Fahrenheit 451
Uploaded by mr_vidal on May 25, 2005
For me “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is a prophet for the future. Unfortunately it is a real one. The book describes a lurid picture of our world – a world where books are burned. Heinrich Heine once said that “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”. It is also necessary to consider that the book was written after Hitler’s deeds became familiar to the world (Nuremberg trails). In our book we have a similar example– a woman burned with her books. Bradbury compares the Nazis (a dreadful past) with firemen burning people and books (a horrible future). Our setting is everywhere. It is mentioned that the story takes place in America– but it can happen everywhere. TV's are sold everywhere and soap operas are watched everywhere. The time period is the future– but the begging of this dreadful vision is today– we watch soap operas all the time– and we don’t see the danger. In this essay you’ll see the warning of Bradbury which is expressed in his book.
"Bradbury's acount of this insane world, which bears many alarming resemblances to our own is fascinating" (The New York Times). His prophet is delivered by the main characters in the book. As soon as people will be afraid of becoming like some of the characters, the world will be saved from Disaster.
The common image in Bradbury's world is represented by Mildred. Mildred is not the most important character, but she is very important for understanding the world Bradbury describes. She is very shallow and her life is based on "Family" ("Family" is a very famous soap opera). Mildred has a conflict of interests with her husband Guy Montag. In fact Montag has a conflict of interests with society. Mildred can not have a conflict of interests- she is to shallow for that. She can't think properly, so she can't argue for values. She doesn't have any. For example, Mildred takes a full bottle of sleeping balls- without even noticing. She didn't do it for suicide reasons. When someone wants to suicide he feels bad. Mildred can not feel bad, for Mildred can not feel at all. She doesn't have any feelings.
"The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is
abandoned on her own land, between the prostitutes, with no one to get her get...