a concept or even their own unhappiness. Unfortunately, they will never win this war since the government is precisely the reason for the absence of books in the world. Such difficulties can be seen through Montag’s conformist wife Mildred. The absence of literature has caused her to become so vapid that words on a page mean nothing anymore. After trying to read she shouts, “Books aren't people. You read and I look around, but there isn't anybody!” (Bradbury 73). Mildred and others like her are so limited in the mind that they can only comprehend information as children would and become angry when they fail to understand it. Children are easy to control, and Fahrenheit’s government are very aware of this. Likewise, the same would happen to citizens of our society without books. People with the mental capacity and knowledge of children would replace our citizens; easily influenced and mentally arrested. Thus, allowing the government to achieve full reign and the ability to withhold and
From books, people of all ages gather knowledge and experience from things they read. They gain the opportunity to learn something that they were not able to directly experience. Moreover, they see the world differently and with deeper understanding. An excerpt from author Neil Gaiman’s Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming thoroughly explains this concept: “Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.” Therefore, knowledge changes its reader, it educates them. With education comes an understanding of the world, which eventually leads to the improvement of it. Now it is apparent as to why books are important to society; without books, people would be ignorant, and society would never progress. Ignorance only brings a standstill or regression in humanity as evident in Bradbury’s future dystopia in which books are illegal and people are ignorant and …show more content…
More specifically, the stupidity sprung from censorship in Fahrenheit 451 has caused the citizens of its society a great deal of trauma. For example, the immense authority the government has over the citizens cannot be overthrown due to the people’s lack of brainpower to understand such a concept or even their own unhappiness. Unfortunately, they will never win this war since the government is precisely the reason for the absence of books in the world. Such difficulties can be seen through Montag’s conformist wife Mildred. The absence of literature has caused her to become so vapid that words on a page mean nothing anymore. After trying to read she shouts, “Books aren't people. You read and I look around, but there isn't anybody!” (Bradbury 73). Mildred and others like her are so limited in the mind that they can only comprehend information as children would and become angry when they fail to understand it. Children are easy to control, and Fahrenheit’s government are very aware of this. Likewise, the same would happen to citizens of our society without books. People with the mental capacity and knowledge of children would replace our citizens; easily influenced and mentally arrested. Thus, allowing the government to achieve full reign and the ability to withhold and