Fahrenheit 451 in Our Present Time

Fahrenheit 451... is the temperature at which books burn? This story takes the reader into the future, where nobody needs books anymore. Books may ask questions that often lead to revolution. According to the Ray Bradbury's knowledge of the past, which is recorded in books, can prevent us from making similar mistakes in the present and the future. In Fahrenheit 451, the books are prohibited by government laws and the job of the firemen is to start fires instead of putting them out. The main character Guy Montag was different from the other firemen because he showed the reader that he wanted to change the bad habit of burning books. He showed us how important books are in our life. Today what we see in our present world can be compared with the world in "Fahrenheit 451."

One night, while Montag is walking home from a day's work, he meets this "odd," bright girl, named Clarisse McClellan. As an idealist, she hates the social structure of the society she lives in. She says that firemen once put out fires instead of starting them. Montag thought this to be nonsense. He never thought he was doing anything wrong until he talks to Clarisse, who said that people weren't always afraid of books, that books made people brighter and they couldn't imagine life without them. Books were in the past and they fulfill our life today.

The author is talking about the future, but today people are already living similar lives to the one described in the book. They watch television, and they forget that there are more interesting things to do, like reading books. People are flying through their life with the speed that does not allow them to notice the greenness of the forests, the blossoms of the fields, star-lit nights, the sounds of rippling rivers, and the songs of the birds. They do not have time "for crazy thoughts." Clarisse makes Montag see dew on the grass, which makes him quite irritated, because he never noticed it before. He just never thought about the small things, they were never important to him. The only important thing was book burning, which he did every night for money.

In today's world, people are not reading for pleasure anymore. Most of the information we are getting from computers and television. We've traded books for a more technical world. Television is undoubtedly one of the most powerful means of communication in the history of humankind.