Bradbury is considered to be a science fiction writer that draws the future in his works. It's amazing how up-to-date is Bradbury’s distant future today. Involuntarily we think of plasma screens, stupid talk shows and soap operas, loud music in headphones, fast pace of life, high-speed vehicles, drunk teenagers, pills to fall asleep and so on. It is modern New-York, Los-Angeles, Moscow, almost the entire planet lives in this tempo.
In the preface to the novel, Ray Bradbury wrote about the history of the creation of his masterpiece. In the 30s of the last century a writer was living in Los Angeles and watched movies quite often. Traditionally, before each film, cinema was showing newsreels where the Nazis burned books in the fires. These frames touched Ray Bradbury, which not only caused tears when he saw those frames, but also resulted in the whole work "Fahrenheit 451" (Bradbury 7).
The writer blames technological progress on these troubles, which pushes people to the accelerated pace of life. But government also has an important role here, it has set such standards of living - more fun and less thoughts in the minds of its citizens. People should not be interested in history, politics, the world they live in. Therefore, the government comes up with idea to burn all the books. As a result, people degrade, deteriorating their memory. People are already not human beings: they live in a contrived TV world, where their relatives are the heroes of series, they are driven into the framework of stereotypes.
I am glad that the protagonist could go beyond that, with the help of Clarisse McClellan. However, the death of Clarisse created a fracture in the concept of democracy as proclaimed freedom of speech, freedom of choice and equality of all people. Incidentally, Beatty, explains the article of the Constitution on the equality of men, saying people should not be equal, but the same. When people will be the same, they will be happy – there is no reason to feel, for example, small in comparison with the tall man. Beatty’s theory is terrible, but it is shocking to understand that now, in our present-day country, we are trying to go in the same way. It is not so difficult now to find those who does not read serious literature, who supposedly does not like to read, who have no time to read. And unfortunately, the majority of today’s youth does not read at all. It is not surprising that modern society is degrading (Bradbury 41).
Returning to the story of ‘’Farenheit 451’’, I would like to note the heroism of those brave men who met Guy in the forest. They left their homes, friends, family, left the city and they are literally wandering. They learned by heart the works for a higher purpose: to restore printing and plant the germ of life in this rotten world. We can not even remember the lines from a poem, and they learned entire books by heart. I think it is embarrassing.
The book ends with the war. Before the city will disappear from the face of the earth, Mildred, Montag's wife, sees herself in the parlor wall with straw-colored hair from paint, horrible face without makeup. Thus, the author encourages readers to think about their lives now, to change it until it is too late. But the desire is very important: it is difficult to make a person do something without enthusiasm. Ray Bradbury is a master of words, recognized stylist, a subtle psychologist, heartfelt lyricist, but first of all he is a wise storyteller, combining the insight of elders who know the price of human words and deeds, with the enthusiastic views of the child, who saw the gentle and clear colors of dawn for the first time.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.
