451 Degrees Fahrenheit
Numerous medieval utopia promised happiness to man on earth. Who has anything against this? Maybe it was the writer of the 20th century, who dared to encroach on the sacred right of mankind? The fact is that Bradbury has created a dystopia, the plot of which is an impartial view on the future society, tat quite clearly reminds us of the present and the society we have now. We too are acquainted with the same attempts to show a person the path to true happiness, which lies in the ruthless negation of everything negative in the modern civilization, in particular, the relationship to the spiritual culture, which is highly negated in the novel Fahrenheit 451.
451 degree Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper ignites and burns. With this epigraph Bradbury begins his novel (Bradbury). The author poses the question: Why is the book in danger and what has the society in wait for it? And then takes us into the world of the future, a world where machines are on the verge of science fiction, where all people live according to the law, think and behave in the same standard way, as if following an algorithm. The future is not as bright as one would have imagined. It is prohibited to keep books at home; firefighters now do not extinguish fires, but only light them up. It is the world of speed, velocity, amusements, numbers, where people do not remember their past, and do not think about the future (Bradbury).
The protagonist of the novel Guy Montag is a fireman. He enjoys the fire. Guy feels that he is a conductor, performing a symphony of fire and destruction. He likes to turn to ashes not just paper, but the torn, charred pages of history (Bradbury). Montag does not understand that he is insane, with a blinded soul, perfectly fitting in this fantastic city. However, soon we learn his other, romantic side. His soul is the birthplace of two beginnings, but the second one is suppressed, hidden, and almost dead.
The first crack in the mind of Montag appeared after meeting Clarissa, a girl who did not live according to the laws of this city, whom everyone considered crazy because she was not like the others. Clarisse was living, had shining eyes, and was spiritually filled with naturalness of life. She had her own viewpoint on everything: "It's a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it's wine when it's not," (Bradburry 27) After the meeting is, this girl lit a spark within the soul of Guy. This spark, sometimes flashed but immediately died away, asking Montag a question he never really thought about: whether he was happy (Bradbury).
After the meeting, the usual own home seemed cold to Montag. All he saw was the cold marble tomb of a house with impenetrable darkness. The room seemed like a coffin, which the sounds of a big city did not reach. He saw a woman: with brittle hair, burnt by the frequent use of chemicals, eyes with a dull luster, painted mouth. At the same time, the book provides us with another portrait of Milli lying prostrate on the bed, uncovered and cold as a funeral mummy, with staring eyes, gazing at the ceiling, as if drawn to it by invisible threads of steel (Bradbury). Television has replaced her all joy, husband, children, mother, her own thoughts. Mildred was a spiritually dead, desolate woman, a victim of speed, pleasures, and advertisements. Montag cried out not because the wife could die, but because, if she did, this would not cause him to cry (Bradbury).
The real shock to him was the act of a woman, who died along with her books. Her death appeared as a sort of protest against the world, a rebellion against the laws of the city. From her house Montag secretly takes a few books home. He wants to know what is written in the books, why a woman agrees to die rather than leave them? Montag wants to be heard, and seeks help from Professor Faber (Bradbury). Faber explains that everything in this world seeks to make the person obey its own vision, even the TV tell people what they should think and hammer it in their head. In this world, people a so quickly brought to the conclusions, so that they do not have time to be indignant and to exclaim: But, it is sheer nonsense! People are crumpled like clay, and formed at someone else’s will. This lesson touched Montag, who still was under the rule of Beatty (Bradbury).
Now Beatty justifies the burning of the books. He believes that this is the way to care about man, thus retaining tranquility and happiness. According to him book sow discord, discord sows evil, and therefore they must be destroyed. "If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides of a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none,” is the philosophy he follows (Bradburry 61). He is a strong man, and his voice envelops others like a cushion lulling to sleep. Beatty expresses the idea of the need for the mass “anti-human” culture, so that the people forget their roots, culture and history. And he is right people will be satisfied with the facts they are stuffed with. “But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority," is how Professor Faber described Beatty (Bradburry 104)
Guy’s path is a way to overcome the conventional thinking and prevent from turning into a zombie. He begins to understand that the society is facing a real intellectual and spiritual catastrophe: a live teacher in the classroom is replaced by a video lesson and kids are taking revenge for such education by smashing windows, playing violent games. Children do not realize that they are sick to death of comics, advertising, loud music, television-monster which devours their feelings and dreams (Bradbury).
Montag is not afraid now of no mechanical dog, neither Beatty, nor all the mechanics that chases him through the city. The internal rebellion of the hero turned into a real war. With him is only the eternal book, the Bible, the richness of which was revealed to him by Professor Faber (Bradbury). More so the Professor opened his eyes onto "The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book,” (Bradburry 86). Destroying his dead house, the hero befriends the homeless, those who keep in their memory everything that present day humanity has been deprived of: poems, novels. Montag and people leave the city of the dead.
Members of a futuristic society described in Fahrenheit 451, as much obsessed with material goods, as well as many modern people. In particular, in the novel the author mentions the love of the people to the flat-panel TVs, the size of an entire wall.
Social network
In this same fiction Bradbury writes about the so-called "wall"-cutting-edge TVs by which heroes communicate with each other at a distance. Later, the creators of the social network Facebook named a communication node, through which users can send and receive messages the same way.
ATMs
In the book Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury writes about machines strongly reminiscent of modern ATMs. According to the book, the users of these devices have 24-hour access to their finances.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print
