Mollie
Gordon
Literature
1/4/15
Fahrenheit
451 Rough Draft
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
is well-known by people of all generations as a disturbingly accurate
prediction of the future (aka our present-day society) in which technology is
king, people are emotionless, and most central of all, books are burned. In the
book, the people known as the “firemen” do not put out fires, they start them.
They embark on midnight rides in their fearsome “salamander” fire trucks,
answering the alarm that someone is keeping unlawful books. The firemen burn
these books to prevent them from ever being read, as they threaten the
“perfect” society that has been formed. Books have too many conflicting ideas
for people to be happy – they can only cause chaos, not peace. The firemen stop
at nothing to destroy books, willingly killing their owners in the process. The
only reason the literature-preserving group of Book People has been spared is
because they memorize books instead of keep copies of them, so the firemen have
nothing to incriminate them. As Guy Montag discovers, the firemen seem willing
to take any steps necessary to “keep their fingers in the dike” (Bradbury 62).
To them, books are the enemy.
However, the official logo of the
firemen is the phoenix, a mythical bird that “built a pyre and burnt himself
up… but every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, got himself
born all over again” (Bradbury 163). Despite the fact that the firemen’s
apparent intentions are to wipe out books, their logo seems to suggest that the
books would miraculously rise up from the ashes instead of remain dead. This is
troubling because their logo completely disregards everything that they stand
for, and if their symbol speaks true, they are wasting their time fighting a
undefeatable opponent. It is possible that the firemen, with their lack of
knowledge, never recognized this blunder, but Captain Beatty is well-read
despite his profession, stating that “Most fire captains have to be” (Bradbury
40). So if the chief purpose of the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 is to
eliminate books from society, but their symbol is the phoenix, which would
imply that the books would be reborn from the flames and therefore never truly be destroyed, then what are the true
intentions of the firemen?
One way to consider this is that the
firemen realize that that there is something beyond the written/printed word: thought. This is what Faber is
describing when he says to Montag “No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking
for!” (Bradbury 82). Books are merely paper and ink. When faced with fire, they
are left nothing more than ash. But the ideas
in books are immortal. This is what the firemen truly desire to eliminate in
order to have the “happiness” they believe is necessary. They don’t know how,
which is why those like the Book People are left unharmed – the firemen don’t
know how to harm them. The firemen ultimately
have no control over something so far beyond their reach. They are utterly
powerless. But instead of admitting this, they choose a more accessible
scapegoat, to appear to the people as though they are power: books. They put on the big circuslike show of book
burnings which are in reality no more than smoke and mirrors, than flash and
glam, to manipulate people into thinking that when books are burned, them and
everything in them stays dead forever. Since the people are so entirely
brainwashed, they never stop to question what is missing.
A first point that is important to
consider is how unbelievably important entertainment is to how this society
functions. The citizens spend their days talking to their numerous (and
expensive) TV walls and drowning out the world with their tiny seashell radios.
They do next to no actual work – school is composed of “TV class,” and as we
observe from Mildred, people don’t even put in the effort to butter their own
toast. An interesting thing about this fluffy entertainment, though, is that at
the heart of it is one thing: violence. Not something you’d expect in a society
that claims to institute “serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag” (Bradbury 59). Their
television programs often depict such senseless violence as people being
chopped into bits while accompanied by laughter. It’s violence that poses no
danger to the people, that they can watch from afar and enjoy. Which is ironic,
considering the bomb threat looming over the community throughout the book that
the people seem to be entirely unconcerned about. This ties directly into how
book burnings serve their purpose so well. Fire mystifies people, as Beatty
points out when he says “What about fire is so lovely? No matter what age we
are, what draws us to it?” (Bradbury 115). What Beatty’s answer to his own question
should be that fire has the power to save or to destroy. The slight flick of
the wrist, a movement at the wrong time or at the right time, can alter its
powers drastically. Watching books brutally burn has the same effect on the
people as watching the White Clown chop off parts of his body – it’s violence
being applied to someone other than themselves, to a scapegoat. People like
scapegoats. There is nothing more comforting than not being the one the teacher
yells at. But just like the violence seen on the TVs, it’s only there to cover something
else up. The TV violence only hides the approaching bombs, the book burnings
only hide the fact that the real magic in books is still out there. And the
fascinating part about fire being both “good” and “bad” is true for TV too. As
Faber tells Montag, “It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once
were in books. The same things could be
in the ‘parlor families’ today” (Bradbury 82). People in this community are not
taught to see the two sides to something – instead they only can see one. Because
of this they never realize that TV can enlighten
instead of brainwash, and that fire can save
instead of destroy.
However, there’s another piece of the puzzle besides
the violence that makes book burnings manipulate people into believing them – their
presentation. Now the firemen apparently burn books because they are a “danger”
to society, but the strange part about their “purpose” is that if books were a
true threat, they would go to the houses containing books and burn them the
moment someone filed a complaint. But when Montag and the firemen are burning
the house of the woman who would rather with her books than live without them,
Montag realizes that “Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day! Is it
because fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show?” (Bradbury
39). If books were a pressing, issue they wouldn’t wait till night to burn the
books if someone filed a complaint during the day. But book burnings are the nighttime
version of the TV walls – TV is better by day, fire is prettier by night.
Repeatedly in the book, book burnings are not compared to serious tasks, but to
circuses. For instance, when Montag
is about to burn down his own house, it says “Lights flickered on and house
doors opened all down the street, to watch the carnival set up” (Bradbury 113).
This is not the execution of an enemy, but a carnival, complete with “torch
jugglers” and “fire eaters.” Circuses and carnivals are made to astound, to
amaze, not to be truthful. That bearded lady may seem real, but in reality it’s
just a lady with spirit gum attaching a fake beard to her chin. Fire eaters don’t
really eat fire, they know a trick. It seems like reality but it’s all just a
trick, like the parlor walls. Such a display dazzles and confuses. Beatty is
continually described as having a pink, shiny face that is hardly visible
through the plume of smoke from his pipe. You can’t truly look at him because
of the smoke and mirrors throwing you off, and even once you get past them, all
you can see is shininess. Shiny things can have a bright, glistening surface
even when what’s under the surface is not bright and glistening. And it’s not
only the show that works so well, it’s the actors.
The firemen are ultimately nothing but actors. Instead of being picked for
skill, they are selected because they look
the part. If books were really a danger, it would seem that people with the
right skill sets to burn them as quickly as efficiently as possible would be
chosen for the positions. Instead, they are chosen for appearance, just like
everything and everyone else. They are actors, meant to entertain, meant to
smile their “fierce grin[s]” (Bradbury 4). And they seem to be in on the
secret. Most of them at least – Montag only seems to be partially aware, but the part of him that is aware has a tendency
to “wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked, in the mirror” (Bradbury 4).
Beatty is also often described as “pink” and whether Bradbury intended this or
not, one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definitions of “pink” is “winking.”
So all in all, book burnings are the show, the firemen are the actors, and all
the people (and us) play the part of the audience.
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