Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian future where books are illegal and people spend most of their time watching interactive television shows and driving at ridiculous speeds. The novel follows the life of a fireman named Guy Montag. In this future firemen don’t put out fires; they start them. They burn books.
One day when he comes home from work he finds that his wife Mildred has overdosed on pills. When he calls the paramedics to help her he notices how uncaring and mechanical the process of saving his wife is. Then he meets a teenager named Clarisse. She is different than anyone he has ever met and questions the state of the world they live in. Her questions start making Montag question too.
On the surface, the book is about censorship and freedom of thought, but it is also an excellent commentary on happiness, morality, and how we let entertainment lull us into an unthinking state. That is seen primarily in the life of Mildred and the women she hangs out with. They are vapid and busy themselves watching television together.
The unfeeling mechanical way the paramedics deal with Mildred’s overdose demonstrates a lack of humanity in society. Life is not valued and people have stopped having empathy for one another. People are so wrapped up in themselves and technology that they don’t even really see each other.
In the story, people drive very quickly. Doing so makes it hard for them to think about anything else while they are driving. Everything in society is designed to prevent people from thinking too much.
This dystopian wasn’t created by a tyrannical government. In the book, Bradbury makes it clear that the citizens created this world. Their desire to take the easier mental and intelligential path created this future of superficial happiness and disconnectedness.
The story while straightforward has layers that I enjoyed. I actually listened to the audiobook and then read the novel afterward. Having listened to it first I saw clues in the text while I was reading about the outcome of the story that I hadn’t noticed during my original listening of the audiobook.
Bradbury adds just the right about of description to the book, giving the reader a clear picture of what this dystopian world looks like. I enjoyed the detail about the billboards on the highway being extremely long to give the people zipping by the opportunity to read them. Otherwise, they would be going too fast to even notice them. I liked the story. I’d never read anything by Bradbury before, and now I know why he is considered a master.
If you haven’t read Fahrenheit 451 do so before you watch the HBO remake.
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