Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Synopsis: Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
Guy Montag burns books for a living since owning books are banned by the government. He met Clarisse one night and she wasn't like everybody else. She thought about things that other people didn't and asked questions that not everybody asked. She soon became Guy's friend and changed him. Guy's curiosity about books grew when he was burning books with his team, and the old lady who owned the books decided to stay with her burning books. Guy wanted to know what was so special about these books that made these people risk everything for these books, and that's where his journey begins.
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
This book was simply...wow. In both a good and not-so-good way. It was an interesting book with an interesting perspective about the future. I went into the book not expecting to like it and rather be bored while reading it, but surprisingly it was much better than I expected.
The concept was very interesting, but I didn't agree with it. The thought that books would disrupt the peace in the world and not bring happiness as opposed to technology and in result get banned and eventually burnt to ashes didn't seem like a realistic possible future for the people from the 1940's as this was the time Ray Bradbury got his idea to write this concept. The book also insisted that people would end up being these mindless beings that were obsessed with watching TV, which he considered as evil and corrupting, and I did think this was a bit over the top. Technological advances, as we see in our present, are helpful in all sorts of ways and our lives don't revolve around TV's.
The writing style also made things a bit harder to understand with the crazy number of similes, metaphors, analogies, etc. Though, I also found it to be impressive and creative. Some of them I really enjoyed and understood while some I had to re-read a couple of times to understand it. I also think this book did have some good underlying themes and lessons one could take away. Guy Montag's perseverance throughout the story to understand books and what's so great about them and then eventually trying to save them and change society is admirable as well. Clarisse was probably my favorite character as she didn't mind being different from everyone else and would really think about things. She was a great influence on Guy Montag and was what got him to begin to think and realize things.
Overall, the foundation of the book wasn't the strongest but the story itself was pretty enjoyable and got the gears in my head turning as it made me question things and really think deeply. It's a much different read as compared to the ya's I usually pick up, but I would say people should give this book a chance as reading about Ray Bradbury's perspective on what he thought our future would be was really interesting and different.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
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