Fahrenheit 451

Life Controlled by Media Results in False

Knowledge

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel where the society eliminates unhappiness. The fire department starts fire instead of putting it out, because they burn books. The author is trying to show that life prohibited by community results in false knowledge of ourselves. Not everyone feels that way. So, some people go against the law and read books. Ray Bradbury shows the readers that there is always something wrong with perfect society.

The society dislikes books because it makes them unhappy. For example, "Mrs. Phelps was crying. The others in the middle of the dessert watched her crying grow very loud as her face squeezed itself out of shape" (Bradbury 100). This shows that when Montag read a poem to Millie's friends, the misery of the poem got one of them to cry. This is because they don't know how to accept the truth and grief. In addition, Beatty said "You can't rid yourselves of all the odd ducks in just a few years" (Bradbury 60).This shows that people even try to remove people that are weird but didn't do anything wrong. This is because once again they try to make the society as perfect as they can. As a result, they can do some pretty cruel stuff to make life better for them.

The more people read the more knowledge they have but not everyone. For example, "If anything should happen to Harris you are the book of Ecclesiastes" (Bradbury 151). This shows that Montag is smart and has knowledge of what's going on. This is because, he memorized the book in his head so nobody would find out that he reads. In addition, Mildred, Montage's wife, is one example of a very blind person like everyone else in this society. For example, she thinks characters on TV are her family like "How's Uncle Louis today?" (Bradbury44). This shows that she is very stupid and she