Fahrenheit 451 is already considered to be a classical literary piece. It is a book, which will certainly remain in the history of human literature as a very typical piece of its time, a piece, which reflects important issues of its time, the threads which humanity used to face, the threads which were very real as it became clear through examples of numerous totalitarian regimes all over the world. The novel mainly focuses on the books, the books as a metaphor of knowledge and freedom, which derives from freedom.
The books are burnt in fire, and fire is another metaphor within the book, the fire burns bookstand houses, it burns the whole world. The world is burnt metaphorically, since the entire humanity is diminished to the animalistic level of satisfaction of basic needs and primitive entertainment. And whatever human is remaining remains in the books, the books, which are submitted to fire. But this desire to destroy is based on another animalistic feeling: the fear of something that cannot be understood. The fear of educated people: “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” (Bradbury, 2011).
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The goal of those, who possess the authority and power, is to get rid of those, who are still capable of thinking, to get rid of the people, who can analyze and who care. They develop unbearable conditions for them to live in: “Nobody listens anymore. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me, I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough it’ll make sense.” (Bradbury, 2011).
The opposition still exists, there are those, who find it critically important to rescue humanity, to preserve the species of men who actually care, who want to make a difference. They are nostalgic about the past and the way n which everybody used to be individuality: “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.” (Bradbury, 2011).
It is critically important for the humans to be disturbed, worried about something that matters, it is important for the mind not to constantly rest in peace, and this is what Bradbury makes a point saying: “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” (Bradbury, 2011).
Importantly, the crazy dreamers, those who still believed in books and still were ready to struggle for the good old world, they managed to wake up and provoke some suspicion in the minds of those, who actually saw themselves tightly incorporated into the system: “There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” (Bradbury, 2011).
The times of which Bradbury used to reflect in his book seem to be long gone. However the book still sounds fresh and up-to-date. Doesn’t it mean that despite a significant progress in technological sphere we are still where we used to be in the humanitarian sphere? There are many other questions with which the book is capable of puzzling a contemporary reader, and will still have something to say to the generations to come.
