In Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury depicts a future world where everyone seeks only to be entertained. As a result, everyone has shifted away from books and the knowledge they provide. Society then orders the firemen to burn books so that nobody has to read their "lies". Through the use of metaphor and contrasting ideas for books, Bradbury shows that destroying knowledge to “save” life ultimately leaves it dull and meaningless.
Through the use of Beatty’s speech about why firemen burn books, Bradbury reveals that it was the people that originally decided that the books should be removed. This leads to a lack of knowledge which ultimately leads to a lesser value to life. Fireman Montag’s boss Beatty explains to him that the “bigger the …show more content…
He makes it a contrast to the parlor walls, which symbolize the dullness of a life without knowledge. When Faber is explaining to Montag the value of books, he says, "They have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You 'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion" (83). He explains how they are important to people by saying, "You can shut them, say, ‘Hold on a moment.’ You play God to it... Books can be beaten down with reason” (84). Not only does Bradbury explain how books are important to people, he compares it to the alternate forms of entertainment, which are the parlour walls. These walls completely submerge the user into a virtual story and allows them to play a role in it. He capitalizes on how with books, there is actual quality and can be argued with reason. The words “streaming past in infinite profusion” show that books are full of life, and the fact that it can be argued with and “beaten down with reason” gives it much more meaning to the reader. In contrast, Faber describes the walls by saying, “It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. it seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest” (84). The life that the walls possess give no freedom to the user, because everything is forced onto them. This demonstrates how it symbolizes the life without knowledge, because the person does nothing and the walls don’t teach them anything. Books give freedom to the reader to argue against what it says, teaching them to think for themselves. However, the walls continuously insist on what it says as right, teaching the user to do nothing but go along with everything that is happening. Knowledge therefore gives life meaning from the ability to think
Through the use of Beatty’s speech about why firemen burn books, Bradbury reveals that it was the people that originally decided that the books should be removed. This leads to a lack of knowledge which ultimately leads to a lesser value to life. Fireman Montag’s boss Beatty explains to him that the “bigger the …show more content…
He makes it a contrast to the parlor walls, which symbolize the dullness of a life without knowledge. When Faber is explaining to Montag the value of books, he says, "They have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You 'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion" (83). He explains how they are important to people by saying, "You can shut them, say, ‘Hold on a moment.’ You play God to it... Books can be beaten down with reason” (84). Not only does Bradbury explain how books are important to people, he compares it to the alternate forms of entertainment, which are the parlour walls. These walls completely submerge the user into a virtual story and allows them to play a role in it. He capitalizes on how with books, there is actual quality and can be argued with reason. The words “streaming past in infinite profusion” show that books are full of life, and the fact that it can be argued with and “beaten down with reason” gives it much more meaning to the reader. In contrast, Faber describes the walls by saying, “It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. it seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest” (84). The life that the walls possess give no freedom to the user, because everything is forced onto them. This demonstrates how it symbolizes the life without knowledge, because the person does nothing and the walls don’t teach them anything. Books give freedom to the reader to argue against what it says, teaching them to think for themselves. However, the walls continuously insist on what it says as right, teaching the user to do nothing but go along with everything that is happening. Knowledge therefore gives life meaning from the ability to think