Libertarianism and Fahrenheit 451

A bit broad at first it gets into real detail on Fahrenheit 451 a couple of minutes in.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

One of the most famous science fiction novels of all time, Fahrenheit 451 won the second Hugo award for a novel. Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953. There was an earlier short story “The Fireman” which was published in 1951. It follows Guy Montag, a Fireman who burns books and his slow understanding of the truth of the world and embrace of books.

The Story of Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag is a third generation fireman in a dystopian future. His job is to burn books. Early in the book he meets a young girl named Clarisse McClellan. She spends her time outside looking at the sky and collecting flowers. More important she takes time to think and is actually interested in what other people have to say. This begins the spark of the story in which Guy Montag begins to question his place in society. Around this time Guy Montag also finds his wife after she has attempted suicide. This is part of the shock which shakes him out of his comfort zone as well.

Soon Guy finds himself at a book burning where he sees a book. After reading a lone he steals one of the books. The woman then allows herself to be burned with her books rather than be arrested. This helps to convince Montag that there is actually something worthwhile in books.

Montag's captain discovers that he has the book and gives him one day to return it to be burned with no consequences but Guy is fascinated by the book and wants to keep it.

At this point you discover that over the last year Montag has hidden dozens of books in his house and is attempting to memorize them but is having trouble doing so. Because of this he goes to Faber a college professor of English who has been driven out of a job. He begins to teach Montag.

Montag is soon discovered to have the books and the firemen are sent to his house where Montag himself begins to burn everything. He is pushed by his captain and eventually turns the flamethrower on the firemen and the mechanical hound.

From this point on he is on the run. Eventually making it into the wilderness where he discovers the underground. Intellectuals which have been driven out and lives with them until the war which has been coming destroys enough that they believe they can bring back learning to society.

The Themes of Fahrenheit 451

Censorship

The most commonly referred to theme of Fahrenheit 451 is that of censorship. This is an important part of the book, but the true value of Fahrenheit 451 is to point out that the worst type of censorship is the type that we inflict on ourselves. This book does not actually show a government censorship which leads to a public opinion change. It instead shows a popular movement against literature which leads to the government embracing the idea.

Television

Ray Bradbury states that this book was never about censorship. What this book is actually about is how television destroys interest in reading literature. This these exists throughout the book and predicts many modern trends. The woman in the book spends much of her time with her 'family' which are characters on her TV which takes up three walls of the house. There are effectively reality shows and even Jesus has been turned into a TV character while the books that told you about him are burned. The major concept of this seems to be that you can argue with a book, but it is far harder to argue with the TV. This is an interesting idea and one that has some merit. A book is an active collaboration between author and reader while TV is a more passive media for the watcher and more active for the TV giving the TV the power. It also discusses the difficulties of creating media for a mass audience which forces you to try to please everyone and because of that not challenging anyone.

Intellectualism and individualism

This book has a lot to say about both of these subjects. In large part that comes from an incident in Ray Bradbury's own life. He was walking one night and stopped by the police simply because he was alone and out and this was odd. This clearly influenced Bradbury strongly as he recognized that you could be singled out simply for doing something other people did not do. He also talks about how people dislike intellectuals. How the kid in school who excels is often bullied because of that.

His best explanation of this is in a section where he explains that the goal of equality requires that the exceptional be knocked down to keep them even with everyone else. That the way to gain equality is to hold down the best.

The power of thinking

Even beyond the importance of the information in the books the power of simply thinking is a major theme in this book. The first character we really explore outside of the normals of this society is not a book reader but Clarisse a young girl who is closer to a hippy than an intellectual. She spends her time outside, often alone looking at the clouds and collecting flowers. But she also asks questions and is interested in other people.

Later when Faber is introduced you get even more of this, but not just from Faber who explains how they came to this point but from Guy himself. At this point he has changed sides and wants to stop the firemen but is being led in large part by Faber. He worries that he is simply following orders from a different master.

Even the fire chief shows this theme well as he is clearly a man who has studied and understands well the ideas that most people are disdainful of, but uses against Guy to try to confuse him and keep him from learning more. This ability to use knowledge for a lie is important.

The Characters of Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag – The viewpoint characters of the novel Guy Montag is a fireman who through a series of events is woken up to the shallowness of his life. He has a very large character arc as he changing almost everything about himself in this story. In contrast is his wife who has many of the same weaknesses at the beginning of the story but is unable to show the courage to change her life.

Clarisse – A sixteen year old girl who befriends Guy. She is one of the first sparks which triggers the change in his attitude. Not an intellectual in the typical sense this young girl is simply a free spirit. She asks questions and is genuinely interested in other people. This is something that is uncommon in this world. What impacts Guy even more in some ways is her death, off stage and the questions about what really happened which are never completely answered.

Faber – A former English Professor Faber calls himself a coward and at times he fits that profile. He understood what was happening and stood by and let it happen enough though he was one of the 'innocent'. He also speaks for the author more directly in many ways than any character in the book.

Fire Chief Beatty – One of the most interesting characters in the book it is clear almost from the beginning that Beatty is not an uneducated man like many of the characters. He in fact seems very well versed on books, but he is still strongly against them. This seeming contradiction seems to be an understanding that knowledge is power and a desire to have that power for himself. He often uses arguments and even books to attempt to confuse Guy and likely would succeed. In the end though Guy is convinced that the man was suicidal due to his actions near the end of the story.

A Homemade Animated Version of Fahrenheit 451. Better than the movie.

The inspiration for Fahrenheit 451

60 Second Recap: About Guy Montag