Critique of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I have been eager to read Fahrenheit 451 for a very long time. So I jumped at the opportunity to read it in its original language when we were told at the beginning of this period that we should read a book for the Wednesday class.

Before reading this novel, I had no idea of what it was about. I was even wondering why the book is titled like that, with a temperature. Now, I can explain. Fahrenheit 451 is a novel written by Ray Bradbury, an American writer. The story takes place in a possible future of our world, but a kind of dark one. It deals with a future where our whole culture has disappeared. As an example, books have been outlawed because there are considered as dangerous for the humanity. Books, sciences, philosophy, etc indeed makes us think, and ask questions. This new American society doesn't want people to act willingly nor think, but to have a really superficial, calm, peaceful, pointless existence. That is why this society needs "firemen", not to save people from houses on fire, but to put fire to books that are found, in order to keep people away from knowledge, culture, and questions. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which a book burns.

The story follows the evolution of a character: Guy Montag, who is a fireman. He burns book to keep the order of the society. At the beginning of the book, he is the perfect archetype of this foolish society that claims that books are dangerous. But little by little, he realized that the way the society is running does not seem to be right, and wants to escape from his role as a fireman.

I found the novel particularly interesting because we become gradually aware of what is happening in this world. The more we learn, the more we are stressed, and we want to escape, exactly like the main character. But what is also brilliant in this book is that it makes us think about the human condition, and the relation we have with books, and culture, and with our society. Do we question the way we are educated? Do we question the fundamental rules of our world? Maybe we should.

Some vocabulary:

to grin: to smile. A fixed grin also means a rictus.

having fun at someone's expense: to laugh at someone

stirring: rousing the emotion you're feeling. (you can also stir your coffee)

a radio hummed somewhere: to hum is to make a machine sound, or an audio noise

nozzle: end piece of some object, usually a nozzle on the end of a hose for water

peculiar: strange

proclivity: tendency

dew: in the morning, there's dew (water) on the grass

pace: way of walking back and forth, or walk quickly. You can pace the floor, for example.

wreck: someone devastated, something ruined

numbness: physically or mentally slowed down and feeling nothing

And a citation as a conclusion:

" But that's the wonderful thing about man. He never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing."