(MIP-3) Throughout the novel, author Ray Bradbury shares important things about knowledge and memory.
(SIP-A) One if Bradbury’s important messages is about memory,
(STEWE-1) When Montag asks Mildred where and when they met, he says “He clarified it. ‘The first time we ever met, where was it, and when?’ ‘Why, it was at --’ She stopped. ‘I don't know,’ she said. He was cold. ‘Can't you remember?’ ‘It's been so long.’ ‘Only ten years, that's all, only ten!’ ‘Don't get excited, I'm trying to think.’ She laughed an odd little laugh that went up and up. ‘Funny, how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband or wife.’” (Bradbury 40). This is an example of the message Bradbury is trying to show. With this novel, Bradbury is trying to tell audiences that if we focus too much on useless gadgets, we will lose the actual important things in life. One of these crucial things is memory. In this bit from the novel, Montag and Mildred don’t remember when or where they met, which, in a normal relationship, is important to know. It is the little things in life that makes things special. Things like this help a two people build a
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You get it up around ninety five and you feel wonderful. Sometimes I drive all night and come back and you don't know it. It's fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle.’” (Bradbury 61). This is another point of Bradbury sharing a message about knowledge. See, without books, school, etc, people in this society don’t think like normal people do. In this quote, it shows that to release her anger, she drives her car like a madman, and does not care if she hits anything. Since these people don’t have intellect, they do not think hitting animals is wrong, and destroying things is a good way to release anger. Bradbury is trying to say that if we do not get knowledge on humane things, we become
Bradbury effectively warns about the potential dangers that can arise from constantly paying attention to the technology in your world rather than the real life around you. When Mildred overdoes on pills and almost dies, this shows that despite claiming to be “happy” she was in fact suicidal or she was so distracted by the TV that she “took two pills and forgot and took two more… until [she] had thirty or forty of them”. Either way, the fact she does not remember her near death experience further shows the apathetic nature of people and how they are only interested in what is entertaining them, rather than the world around
This book was published in 1981 with an immense elaboration of media hype. This is a story of a young Mexican American who felt disgusted of being pointed out as a minority and was unhappy with affirmative action programs although he had gained advantages from them. He acknowledged the gap that was created between him and his parents as the penalty immigrants ought to pay to develop and grow into American culture. And he confessed that he got bewildered to see other Hispanic teachers and students determined to preserve their ethnicity and traditions by asking for such issues to be dealt with as departments of Chicano studies and minority literature classes. A lot of critics criticized him as a defector of his heritage, but there are a few who believed him to be a sober vote in opposition to the political intemperance of the 1960s and 1970s.
Clarisse McClellan, a unique outcast whose personality traits you could say has influenced Montag to question his life. During one night after work Montag has a little run in with this unique individual into which his transformation initiates. Montag and Clarisse share a conversation into which becomes a life changing experience for Montag, they talked about life and how it’s so different from the times long ago. However though towards the end of this fascinating conversation Clarisse asked Montag one last question right before taking off, she asked Montag this, “Are you happy?”(Bradbury 7). Montag hesitantly states that yes he was happy right when she took off. Later on that night we find out Montag’s wife Mildred had overdosed on ...
One night on Montag’s usual walk home from work, he meets a young unusual girl named Clarisse McClellan. She is different from most people, she is idealistic and hates what being social has turned into. She tells Montag of a society where firemen once use to put out accidental fires, and not start them as they do now. Montag thinks this is nonsense the Chief has reassured him that firemen have always started fires, it’s even in rule book. Clarisse continues to tell him about her uncle, who remembers such things from the past. She tells Montag about her family and how they stay up all night talking about a variety of different things. Montag thinks this is very odd, why would anyone want to waste their time just staying up and talking?
The old saying repeated throughout history was “Curiosity killed the cat”, but no one knows the rest of the saying or more likely it is never used. However, the rest of the quote follows as “but satisfaction brought it back”. Now, this old proverb can be reflected on the curiosity of Montag in Fahrenheit 451 related to books and with Mink’s interest in Dill her Martian friend in “Zero Hour”. Although, both of the characters’ curiosity are one of the major plot lines in the stories; the curiosity affects the relationships they hold with other characters in the book. Another In Ray Bradbury’s stories, curiosity has altered relationships and identities for the worst as curiosity has literal “killed the cat” in many situations.
With a spout of kerosene and a flick of a match, a fireman sets fire to a house and all the books inside it, not waiting for the heat to reach 451 degrees farhenheit; the temperature in which it is said books ignite. This may seem a strange thing, a fireman setting fire, but in the futuristic world author Ray Bradbury created in his work Farhenheit 451(1951) this is the norm. A fireman's job is to hunt those with books and set destroy all the books with thier flames. In the Bradbury's book, the government has deemed books and all who possess them public enemy Number One, and society has accepted that with no questions asked. Books represent knowledge, difference of opinion and ideals that are now unsavory in the public's eye.
Montag's thinking and morals changed throughout this story a plentiful of times, how did it exactly change? Montag tells his feeling about books and how he had changed in his mind set to his wife Mildred. “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important and about something real” (Guy Montag 49). Without being bothered in ones life, life would be boring and everything would be dull. Guy
Montag tells Mildred about reading the books, but Mildred did not want to read the books because she thinks that if Captain Beatty find the books, he will burn the house and the “family” down (pg 73). Montag starts to read the books himself and he realizes that every book he reads, the words are somehow co...
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
"Every hour so many damn things in the sky! How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives! Why doesn't someone want to talk about it? We've started and won two atomic wars since 1960. Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well-fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we're hated so much? I've heard the rumors about hate, too, once in a long while, over the years. Do you know why? I don't, that's sure! Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. They just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don't hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it. God, Millie, don't you see? An hour a day, two hours, with these books, and maybe..." (Bradbury ). This quote shows that he is starting to realize and start to care about how many bomers are in the sky. It has caught his attention that he is paying more attention to the little things that he has not noticed
“It was a pleasure to burn” Bradbury (1) Is the first line of Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, the line itself is thought by the book's main protagonist Guy Montag. Although from that line alone he wound not exactly seem like the ideal protagonist of a science fiction novel. Throughout the story Montag has some life altering experiences that change him; he starts out as a fireman (the kind that burn books, as opposed to saving lives) and ends up belonging to group of intellectuals who memorize books in order to someday write them down again. Ever since he met a young girl named Clarisse he had been consumed with thoughts, thoughts of what things looked like, thoughts of what things smelled like and even thoughts of why things were the way they are. Guy Montag goes through many changes in a fairly brief period in the story. Throughout his journey he has three mentors: Clarisse, Faber and Granger. Clarisse is the first, the one who opens Montag’s eyes to the world around him, Faber gives him wisdom and helps him shape what he is now thinking and feeling, and Granger helps him establish his own identity.
Some characters like Montag did not succumb to the ignorance of society. Unlike Mildred characters like Montag believed in the power books and knowledge. Montag was once like Mildred until he met Clarisse; his neighbor. Clarisse was different from anyone Montag had ever met. She made him question his career, his happiness and even his marriage. After talking to Clarisse, Montag realizes he’s been ignorant for his whole life and begins a dangerous search for knowledge. After eventually stealing a book and reading it Montag realized that knowledge is really important. Books symbol knowledge because they provide their readers with information they did not know prior to opening the book. Montag no longer believed that ignorance was bliss “”. Through Montag’s fight for knowledge Bradbury is able to help the readers to understand that people are afraid of knowledge because they fear making mistakes. “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by” says Faber (Bradbury 104). Knowledge is gained from experience. The best and worst sides of Montag were revealed during his journey because he made mistakes and learned from them. At the end of the novel Montag like readers comes to the realization that knowledge and experiences is the true meaning of life.
In today’s society people react to what is going on around them in many different ways. Some decide that they do not know enough and decide to learn more. Others either think that they know enough or they just do not care. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 two of the main characters demonstrate these traits. Bradbury uses the people and symbols to convey his message: that if people do not start to cherish their freedom on knowledge, they will lose it. Bradbury also uses the overabundance of technology to show how people’s understanding of the way the world works deteriorates. Through the characters Guy Montag and his wife Mildred Montag, Bradbury demonstrates the will, and lack thereof, to learn, the effect society and technology has on them, and how the two of them respond to the knowledge and insight of books when given the opportunity.
Of all characters, Bradbury uses Mildred Montag to effectively portray the idea that the majority of society has taken happiness as a refuge in nothing but passive, addictive entertainment. She immediately reveals her character early in the book, by saying, “My family is people. They tell me things: I laugh. They laugh! And the colors!” (73). Mildred is describing her parlors, or gigantic wall televisions, in this quote. Visual technological entertainment is so important in her life that she refers them to as “family,” implying the television characters as her loved ones. By immersing herself in an imaginary world, Mildred finds herself able to relate to fake characters and plots, giving her a phony sense of security. This is necessary for her to achieve her shallow happiness, or senseless plain fun, as she lifelessly watches other people in her walls with a senseless mind. Her family in real life only consists of Guy Montag, her husband, whom she has no fond feelings about. Montag is so frustrated with Mildred because of her inability to express feelings for ...
.... Four wall length screens surround them and give the chimera of communicating with people. Thus they get a fake of a family. Montag’s wife is totally absorbed in this illusion. "My family is people, they tell me things. I laugh, they laugh!" (Pg.17). Gay asks Mildred "does our family live you, love you very much, love you with all their heart and soul, Mille?" (Pg.77) as he comes to know how weird their society has become.