Fahrenheit 451 takes place in the 24th century in a time where houses are fireproof but there are still firemen. Their jobs are to start fires in people’s homes that have books because books are illegal. They are considered evil because they make people think and question things. The main character’s name is Guy Montag who is a 30 year old protagonist fireman who enjoys his profession and has been a fireman for 10 years of his life. Early in the story Guy meets his neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, who inspires Montag by questioning society and speaking to him as an individual. His wife, Mildred, is more interested in her virtual family than anything else. She doesn’t seem to enjoy doing much of anything other than interacting with her virtual family and she rarely talks or does anything with her own husband. One day at work they get a call and they head to the home of an elderly lady and begin to fill the home with kerosene because she has books inside her house. The firemen try talking with her to get her to leave her house but she refuses and burns with the house. Right before the fire was started, Montag took a book from her house. When he gets home he shows Mildred the book as well as the rest of the books he has collected; he has about 20 total. He reads to her but she shows no interest in learning about the books. Later on that day she tells Montag that Clarisse was run over by a speeding car and killed. Montag was really affected by those two events; Clarisse’s death and the death of the elderly woman. He begins to realize he no longer enjoys his job as a fireman. The day after the firemen burnt that woman alive Montag decides to call off work. In the afternoon his boss, Capitan Beatty, shows up at his house and has a long talk with him. He explains how it is normal for a fireman to be curious about books at least one time in his career and tells him he has 24 hours to return the book to the fire station where it will be destroyed. Montag takes a different book to work and that one is destroyed instead. Montage is increasingly more curious about books and thinks about who he could talk to who would teach him about them. That’s when he remembers an old retired English professor, Faber. He goes to his house, asks for his help and Faber gladly accepts. The next day at work they get a call and when the firemen get to the house, Montag is in shock to find it’s his own home. He and Beatty go into the house and begin filling it with kerosene. Beatty tells Montage he is going to arrest him. Montag, without much thought, turned the hose on Beatty and killed him. Now on the run, he goes to the only safe place he can think of, Faber’s house. But realizing he is putting Faber in danger, he gets out and heads for the river on the other side of town to meet with a group of social outcasts who are mostly wanted criminals too. He finds them and they begin to head down the river to a safe location where they can live without fear. Another reason they have to leave the town is because there is a war about to begin any minute. Throughout the story, the city is a sure target of attack. If you want to find out what happens after that you will have to read it for yourself. I enjoyed Bradbury’s writing style because it was all very detailed and you could come up with good mental pictures throughout the whole book. One strength of this book would be all of the details he adds. I liked this because I felt as if I got a better sense of the book and felt like I could actually picture things Bradbury described. Another strength would be all the different metaphors and different literary devices he added to this book. They made the book more interesting and more enjoyable to read. One weakness would be the lack of key details on some things, for example, Clarisse’s death. It didn’t describe that at all; the reader just finds out she’s dead. Another weakness would be some of the vocabulary was difficult for me to understand. I don’t like having to waste time looking up words while I’m reading. I choose one quote from the book because I liked it and it showed some foreshadowing of the darkness of the book. ”It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with the great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history.”
Nick A.
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