Literary Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In the society of Fahrenheit 451, people only desire the pleasure of the moment rather than thinking, their minds forcefully patrolled by the media. The firemen did not hesitate to burn the knowledge clean. Thoughts and ideas erased. People having no escape to relieve pain, without knowing how to help each other with thoughts and emotions, nobody to help them up when they fall, nobody to care for them when life gets rough. They fall straight to the ground, the only way to get back up is suicide.

The distant future media has been manipulated to control people’s minds. They make bias assumptions and tease the brain to think that it is wrong to believe you have a right to knowledge. While knowing this, the book portrays the constant media pushing its agendas on the public. They give random facts and information to poison the mind into a belief that the population must oblige to this way of thinking. Captain Betty had mentioned a quote that said, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but made equal” (Bradbury 55). The book gives us a clear sense of how their government is taking advantage of the people. Bradbury is portraying a future that may be nearing, comparing our media to this society. There are no clear limits on what the media can say, the only censor the people have is themselves by correcting their error and seeing the lies that the media pushes. Fahrenheit 451 is a big mystery, why can’t people remember things easily? Why does it take a toll on the people when they think of the slightest things? Why are they like this, who’s wanting to cancel knowledge out of the society? This book gives us many instances that apply to this, it plays games with the people’s minds. Montag, the main character of the book is trapped in this loop as well. Towards the end of the book Montag is talking to Granger, Montag is lost on why he doesn’t remember his wife, as well as his thoughts. It’s all a blur of memories, he knows he had a wife, but can’t remember the small details to which led to him loving her. This is a key for us to use, assuming that Montag can’t even remember the details of a loved one shows us how big the impact of lost memory and thought this society is suffering from. Knowledge is power to this society, firemen burning books is not a bizarre instinct. It’s a plan, this plan is most likely lead by a higher up to slowly kill its victim. A real historical comparison would be Qin Shi Huang, this Chinese ruler forced upon the Burning Of The Books. “During the interregnum when China came under the rule of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), a massive burning of books took place in which most copies of the Confucian classics were destroyed” (Chang). This Chinese ruler wanted to block all past knowledge of Chinese history, he wanted only his rule and no other dynasty’s rule in place. I feel like the same thing is happening in Fahrenheit 451 because the firemen are burning books without really knowing why. Taking away the knowledge of the people is hurting the people internally. Suicide, not a death from an illness or trauma, the action of taking your own life. The society is in a very dark place, they are defined by their pain, not by physical pain but mental pain. Without knowledge and communication, the society is suffering, they can’t express their depressions or share their feelings with others. They are getting so bored by their life that they commit to further steps. Early in the book Montag discovers that his wife Mildred is lying in bed without any motion, he soon figures out that she is unresponsive because she overdosed. Montag calls for medical help, but instead of bringing a doctor they brought a machine. They start to pump the pills as Mildred is unconscious. “We get these cases nine or ten a night. Got so many starting a few years ago, we had the special machines built” (Bradbury 13). This sentence really speaks out that suicide is a very common in this society. The medical help had so many calls that they made the machines for suicide, this really told us that the head of organization isn’t taking the suicide issue seriously. They brush it a side as if it is not important. Sadly, in this way of society that’s how the government intended the people to feel, they want no emotions involved in their game of play. If there is, they must find a way to make it leave.

Bradbury, R., 2010. Fahrenheit 451. [Kbh.]: [Gyldendal].

Mao Chang | Chinese scholar. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mao-Chang#ref846671.