Beatty Justified In Fahrenheit 451

The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman but he begins to wonder about the books and this leads him into trouble. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury pinpoints the idea that the government’s censorship leads to the people's ignorance; this becomes clear to readers when Montag became interested in books

Secondly the use of visual information is pushed upon the people so that they think that the books are giving off false information. The use of books have been outlawed because “It might potentially incite people to think or to question the overall thought of happiness and freedom” (Sisario). By burning the evidence of books and all of the information in the books the government has initiated a spot where people can’t think or really do anything other than TV. This example shows why they started to burn the books.

This is because books have been outlawed by the government, and the people felt that they were a threat to their joy. Books had caused controversy in society, and no matter what, some people always felt that they were targeting minorities. So to make people happy, books began to be banned to cause less controversy and disagreement in society. At the beginning of the novel,

Although books in the novel did die out on their own when people didn’t want to bother reading them anymore, the government still took it to another step to ban books so people couldn’t have conflicting ideas, so people couldn’t think for themselves, so people couldn’t question anything. The citizens of the dystopian society believe whatever the TV tells them. Such an example is when the mechanical hound loses Montag’s scent during the chase, "They're faking. You threw them off at the river. They can't admit .

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the protagonist and book burner, battles between the light and dark sides of society, first with Beatty, his boss, and the government and then with Clarisse, a neighbor girl and Faber, an English professor. Montag is stuck in the dark burning books and is ignorant to the world around him. He moves towards greater awareness when he meets Clarisse and is awakened to the wonders of deep thought and books. Finally, he risks his life by trying to save the books.

Social justice is often strived for by society. It is a necessary force in allowing humankind to coexist. However, the individual also has to play a role in maintaining social justice. The role of the individual is stated in the texts Fahrenheit 451 and “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. by illustrating the consequences of not participating in the monitoring of justice.

In this part of the book, all of the firemen including Montag received a call to burn a house with the books in there. Here became the turning point for Montag as he saw the woman, who already had made her decision to die rather than live in a world of oppression and restricted freedom of thought which books symbolize in this part, burns with the illegal books in the burning house, refusing to go out without the assurance of the safety of the books. We can suppose that his perception is gradually changing through the phrase showing that Montag felt a huge guilt over this, unlike the other firemen or Beatty. Furthermore, during the conversation with his wife, Mildred, Montag says, “We burn a thousand books. We burnt a woman.

Plus, in an interview, he mentioned the book burnings in China, Germany and Russia. The book was published eight years after the World War II, not really far from the time when book-burnings were an important part of the national socialism in Germany(Interesting Literature, 2013). In the interview, he also talked about the book burnings in the McCarthy era. In that period, 30,000 books which were written by communist sympathizers or contained pro communist themes, were banned and removed from the shelves of public libraries. He was widely upset with this and said, “Anything that touches the library, touches me(YouTube, 2011).”

Beatty, the firehouse captain, had been suspicious of Montag being in possession of literature. His dubious thoughts are found to be correct when Mildred turned Montag in. Montag is forced to go on the run, leaving the city for the countryside, where he finds other outcasted intellectuals. The city is bombed, leaving it completely destroyed and the society in ruins. The society Ray Bradbury creates in Fahrenheit 451 showcases how censorship is a threat to free thinking, society’s humanity, and human relationships through the use of imagery, symbolism and motifs.

The Second piece of evidence would be “ the books reminds up of what a**es we are” we don’t need books to be smart we were born to be smart. This evidence proves because he is showing that he really doesn’t care about the books but when he gets his hand and eyes into one he can’t stop reading and he wants to stop burning the

Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag.” Fire, a dangerous tool the firemen use to control public activity, symbolizes peace to some, as it cleanses their society of what they’ve considered more dangerous than the act of destroying property and people. Montag burning Beatty to death being the most obvious example of fire being powerful within the book, yet “Fire is bright and fire is clean” (pp. 59) As Michel Foucault says, “Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.”

Captain Beatty compares a book to a “loaded gun”, the government sees books as a weapon because books contain ideas and knowledge, they inform and lead to a comprehension of life, a comprehension which can be a huge threat to the control the government has on society. It’s much easier to control a society that’s dumb and ignorant. With the ideas and knowledge people get from books, they would be able to see what the government is truly doing to the world around them. Books promote individuality and go against conformity. The people who

Wayne Dyer once said, “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don 't know anything about.” In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, ignorance is a common theme portrayed throughout the novel. It sets the impression of how all of the characters feel due to a society that has outlawed books. Guy Montag is a firefighter, whose job is to burn the books. Yet, he often steals them without the chief firefighter, or anyone else knowing.

Montag sat by the blazing fire, filling every bone in his body with warmth, the same fire that he ran away from. He watched as the red and orange tails of the fire flickered upward, sending a smoke rising high above the clouds. The same fire, in which helped Montag destroy books, homes and much more, was now consoling him. He furrowed his brows, attempting to connect the book of Ecclesiastes to himself, as he did not understand how the intellectuals became a book, when a hard hand came down upon his shoulder. “Well aren’t you as scared as a bunny in a foxhole!”

Captain Beatty is a fireman. Firemen used to put out fires, but after every house became fireproof, they act as the government’s official censor to prohibit literary works. This transition is known because of Beatty’s lecture to Montag, including the quote, “They (firemen) were given a new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread to be inferior.” (Bradbury 56) This also explains the need for firemen.