Bradbury's Warning Reader Response

Bradbury’s Warning

                     Fahrenheit 451 is a fictional novel that was written in 1953 by Ray Bradbury.  This book used irony in relation to the real world.  Everything that Bradbury said in the book about the futuristic world having televisions the size of walls and radio sets on their ears the size of seashells is real in our age of time with flat screens and ear buds.  Bradbury said he wanted to put this book in homes so that they would avoid these inventions but they happened anyway.

                     The main character in this book is Guy Montag.  Montag is a fireman.  In his futuristic world rather than put out fires, firemen would set books on fire.  This world believed that books were racist and inappropriate.  As a solution, they decided to burn all of the books.  If anyone had books in their house, firemen would be called to the house to burn the books.  If a person would have books in their house, they would be burned alive if they don’t want to leave their house.

                     Montag meets a young woman named Clarisse McCellan.  Montag is surprised by her love for nature and people.  Soon after strange events start happening to Montag.  First, his wife tries to kill herself by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills.  Then, he is called to a house to burn down books.  The woman that lives there gets burned alive so that she could be with her books.  Finally, Clarisse is killed by a speeding car.  Almost all cars drive very fast. Montag starts to express his hatred for his world.  He tries to find a solution for his world in a stash of books he had hidden.  The police never find the driver of the car that killed Clarisse.  The police aren’t that big on finding criminals in his world.

                     Montag doesn’t show up to work the next day.  His boss, Beatty, pays him a visit at his home.  He explains that most firemen go through this stage.  Beatty knows a lot about books which makes me think why he would ever become a fireman since he loves books. Montag is given 24 hours to see if his books have anything that will help him.  Montag seeks help from his wife but she would rather watch the parlor walls. That is very realistic.  Now a days, more people would watch television than read.  He remembers a man named Faber.  Faber was a former English professor who retired once books were banned.  He agrees to help Montag.  He gives Montag the green bullet.  The green bullet is an earpiece that allows them to talk to each other secretly.  The green bullet sounds like a Bluetooth. After this moment, Humanity is forever changed.

                     Ray Bradbury gave us a warning back in 1954 that if we keep inventing new things and forgetting about previous things, it will come back and haunt us.  The message he is attempting to spread is that if you outlaw something as common as books, then society gets turned flipped upside down.  It is ridiculous to not believe his theory. After all, he was right about the green hornet and the parlor walls.  I think I see someone every day with a Bluetooth in their ear. It is such a common sight.  A Parlor wall is just as common as Bluetooth.  Every day when I come home from school, I sit and start watching the parlor wall.  I think there isn’t a single person that doesn’t use a parlor wall every day.  Now I’m not saying stop watching television all together. I’m just saying we shouldn’t commit our lives to televisions and always having something in our ears.  We should always read books because if we stop, then we will all receive the same fate as humanity did in Fahrenheit 451.