Fahrenheit 451 blog 3

Fahrenheit 451 addresses some very unique themes of literature.  These universal ideas include the importance of knowledge versus ignorance and the control of literature.  These two themes are linked to each other in ways that if one is lost than the other will be also.  Knowledge and ignorance are two things that Montag struggled with in this book.  His society was built around the basis of ignorance, and it made most people happy.  What the people did not know did not hurt them.  Montag felt like this approach was missing something, which led him on his quest for books and in turn knowledge.  “We must all be alike.  Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.  Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.  So!  A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.  Burn it.  Take the shot from the weapon.  Breach man’s mind” (Bradbury 56).  Captain Beatty sums up this idea of ignorance in this quote, but Montag still does not believe him.  This quote also explains the theme of the suppression of books.  By taking books out of people’s lives, the government in the book has stopped the spread of new and old ideas that could cause controversies.  But there is a down side to taking out literature.  All the information that took centuries to record and remember is erased.  Mistakes that were made in the past, will be made in the future because there is no record of its dangers or how to avoid the conflict.  So much of the past can help the future if the lessons it teaches are learned.  Ray Bradbury understands that human nature wants to be happy and to fit in.  This book is the example of the far extreme of this.  Bradbury also understands that there is always an individual who will go against the crowd.  In this case Guy Montag is that person, who goes against the norm to find true happiness. 

 Fahrenheit, 451. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print.