"The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book."
Hi, friends! If you read this post’s title, or I sent the link to this post directly to you, then you know I’m going to be discussing “Fahrenheit 451.” If you are in neither of those buckets, hi, I’m Olivia, and I’m going to be discussing “Fahrenheit 451.” Just so you all know, this post is going to be much shorter than Lolita’s was. You’re welcome. That one was really, really long.
Why "Fahrenheit 451"? This book highlights the problems that come with a government focused on censorship. Please keep in mind that it was published in 1953, drawing inspiration from the McCarthy era's censorship. It was an act of anti-communism, leading people to self-censor in fear of being seen as a communist for having more left-leaning ideals. People in academic fields were mostly afraid, as their teachings and writings may be cause for concern. Freedom of speech was being destroyed. This didn't end then, censorship is still a relevant topic today. Peaceful protests are getting interrupted, some AI is being altered to adhere to only conservative viewpoints, social media is censoring liberal discussion, etc. Unfortunately, the message Bradbury was trying to push was not received by everyone, as books are currently being banned, including this one.
Though I love the purpose of "Fahrenheit 451," the book took me a while to get through because I just wasn’t very hooked on it. I personally love to dissect books - finding easter eggs, reading between the lines, and I am a sucker for an unreliable narrator. "Fahrenheit 451" is pretty straight-forward, so it wasn’t my favorite read. That’s just my personal preference and does not mean this is a bad book. It’s good! I also think I just wasn’t hooked on this one because I have read it before (and I’m sure many of you have, as many schools required it). I wanted to read it again with my 25-year-old brain to see if my opinions have changed or if I noticed any different details. The answer? No. But that’s okay! Everyone has different brains, so what I discuss in this post is not new to me, but it may be new to you.
Here is a list of what I am going to discuss, if you would like to break your reading into sections:
2. The Holy Trinity.
3. Censorship.
4. Why are books important?
Let’s get on with some summaries. Below, I have two summaries - a spoiley summary and a non-super-spoiley summary. To understand what I am going to talk about, particularly when I bring up the Holy Trinity, I recommend you read the spoiley summary.
Spoiley Summary
“Fahrenheit 451” takes place in a dystopian world where owning books is now illegal. The government despises anything that’s complex, intelligent, or thought-provoking. This makes books the perfect target. "Fahrenheit 451" doesn’t start when books have been gone for centuries, there are a few characters in the series that used to be literature professors before the bans started. Everything in this world is dry and has no substance, just easy entertainment with no value. The city is also facing a possible war, briefly explained but not detailed at the beginning of the book. The main character, Montag, is a fireman - but they don’t put out fires, they start fires. The firemen get tipped on who has books, locate the fugitives, and burn the whole building down along with the books. The firemen have “mechanical hounds” working for them - robotic animals with excellent tracking abilities that work to find and kill people who are hiding books.
Montag meets his young neighbor, Clarisse. Clarisse’s behavior is odd to Montag, as she is outspoken, intelligent, and inquisitive. She asks Montag if he is happy, which leads him down the spiral of realizing he is not. As Montag is realizing this, he finds that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills. Montag calls medical services and his wife is okay, but she doesn’t really care much about the whole ordeal. This is when Montag realizes that Mildred is only a shell of a human being. She always has earbuds in and is watching her television shows, which she calls her “family.” None of the media she consumes has any substance, so she doesn’t either. Montag also realizes they don’t even know each other well. He continues to talk to Clarisse, who asks him more thought-provoking questions and sends him to wonder about his role in the world and his job.
One day at work, Montag and the other firemen burn down a lady’s house and her books. She decides to die with the books rather than live a life without them. Montag steals a book and we find out this isn’t the first time - he has been stealing books and hiding them in his house. When he returns home, Mildred tells Montag that Clarisse has died in a car accident. He reacts strongly, and she doesn’t understand why he is upset. Montag even tries to discuss his new thoughts on the book-burning to Mildred, but she is incapable of understanding this as well.
Montag doesn’t go to work, pretending to be sick, and is contemplating quitting his job. Before he can figure out what to do in his crisis, the captain of the firemen, Beatty, figures out that Montag has a book. Beatty visits Montag, gives a speech on why books were banned in the first place, and tells Montag he has 24 hours to read the book and then it will be burned. Beatty had hoped to deter Montag from reading, but it only intrigues Montag more. Once Beatty leaves, Montag tells Mildred about the books and she panics. He is able to convince her to at least try reading some of the books, claiming that something must be in them that they have to understand. The two struggle to understand the books, so Mildred gets frustrated and leaves to watch her television, while Montag decides he needs a teacher.
Montag remembers once meeting a man named Faber, a retired English professor. The two met at a park, where Faber was trying to hide a book. Montag kept Faber’s phone number and address written down, in case he ever needed to set Faber's house ablaze. Montag leaves his house to go to Faber’s, carrying a copy of the Bible, and asks Faber to teach him. Faber is weary but becomes excited after some convincing. He offers Montag an earpiece that will allow them to communicate while Montag is talking to Captain Beatty, in hopes that he can help guide Montag through the difficult conversation.
Montag returns home with the earpiece in and finds Mildred watching television with her friends. The women are all having meaningless conversations. Montag explodes. He disconnects the television, pulls out a book, reads a poem to them, and starts berating them for living empty, dead, meaningless lives with empty, dead, meaningless thoughts. The women leave crying and Mildred runs to take sleeping pills and fall asleep. Montag hides the books in the bushes behind his house and takes a decoy book (instead of the Bible) to present to Beatty.
Montag meets with Beatty. Beatty tries to manipulate Montag into admitting that he has books, but he is unsuccessful, as Faber is helping Montag through the conversation. This is interrupted by a fire alarm. They drive to the scene of the book-hoarding crime, and surprise! It’s Montag’s house.
Montag finds out that the mechanical hound came to their house earlier to sniff out books and Mildred’s friends called the firemen after they left the house, both of which Beatty decided to ignore. Beatty had his own suspicions as well, and it wasn’t until Mildred called to snitch on the book-hoarding that he decided to take action. When the firemen arrive at Montag’s house, Mildred runs away, ignoring Montag and hopping into a taxi. Beatty taunts Montag and forces him to burn his own house down. Faber is still in the earpiece, encouraging Montag to run away. Once the burning is complete, Beatty notices the earpiece and threatens to track down Faber... So Montag kills Beatty with the flamethrower. Two more firemen come to fight, and Montag kills them, too. He gets in a brawl with a mechanical hound and ultimately wins, but not after receiving a numbed leg from something the hound injected in him. Montag grabs the books he hid and runs away. While running, he finds out that war has been declared. The timing is fitting!
Montag runs to Faber’s. Once he gets there, Faber shows Montag on a small television screen that a helicopter is following a mechanical hound, recording the hunt for Montag. The mechanical hound is chasing Montag's scent. Faber tells Montag to cross a river and follow railroad tracks, where he will find former literature professors that are now homeless and will help him. Faber will take a bus before sunrise to a town where he knows a printer that can create copies of books. The two will meet in that city. For now, Faber must get rid of the scent of Montag in his home, and Montag must try his best to change his scent so the mechanical hound can't find him.
Montag continues his escape and eventually finds a group of former literature professors. The leader, Granger, recognizes Montag from the news and assures him he’s safe now. The mechanical hound has lost track, so it will target a new person to pretend is Montag and kill him, making a happy ending for all the viewers. The group watches a screen as exactly this happens. Granger tells Montag that even though he no longer has the book, he still has the knowledge from the bit he has read, just as they do. All of the former-professors have memorized books and then burned them, and Montag will do the same. They can continue to spread this knowledge, even if it will over time be incorrect (like a game of “telephone”), and maybe one day, after the war is over, their knowledge can be re-written and spread across the world again.
The group leaves in the morning down the railroad tracks. As they are walking, they see the city in the distance is destroyed by bombs. Montag thinks briefly of Mildred, but sets it aside, as he has a new goal to focus on. The group decides to head back to the city, ready to help rebuild and spread their knowledge, now that the war has quickly ended.
Non-Super-Spoiley Summary
Montag is a fireman. Firemen don’t put out fires, they start them, setting houses that are hoarding books ablaze. Books are illegal in this dystopian society, as the government doesn’t want an ounce of anything thought-provoking or critical around. Montag meets a character named Clarisse, who is curious and outspoken, and begins to question his job and his life. He has a wife, named Mildred, who is an example of exactly what happens when you have a world where intellect is looked down upon. She is just the shell of a human being. Montag’s boss, Captain Beatty, hates books and tries to explain why books were banned in the first place. Montag meets a guy named Faber who is knowledgeable on books. Montag spirals because of everything Clarisse and Faber made him think about and “Fahrenheit 451” ends with him on the road to spreading knowledge about books and their importance to try and correct the world.
1. The symbolism.
"Fahrenheit 451" is widely known for its use of symbolism. If it sounds out of place and is used often, it’s definitely a symbol for something. The titles of the book sections are symbols. We start with “The Hearth and the Salamander." The salamander is used as a symbol of the firemen, as well as what the firemen call their firetruck. If you don’t already know, salamanders represent resilience and immortality - particularly in “Fahrenheit 451” as resistance to fire. A hearth is a fireplace. It’s in the center of the home with the main purpose of spreading warmth. I did see that someone on Reddit thought the salamander represents Montag and the hearth represents Clarisse, which may be true, but even if it isn’t, the hearth and the salamander conflict. The salamander’s association with fire is to burn down homes while the firemen feel unaffected or invincible, and the hearth uses fire in a positive way, spreading warmth and light. This is representative of everything Montag is feeling in the first section, so it’s appropriately named. Montag has been a fireman for ten years. He has known nothing other than setting books and houses on fire, staying safe by following the law, and going about his business… until he meets Clarisse. Clarisse makes him question the reality of what his job entails along with the happiness in his home life. Montag is conflicted in this section of the book. He can’t decide if he should be following the rules of the firemen and supporting the burning of the books, or if he should try to take Clarisse’s unspoken advice and question the purpose of the burning. His internal conflicts are symbolized through the hearth and the salamander. By the end of this section, the hearth wins - Montag chooses to try reading the books he has stolen.
The second section, “The Sieve and the Sand,” begins with Montag attempting to read the books with Mildred as it rains outside. They both struggle to understand the books, but while Mildred gives up, Montag only grows more determined. The name of this section is taken from one of Montag’s childhood memories. A cousin of Montag promised him that he would get a dime if he was able to fill a sieve with sand, and no matter how hard or long Montag tried, he couldn’t fill the sieve. This is obviously because sieves have holes in the bottom, and the cousin was just playing a dumb prank on baby Montag, but it’s representative of what happens in the chapter. Montag tries as hard as he can to understand and memorize what he is reading, but he can’t. He doesn’t have the intellectual capability. Instead of running off to watch a mindless television show like Mildred, he decides to ask Faber to be his teacher. On his way to meet Faber, Montag tries to memorize the Bible the fastest and best he can, but ultimately fails. If isn’t clear already, the sand is the knowledge, and the sieve is his brain. This section ends with the sieve winning. Before Montag is able to have a solid understanding of what he is reading, he and the firemen get an alarm, alerting the men to a house with hidden books that needs to be destroyed. The house is Montag’s.
The final section of the book is called “Burning Bright.” This represents destruction and an opportunity for renewal. Shit hits the fan in this section of the book. One of Montag’s first actions in this section is being forced to burn down his own house, which might seem depressing, but it actually fits the “burning bright” theme of destruction to renewal very well. While Montag is setting his house ablaze, he gets a hint of happiness as he destroys the television walls. He had realized his relationship with his wife was dead (or never even alive) and she was addicted to the plain, unintelligible television shows. To Montag, he wasn’t destroying his home, he was destroying a house that held nothing of value. Burning the house down is the first step to a fresh start for Montag, though he doesn’t realize it at the time and only focuses on destroying those damn television walls. Not only does Montag’s house get this “burning bright” renewal, the entire city does. After the killing and the running, Montag meets the band of former literature professors. They presume that they will be able to spread knowledge of the books’ contents once the war is over, and it will end as quickly as it starts. They’re right, the war does start in this chapter and ends with the city getting completely destroyed by bombs. The professors and Montag agree to return to the city, rebuild it, and begin their plan to bring the knowledge of books back into the world. It is a very, very quick destroy and renewal. Or, if the destroy and renewal doesn’t work for you in the title of “Burning Bright”, then you can just think of the title as this: shit hits the fan, and everything is pretty much on fire (figuratively, except Montag’s house is literal) for most of this section.
Moving away from the symbolism within the names of the book’s sections, blood is mentioned often. Blood is used to represent a person’s raw self. Montag often describes blood flushing to someone’s face or completely disappearing, representative of how the person feels on the inside. The first example we see of this is when his wife, Mildred, has her blood transfused with new blood, in the first section. Montag thinks, “the bloodstream in this woman was new and it seemed to have done a new thing to her. Her cheeks were very pink and her lips were very fresh and full of color and they looked soft and relaxed. Someone else’s blood there. If only someone else’s flesh and brain and memory.” While Mildred may be flushed now, it’s only because it’s new and not hers. She will soon turn pale and lifeless again, just like how Montag feels she is on the inside. The opposite happens later in the book, with Faber. He begins as pale, but as soon as he sees that Montag has brought the Bible over, Montag notices that color returns to Faber’s face.
Montag not only pays attention to the blood flow/flush in others, but he thinks about his own blood as well. Montag explains that when he was in church growing up, he tried as hard as he could to understand the religion the way others do. He tried to feel the religion all the way in his blood, but was unable to. He couldn’t bring religion into his core, primal self - i.e., his blood. Later, when Montag runs away from the mechanical hounds and is in the river, he finally relaxes and listens to his heartbeat calm, his thoughts and blood slowing down rather than rushing. Finally, once the city is destroyed and Montag is deciding on the next plans for the group of ex-professors and himself, he gets a sense of hope and excitement. He wants to completely indulge in the new possibilities and everything he will learn - the only way to touch everything new is to have it in his blood, “where it pumps around a thousand times ten thousand a day.”
Lastly, fire is used as a more obvious symbolism. At first, Montag sees fire as only destroying. This turns into renewal. Fire doesn’t just destroy, it provides an opportunity for something new and better to be built. Montag starts out feeling like all he does is wreck homes, but by the end, he feels he can help with renewal and improvement. Montag’s thoughts on fire follow his thoughts on himself, but I don’t think I need to explain that too much to you. It’s pretty obvious and is the same as the “Burning Bright” section.
2. The Holy Trinity.
Clarisse, Mildred, and Beatty. There’s three of them, so I’m choosing to call them the Holy Trinity. These characters were actually the most interesting part of the book to me. Of course we like Montag, he’s our protagonist, but he is written as every other protagonist in a dystopian world is. He is a good person, but just a fine character. Clarisse, Mildred, and Beatty, however, I found much more interesting. They represent the three different types of people that emerge from a world such as this one.
We can start with Clarisse, as she is probably everyone’s favorite character. The government has made countless efforts to avoid creative and deep thinking - mass media is thoughtless and used to distract the population, gardens, porches, and rocking chairs were banned, children are “almost snatched from the cradle” to enter school, because homelife can “undo a lot you try to do at school,” and, of course, books are banned. Clarisse proves that no matter how much the government tries to interfere with critical thinking, there is no way to completely get rid of natural human curiosity. Clarisse is young, she likely hasn’t known anything other than the world they’re in now, and yet remains introspective. She doesn’t just keep her curiosity to herself - she spreads it to others and makes them question too, like Montag. So even though countless efforts were made to prevent Clarisse’s style of thinking, people like her still have the ability to spread it and make others think the same way.
Additionally, although people are made to be like robots, Clarisse is an oddball in this world. Montag is taken aback with how open she is to express her thoughts and question him. She’s free-spirited and individualistic, rather than bland and dead inside. Banning books and flooding the world with mundane media hasn’t affected her at all, and there are likely others like her. Humans are naturally inquisitive, and Clarisse shows that in a world that tries to push intelligence and individuality away, some people will just start being more careful with exposing their perception rather than adhere to the dead, cold brains the world wants from them. People will remain intelligent and curious. Critical thinking will always exist. The government’s attempts to prevent behavior like that of Clarisse’s has failed.
Mildred is the exact opposite of Clarisse. Clarisse was comfortable with thinking of the uncomfortable, Mildred is not. Mildred is not curious or individualistic. Mildred is the model citizen for this government. She questions nothing, she consumes the media, she follows the rules exactly, she doesn’t even have a good memory. Mildred is a shell of a human being. Books were banned with the theory that reading teaches critical thinking, which causes unhappiness. However, rather than being happy like the government has intended, Mildred feels nothing. When Montag tells her that she almost died from taking too many sleeping pills, she doesn’t care. She has shallow conversations with her friends and is addicted to watching her equally shallow television shows. When Montag tries to speak to her about the books, she dismisses him, because too much thought is stressful and useless to her. Mildred makes no attempt to understand the books she’s reading, eventually just walking away from Montag. Even when she tells Montag about Clarisse’s death, she says it in a numb, desensitized way and is weirded out when he’s upset. She has no ability to think for herself or feel anything. Shit, Mildred is so unhappy that she can't even sleep at night or live with her own thoughts in silence.
Honestly, I was happy for her when she turned Montag in for having books - this was the most emotion that we got from her, but even then she ran away. She didn’t stop and explain it to him, she didn’t put up a strong argument with him, she avoided feeling and thinking about anything that might bring just the smallest bit of discomfort. Mildred's inability to feel anything at all, even happiness, proves that she is another instance in which the government’s new censorship rules have failed to serve their purpose.
Lastly, we have Mr. Hypocritical - Beatty. He is actually very similar to Montag, but while Montag wins, Beatty loses. Beatty is very, very well-read, hence why I am calling him “Mr. Hypocritical.” Despite this, he still tries to convince Montag to quit with the reading and get back to the burning. He uses his intelligence to confuse Montag, attempting to manipulate him into giving up and agreeing with the burning of the books. However, it is important to note that it actually seems like Beatty doesn’t fully believe in the censorship. His speeches to Montag are riddled with irony and sarcasm. It’s clear that this is a topic he has thought a lot about, rather than blindly followed, unlike what the government wants from him. He may seem like a model citizen, but he really isn’t. Unfortunately, while Beatty may actually love books and have the ability to understand them, he admits to Montag that he prefers his basic, easy life with instant pleasure. Beatty has dealt with the same internal battle that Montag has but gave up on it, choosing to just accept things the way they are rather than struggle to fight against them. There is a possibility that reading really did cause Beatty to engage in too much critical thinking, making him upset, so he wanted to shut out the books forever and decided that the government really is right, books do cause unhappiness. Either way, Mr. Hypocritical is a coward.
It’s also debatable on whether or not Beatty wanted to die. This is a common discussion point for "Fahrenheit 451," because he didn’t fight against Montag while Montag was pointing the flamethrower at him. This is an interesting part, because there’s no way Beatty thought Montag wasn’t actually going to burn him - Montag has lost it and Beatty could easily tell. However, I don’t think Beatty wanted to die - I think he was okay with dying. He didn’t want to stress about reading books or fighting against the censorship, he wanted peace. In Beatty’s mind, peace is either following the rules or death, rather than dealing with the internal struggle Montag faces and Beatty likely has already faced. In the end, it doesn’t matter too much if Beatty wanted to die or not - we have the third type of person a world like this can create. The person who breaks the rules, reads the books, and then decides to continue a life following the rules. He is not a model citizen, as he does engage in philosophical and critical thinking. Therefore, Beatty is more proof that banning books has not achieved its goal.
3. Censorship.
Now to the real meat, or why this blog exists in the first place: the banning of the books. They were banned in "Fahrenheit 451" because they were thought to bring unhappiness. In a way, this can be true - ignorance is bliss, afterall. The concern was that people would develop critical thinking skills, leading them to be more observant, leading them to form negative opinions, and finally, leading them to be unhappy. They may have even been unhappy with their government, inspired by books, and chosen to rebel. Without books, readers don’t have to worry about connecting discomfort within books to discomfort in their own lives. There is no concern for historical tragedies, as they are erased as the books burn. People fought over books existing, which is obviously a whole ball of unpleasantness, and is just another reason Beatty explained for the banning. However, as we saw with Clarisse, censorship does not lead to erasing human thought.
Censorship is also a good way to force people’s thoughts and beliefs, by allowing them to only see what you want them to see. The censorship reminds me of erased or altered history while growing up. In my elementary school, we were taught that Christopher Colombus was genuinely the first person to discover North America. When we questioned how that was possible if Native Americans existed, we were diverted to other topics. We didn’t learn about the Native Americans being raped, murdered, or getting riddled with nasty European diseases, and thought they were the “bad guys.” We didn’t learn about Japanese Internment Camps, we didn’t learn about Eugenics, we didn’t learn about Henrietta Wood, we barely even touched on reintegration in schools and how black people were tortured for it. This kind of history was deleted as an attempt to make us believe the U.S. is the greatest country in the world and has done absolutely nothing wrong. Unfortunately for the school system, the internet exists, and books do.
While we’re on the topic of history, banning books is not a new occurrence or something that only happened in "Fahrenheit 451." Let’s play a game. I’m going to describe a censorship event that happened, and you tell me who it was! This group supported book burnings across the country they were primarily in. They burned books of Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, John Dos Passos, Sigmund Freud, Erich Maria Remarque, Upton Sinclair, Helen Keller, and Jack London. Most authors fled the country, but two were imprisoned and tortured. One of them was murdered. The books were burned because they challenged the ideas of this particular group. Hint: It was 1933. Another hint: This happened in Germany. Any guesses? The Nazis! The Nazis were not the first book-burners, this has happened since 259 B.C. You can read more about them here.
And now here we are! Banning so many books that Miss Olivia Carpenter has decided to make a whole blog for them! Books are banned now because they may be controversial, highlighting issues such as racism, sexism, or homophobia. So instead of saying “if you don’t like it, deal with it,” school systems and politicians are choosing to just get rid of them as a whole. This, of course, pisses off the people who do like the books. Like me! Others have also been banned because they feature a rebel group that fights against their corrupt government. This can be seen as “giving ideas,” pushing a certain political agenda, or forcing readers to think about their own corrupt government. In other words, people who support book censorship want readers to live ignorantly and not bother questioning the people who are supposed to serve them.
4. Why are books important?
In "Fahrenheit 451," Faber supports books for the same reason the government hates them. He appreciates that books teach people to think critically. They encourage action based on the knowledge that they provide. He enjoys the process of reading, rather than useless information and entertainment whacking people in the face, readers get to digest the book slowly. You can “play God to it,” in Faber’s words. This allows for more thinking, contemplation and introspection. Also, Faber appreciates the discomfort that they bring. Books are not afraid to highlight both the good and the bad. He explains that “we are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam,” meaning uncomfortability is important to living, and happiness can’t exist without it.
Discomfort sucks. Overthinking sucks. Realizing that things suck sucks. But there is no happiness without unhappiness. If everything were perfect, we wouldn’t even know. The only reason we know what happiness is is because we know what unhappiness is. While we may dislike discomfort, books providing it is important so we can look within ourselves and ask “why am I uncomfortable? Should this uncomfortable idea be something I need to think about more? What can I do about this uncomfortable thing? And how does this discomfort affect myself and those around me in the real world?” While it may seem ideal to live a life of only peace, it only turns into a numb, dead feeling, like Mildred. Alternatively, it leads to a feeling of guilt over chosen ignorance or the inability to escape the bad, like Beatty. As much as readers may realize things are pretty fucked up, it’s still necessary to develop critical thinking skills as they help you simply grow as a person. Facing unhappiness is the only way change can be made, internally and externally.
Thank you!
Overall, this was a good book, especially when it's read through a fully developed brain. Now we have the question … Should “Fahrenheit 451” be banned? Hell no! I can’t even string the words together to describe how ridiculous and ironic it is that this book is on the list. Like I mentioned before, many books are banned because people (I mean you, nasty Republicans!) don’t like what message the books are trying to push, primarily about a specific population. However, “Fahrenheit 451” isn’t about any population. So that means the only reason for someone to want to ban it is because it portrays a bad government and someone rebelling against it. This reason is fucked up and stupid.
I genuinely question if people who support the “Fahrenheit 451” ban have not only read the book, but understood it. Unless you are an absolute idiot, there is no way to read this and think “yeah, that sounds like a great idea.” We see how bad it is. We see how it affects people. And more importantly, we see that it doesn’t even work!
I really appreciate you reading this post. If you haven’t already, make Faber happy. Improve your creativity, patience, and critical thinking by picking up a book and reading it. Go ahead and start with “Fahrenheit 451.” ;)
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