Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ignorance in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

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Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, is about what this world will become if we continue to disregard knowledge and focus on the irrelevant parts of life. In the novel, books are burned rather than read, knowledge is feared rather than pursued, and no one is happy. In this world, reading is a crime, but for some people in this novel, it is a way of life. Bradbury is suggesting that reality is not far from the world he has depicted in this book, and that soon, ignorance may be valued over knowledge. One of the main characters, Mildred, is the perfect example of everything bad about Bradbury’s society. She doesn’t like to think for herself, she is addicted to television, and her suicide attempt proves she is unhappy, as does her denial on the subject. In creating this character, Bradbury shows us exactly what might happen if we continue to disregard reality for the illusionary world of things like television. At one point, when talking to her friends, Mildred says Every fireman is allowed to bring one book home, from the old days, to show his family how silly it all was, how nervous that sort of thing can make you, how crazy. Guy’s surprise tonight is to read you one sample just to show how mixed-up things were, so none of s will ever have to bother our little old heads about this junk again, isn’t that right darling. (99) This is her attempt to make Guy’s rebellion safe in front of her friends. Here Bradbury shows the reader that if we continue ignoring knowledge, we will become machines like those displayed in his novel. The culture in this book revolves around self-satisfaction. In saying “That’s all we live for isn’t it? For pleasure. For titillation And you must admit our culture provides plenty of this.” (72) Bradbury (through Beatty) displays a connection between our world and his. Our society has already begun to blindly love whatever can make us happy for a minute, but which can also make us unhappy for a lifetime. Our obsession with self-gratification is yet another step from reality to the world in

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