Fahrenheit 451 Essay

At the time that Fahrenheit 451 was written, everyone feared communism. People were burning books that were thought to contain communist ideas. This was known as the Red Scare in America. The same controversy was explained through Montag's world. The government was controlling their people by depriving them of their knowledge and burning books that contained that knowledge. They also made their people mindless with technology. The Sea-Shell Radio's that the government gave everyone and the constant programs on in each house's parlor rooms made everyone dull. In Ray Bradbury's, Fahrenheit 451, the futuristic society in which the protagonist, Guy Montag, lives in represents the horrible outcome of a communist society. Bradbury warns that if we keep turning on our own people because of the communistic rumors, our world is going to end up like Montag's: barely any freedoms and mediocre intelligence. Montag is a fireman who doesn't put out fires, but instead starts them. He lights books on fire for a living, but doesn't realize that he is burning precious knowledge. The government requires people to do this because they fear that someone would gain to much knowledge and power to overtake them. This defends the principle of knowledge being power. If people or anyone has knowledge, this gives them the chance to think and think about whats really wrong with the government. They could then proceed to try to change it. One day after work, Montag met a young girl named Clarisse McClellan, who gets Montag thinking, which he's never actually done before. He also continues to question his job. After talking to Clarisse for several days, Montag expresses his curiosity by taking a couple of these books home illegally and attempting to read them. If Captain Beatty of the the fireman found out that Montag did such a thing, they would have to burn down his house for possessing the books. “”And besides, if Captain Beatty knew about those books-” She thought about it. Her face grew amazed and then horrified. “He might come and burn the house and the 'family'.”” -Mildred(Page 73)
The government is willing to go through extreme measures in order to insure that no one gains anymore knowledge. This restricts many freedoms like the freedom of speech because you can't express yourself through the books. When we are deprived of our rights, it contributes to communism because we have no rights. Montag's wife, Mildred, stands out in the story as a dull and mindless soul. She constantly watches parlor programs that are issued by the government to purposely dull the brain. She also constantly listens to her Sea-Shell Radio system, which serves the same purpose. “Montag reached inside the parlor wall and pulled the main switch. The images drained away, as if the water had been let from a gigantic crystal bowl of hysterical fish The tree women turned slowly and looked with unconcealed irritation and the dislike at Montag.” (Page 94)
Montag was trying to talk to the three women in his parlor room, but they were too distracted by the violent and pointless programs on. Their irritation showed how deprived of an actual conversation they were. It also showed that they were practically brainwashed and custom to watching screens rather than having a logical conversation. If we have things and technology that handicaps our thinking and us in general, then that would be easily considered communist. Bradbury warns us to stay away from this type of behavior for it will not benefit us at all. Montag burned Captain Beatty after burning his own house and ran for his life. He stopped at a friend, Faber's, house to get his scent off of him by wearing Faber's clothes. He did this to lose the trail of the Mechanical Hound, who was hunting down Montag. As the law enforcement lost Montag, he stumbled into a group of people who were the last sliver of hope for humanity. They all had memorized bits and pieces of books and they planned to pass the memories down to their children and grandchildren until there was a point where they were able to record these books to start a new era of knowledge. “And when the war's over, someday, some year, the books can be written again, the people will be called in, one by one, to recite what they know and we'll set it up in type until another Dark Age, when we might have to do the whole damn thing over again.” -Granger(Page 153). This hope is what kept and still continues to keep our country together. If Americans believe that we cannot and will not accept or become communist, then we have nothing to worry about. The events in this futuristic world add up to create this horrible country that Montag lives in. If we don't receive or acknowledge his warning, this could happen in our very own society. That is what Bradbury was trying to stress to his readers; that we don't end up communist. Unless we want a society where we cannot think, act, or engage in an actual and meaningful relationship, then we must stay away from communism. The parlor rooms and Sea-Shell Radios literally sucked the life out of everyone and made life dull and boring. The fact that they cannot read books not only keeps the government safe, but also benefits them, and only them.