Colton Dudley

Period 5
Mrs. Diaz
11/3/18
Fahrenheit 451, Overrated Classic? Or Bold
Forewarning of Our Future

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic written by Ray Bradbury in the

year 1950. The society Mr. Bradbury portrays is a truly scary one,
yet with many parallels to our own. The entirety of the world of
Fahrenheit 451 can be described in one word, gray. Their lives
are perfectly balanced, without room for mistake or serendipity.
There aren't many rules apparent to us present in their lives,
except one overarching law…. No literature of any form, no
books, no poetry. If anyone is daring enough to disregard that
rule then they would deal with the firefighters, a group of men
tasked with burning books. Due to the sheer creativity and
foresight of Mr. Bradbury, I’d rate the book a 4.5/5.

Our Protagonist is one of these said firefighters. Guy Montag

is an average man, an “Everyday Joe” in their society of average
everyday Joe’s. Montag is a married man, with a house, and no
kids, as I stated he is a firefighter, a man whose sole duty is to
keep happiness by destroying those opinionated
thought-provoking books. His wife Mildred, like other wives,
enjoys her time and lives her life in her interactable Television
(referred to as a parlor in the book.) The Book begins with
Montag returning home from a regular day at work, but he ran
into someone quite irregular. A girl he met named Clarisse
McKlellan. Clarisse was written as a teenage girl, one who didn’t
conform to the society around her, she subtly introduced the idea
of thought to him, and eventually talking with her was a
 daily occurance. One day she asks Montag a simple
question, one we all ask ourselves quite often, “Montag are you
Happy?)

That question was the spark that truly began the story arch
of this book. Montag begins to question himself, he starts
becoming skeptical of the society he once conformed too. This
part of the book is where Ray Bradbury’s true genius shows,
Montag’s character development from stoic, quiet, and cold, too
empathetic, thoughtful, and unsatisfied, was truly captivating to
watch, and it all culminates in one moment. When Montag caved
to the one thing he was taught to destroy, The written book….

I cannot recommend this book enough, It’s no surprise this book

has become such a cult classic, it portrays what very well may be
our future, a future where people hear all things they wish to
hear, a future where we are desensitized to perpetual war and
loss of life, a future where we DON’T matter. And if not for Ray
Bradbury that future could have