Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 has become one of the most widely read science fiction novels of the twentieth century. Ray Bradbury’s classic tale of a world in which books are outlawed by the government has been read by millions worldwide. The number in the title, 451, is the temperature at which paper begins to burn. This story about the freedom of mankind and the ignorance of a government has resonated very strongly with readers of the modern day era.
The main protagonist is a firefighter named Guy Montag. In this futuristic society, firefighters do not put out fires, they start them. Any book that is discovered they burn and leave no evidence of its existence. This part of the story was a metaphor for the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s who would burn books of Jewish literature. Bradbury identifies very strongly with the idea that if books were banned, the world would become more and more ignorant.
Throughout the story, Bradbury shows how our world has become obsessed with television and technology that we do not take the time out of our daily lives to read a book. Ultimately in his story, mankind is punished for their fascination and dependence of technology. the book was not necessarily written to be a work of science-fiction. It was meant to be an allegory for the world of the 1950s in which Bradbury was living in.
