The Dangers of Ignorance Exposed in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

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Recommended: Critical analysis of dystopian literature

In the mind of Ray Bradbury, people are scared of reality. His dystopian novel entitled Fahrenheit 451 is noted as one of his best stories. It tells of a futuristic American society where books are illegal. The main character, Montag, is a “fireman” who burns books, but he soon realizes the knowledge the poses. A dystopian novel is one where everything goes terribly wrong. A motif is a recurring theme or idea through out a book. To be ignorant is to not have the knowledge of something. In this book, ignorance is a motif. The imaginary society is very ignorant of books. Their ignorance prevents them from gaining knowledge, having control over what they know, and being satisfied with life. A society with no books is one with no knowledge. A society with no knowledge is one full of ignorance. An ignorant society is easy to control. The firemen burn the books after the police arrest the people who had the books. Captain Beatty is in charge of the firemen. One night, Montag had asked Beatty about a past burning. The man whose books they burned was sent to an asylum and Montag asked Bea...

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