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| Fahrenheit 451 | 
 enlarge | Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1270 reviews
Sales Rank: 1140
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0345342968
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345342966
ASIN: 0345342968
Publication Date: August 12, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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 A quick review of a great piece of literature March 11, 2000
27 out of 31 found this review helpful
This is a very twisted book based on a time many years from now. A time when books weren't made to be read, but to be burned. Guy Montag, the main character in this story never questioned why books were to be burned. He just went on with his job as a fireman and burnt them along with the homes of many brave people who wished to rebel against the wishes of an obviousely deprived society. One day he meets a young woman who tells him of a time when books were made to be enjoyed and not burned, and when people had the right to express their feelings by writing them. He also meets a scientist who helps him in his quest to find as many books as possible and read them all. He is later caught when his crazy wife, Milly, sounds the alarm that he has hidden books in their home. When the house is burned Montag kills his former boss, Captain Beaty, with a flame thrower. He then tries to escape the town and is almost caught, but makes his way to the forest and finds a group of highly educated people who have been through the same trails as he. He then joins there little circle and is never caught.
Astronomically Good Book March 27, 2000
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Sometime in the not-so-distant future, the world will change severely. Soon people's homes will be completely fireproofed, leaving no use for firemen as they are thought of today. But they will not be out of work; their role will simply change. In an ever increasingly television oriented society where yesterday's classics are now thought of as censurable tripe, firemen will be starting fires, not stopping them. Their new role will be of a secret police that search out the hated books and raise their temperature to the level at which books burn, Fahrenheit 451. This is the premise of Ray Bradbury's novel. Bradbury's story is an ominous look into where he fears society is presently headed. It is in many ways a warning against existing increasing rates of demoralization, drug use, addiction to non thought-provoking activities, and illiteracy. He easily communicates how such simple trends could evolve into societal brainwashing and individuals who say they are happy, think they are 'social,' and simply spend all their time in their parlors (the ultimate in new television technology). One of the self-proclaimed 'odd' people of this book went decidedly against the norm in saying, "But I don't think it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk, do you?" However, this book is not solidly a story of doom and gloom. The main character is a fireman named Montag and he ends up providing hope for the reader. While he is not a godlike hero, made up of courage and thew, he does fit the quixotic template in that he is a sad classicist in a new and frightening time. After only a small jolt of reality from an imaginative child, he realizes the world could be made of truth and beauty, rather than the contemporary cheap thrills and insatiable cupidity. Furthermore, this tale has much in common with two other critically acclaimed classics. Montag's government is merely interested in controlling the people while waging war with other super powers, much like the opression in George Orwell's 1984. Additionally, individuals hold very little sacred, no one cares for human life and everyone is looking for a cheap (often-dangerous) thrill. This is a public where men who handle drug overdoses are not concerned that such matters happen "nine or ten a night," all of this general apathy is mirrored in the novel Brave New World. But, again, Bradbury is a creative author, and his visions of the future are not nearly as hopeless as 1984, or so alien and drug based as Brave New World. Fahrenheit 451's point is twofold. While it warns against where society is headed, it also shows that it only takes good people like Montag to bring society back from the brink of ruination. This faith in the goodness of the common man does not falter and shows optimism that is not always part of such works. Upbeat themes can be hard to find in such otherwise bleak forewarnings, and even in most normal classics it is hard to find a purely happy ending and/or main point. Seeing as this book was published over forty years ago one would assume that it is out of date, but this is not true. It is a science-fiction book without any unbelievable differences between this projected world and our own. Also, Fahrenheit 451 is easily read. The book communicates its point in a mere 160 pages, none of which are filled with incomprehensible vocabulary. It contains enough action for those who like it, and plenty of Montag's self-realizations for readers interested in seeing characters delve into their own mind's inner recesses. This book should be a joy to anyone who chooses to pick it up. Conversely, this easily enjoyed book carries with it some strong meaning. Montag's experiences are a warning to people who would get so used to their impersonal lifestyle that they would become desensitized to many of the world's horrors. Upon finishing the book, one is sure to be more guarded against choosing an easy path, and therefore becoming less of a human. Bradbury did well in bringing the way life became more and more impersonal and barbaric. "I put up with (my children) when they come home three days a month; it's not bad at all. You heave them into the 'parlor' and turn on the switch. It's like washing clothes." In likening children to annoying creatures which deserve as much attention as laundry, the character who made this statement both disgusts the audience and says the statement as if it were only natural. The author has a talent for letting his audience see situations both as they normally would and as the characters do. Even through the opening we see some of the book's many themes played out in Montag.
"A book rich with literary devices" January 26, 2000
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
"Fahrenheit 451", written by Ray Bradbury, is the chilling, prophetic, science fiction novel of the future. About censorship, it portrays a world where books are outlawed by a totalitarian goverenment, it shows how society's only goal is to achieve "pleasure" through the senses. It tells of a world where petty facts are more valued than knowledge and ideas; a place and time where no one questions what they are doing and why, but just doing it by rote. Guy Montag is a fireman of the future. Ironically, his job is to start fires, to burn everything, especially "corrupt" books that contradict the government, and society's way of life; books that make people think and learn to question things. Like all others, he doesn't ask questions, and enjoys his job, enjoys burning things, because "fire is bright and fire is clean." He lives oblivious to the frightening realities of life until his next-door neighbor, Clarisse, a young girl of seventeen, teaches him to ponder what might be behind the books that he burns, to learn to ask the question "why?" This causes him to undergo a "crisis of fiath." Examining his life for the first time, he sees how empty and meaningless it is. His wife cares for nothing else than her "television family" and is sucked into a world of endless chatter, movement, and moving images. He realizes the terrible horror of what society is doing; watching the tube, "oohing" and "aahing" but not really talking nor communicating with one another. Montag grows to recognize what a corrupt society he is living in. When clarisse mysteriously disappears, Montag is motivated to make some changes in his life. During nighttime "calls," he starts hoarding books away in his home, determined to understand what is behind those pages. Montag also tries to ignore Captain Beatty who tries to confuse him in his search for the meaning of books. Pondering the questions of life, his futile search for the ultimate "truth" leads him to Faber, a retired English professor. With Faber's help, Montag finds the road to justice and restoring the "past" where people are not afraid. Written in third-person, this book is an excellent portrayal of human nature; the good, the bad, and the in-between. Ray Bradbury, the author, paints a vivid picture of a future with no books, and makes the reader realize that without books, creativity and thought would be stifled. Literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and rich symbolism (example: "seashells" are the future generation's discmans) are used by the author to enrich the story. There are many types of conflicts shown in "Fahrenheit 451;" person vs. self, person vs. society, and person vs. person. Montag struggles with himself and tries to distinguish between right and wrong. He also battles with the society around him, and tries to make them realize that books are not to be feared, but worshipped. This is evident when he reads the poem to Mildred and her friends while they are in the "parlor" watching the "walls." But becuase of their lack of understanding and depth, they do not udnerstand the purpose and meaning behind the poem and regards Montag as being "crazy." Montag'ss struggles with Captain Beatty is the person vs. person conflict represented in the book. Since the world declining to conditions recounted in the book is hgihly possible, the novel has an "aura of chilling prophecy," which I like. A sense of the "not so distant future," with fantastic magical realism such as "spacecrafts"are common in all of Ray Bradbury's work, such as the "Illustrated Man" and "Fahrenheit 451." I enjoyed reading this "thought-provoking novel," about the future and censorship. It is no small wonder why there are over four and a half million copies in print all over the world.
Definitely Lights a Fire August 8, 2000
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies." Thus says FAHRENHEIT 451's Professor Faber in explaining to Guy Montag the importance of the "telling detail" of books. Montag is ready to hear these words, his job as a book burner in this twisted society of Ray Bradbury's invention no longer makes sense to him.Books are illegal in the world of FAHRENHEIT 451. So is driving under 55 m.p.h. Faster is always considered better. Montag's society doesn't want anyone to stop and reflect, because it realizes that if people stop and think about things, they'll get restless. As Montag's fire captain tells him, "You ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed." An important difference between this futuristic society created in 1953 and George Orwell's world of 1984 is that Orwell's government was top-down while all the minorities (of every race, color and creed) in Bradbury's dystopia got together to burn everything that offended them. In this case, lack of tolerance for differing voices led to no voices at all--democracy has eaten itself by misunderstanding itself. Problems aren't faced; they are burned. This is the world Guy Montag rebels against; how deeply it reflects our own world is something to think about along the way. Ray Bradbury is a good writer, one who encourages people to ask the question "why". He wants everyone to have a voice and to be able to express himself or herself, but not in such a way that they drown out other voices--the best ideas, he seems to believe, will naturally come to the fore. A short book of under 180 pages, FAHRENHEIT 451 is often assigned to middle school students. For those--like myself--who missed it in school, it still stands as an important work for all lovers of reading, freedom, and ideas for their own sake.
Metaphor and Reality collide January 18, 2000
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
When I began teaching three years ago, I was required to teach this book. Having never read it before, I began reading it just before our winter break. As I soaked up the story of the book, I realized my students were already living it. They begged me daily, "Ms. Hill, why do we have to read this stupid book? Can't we just watch the movie?" As I got deeper and deeper into the book, I grew increasingly depressed about the future of the world. Then I realized: Bradbury has given me a picture of what might be, if we are not careful. His book written nearly fifty years ago peers just twenty minutes into the future now. Technological developments he had no name for then are very real today. For example, his seashell radio is clearly the walkman many of us see pressed in the ears of teenagers daily. TV screens are growing larger and larger and flat screens with HDTV are on the market now. The next step is clearly the full wall television of Mildred's parlor. Robot dogs like Aibo are just a hop skip and a jump away from the dreaded hound. But this is a future preventable. Maybe. But if popular culture is constantly valued above thoughtful consideration and education, we'll march right into a land of burning books and intellectualism on the run. Bradbury's book made me feel defiant. They could never take my books from me. They could burn me with them if they want, but that's what it'll take before I give up my freedom to think for myself. And as for my students, they remind me every day what an uphill battle I have been sent to fight.
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