Every person has the capability to attain enlightenment, as each can descend on their own unique journey to achieve truth and understanding. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury presents a future society where books are forbidden, firemen burn books, and people living in society are lost in superficial desires that are fulfilled with meaningless distractions. Guy Montag, a firefighter who believes it’s a pleasure to burn, slowly transforms into a human library who sees the truth and the importance of books, as many characters assist him in his journey towards the level of enlightenment. Analogous to Montag’s journey is Allegory the Cave by Plato, in which a prisoner who has been secluded all his life in a cave becomes released and exposed
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Montag’s first stage on his path towards liberation can be exemplified with his wife Mildred who represents the prisoner’s illusions when he was chained up in the cave. In a world where society is dystopian, Montag can be compared to the other people in society where reality is filled with temporary pleasure, such as Mildred’s life that consists mainly of watching television: “her seashell was tamped in her ear again and she was listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at the fathoms of blackness above her in the ceiling…the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, the nieces, the nephews, that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree-apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud” (Bradbury 41). Mildred’s “seashell…tamped in her ear” infers that she is in her own world of illusion where she shuts off everything around her so she does not have to deal with the problems of reality. She is very distant from the real world as she was “listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide,” indicating the distractions that lure her into a dimension where she feeds and lives off the enticing entertainment. The so-called “relatives” (41) of Mildred that live in the walls are basically television characters who replaced Mildred’s real human beings with as she spends most of her valuable time with them daily. Bradbury emphasizes with repetition that Mildred’s “relatives” say “nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud,” which doses her and pulls her out of reality and into a happy place where she does not have to worry about the undeniable disarray that describes her life. Like his wife, Montag also is content in illusions. He feels “It is a pleasure to burn” and uses his job as a fireman to avoid real life reflection. Similar to Mildred and Montag’s
Montag’s first stage on his path towards liberation can be exemplified with his wife Mildred who represents the prisoner’s illusions when he was chained up in the cave. In a world where society is dystopian, Montag can be compared to the other people in society where reality is filled with temporary pleasure, such as Mildred’s life that consists mainly of watching television: “her seashell was tamped in her ear again and she was listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at the fathoms of blackness above her in the ceiling…the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, the nieces, the nephews, that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree-apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud” (Bradbury 41). Mildred’s “seashell…tamped in her ear” infers that she is in her own world of illusion where she shuts off everything around her so she does not have to deal with the problems of reality. She is very distant from the real world as she was “listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide,” indicating the distractions that lure her into a dimension where she feeds and lives off the enticing entertainment. The so-called “relatives” (41) of Mildred that live in the walls are basically television characters who replaced Mildred’s real human beings with as she spends most of her valuable time with them daily. Bradbury emphasizes with repetition that Mildred’s “relatives” say “nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud,” which doses her and pulls her out of reality and into a happy place where she does not have to worry about the undeniable disarray that describes her life. Like his wife, Montag also is content in illusions. He feels “It is a pleasure to burn” and uses his job as a fireman to avoid real life reflection. Similar to Mildred and Montag’s