Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a popular dystopian novel by American author Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 was originally written as a short story and was featured in 1953 in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This short story was eventually reworked into the novel that is sold today. The story follows the character "fireman" Guy Montag who is in charge of burning the now-illegal books of the day. The number 451 refers to the temperature at which paper is supposed to ignite. The story is set in a future where the written word has been outlawed. http://www.raybradburyonline.com/bibliography/bradfahr.htm Bradbury wrote the book as a critique of American culture during the early years of the Cold War.

Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian future in which the written word has been outlawed. The people of the time have abandoned all morals and have fallen into complete self-indulgence. In this world firemen such as Guy Montag burn books and other illegal works.

While walking home one evening Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse McClellan. She opens Montag's eyes to emptiness of his world. Clarisse asks pointed questions that force him to examine the choices that he has made. Her love of life, nature, and people gives him pause and sets him on a path toward a new life of freedom.

When Montag returns home he finds his wife Mildred asleep, having swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills. He quickly calls the paramedics to revive her from her suicide attempt; they carelessly pump her stomach and return her to normal. As he observes the men do their work as if they were pumping a sink, Montag begins to question society as a whole.

Soon after, the firemen are called to an elderly woman's book filled house to burn the illegal literature. Montag accidentally reads one of the lines of the book and in a strange sudden compulsion he tucks one of the books under his coat. The firemen attempt to remove the woman from her house but she refuses to leave and actually lights the match herself, burning with her books. This incident too forces Montag to step back and look critically at his life's decisions. Montag considers this woman's martyrdom and wonders about what would drive someone to die for their books.

Disturbed by this incident Montag takes a few days off on sick leave. He contemplates the questions that have been aroused in light of each of these strange experiences. As he is thinking he is visited by the firechief Captain Beaty. He seems to understand that Montag is struggling with the job that he executes each day. Beaty explains the job that they do. He explains that society itself is responsible for the destruction of literature as a whole. He explains that rather than offend certain groups, people began to destroy the literature they once loved: and thus the fireman's job was born.

Beaty explains that all firemen at a certain point in time doubt their work, but that all eventually come around to realize their importance. In a thinly- veiled threat Beaty tells Montag that if perchance he has any books all will be forgiven if they are returned within 24 hours.

Shaken, Montag looks to his wife for comfort and reveals his growing stockpile of books. She can barely tear herself from the television to demand in horror that he burn them. Montag talks her down from her condemnation and explains that she must give them a chance. Unconvinced, she agrees for the moment.

As he contemplates how to move forward Montag remembers an English professor named Faber that he once met. He seeks the man out and eventually comes to realize the importance of literature through the professor's guidance. The two come up with a risky plan to discredit firemen throughout the country by planting incriminating books. Montag realizes that if he does not have words to counter Captain Beaty's persuasive speech, he will again fall under his influence. Faber produces for Montag an earpiece through which they can communicate. Temporarily encouraged Montag leaves.

Montag turns in one of the books in an attempt to placate Beaty but is in turn attacked with quotations from various literary works. Montag is greatly confused by the contradictory nature of the quotations and begins to slip. It is clear that Beaty is beginning to turn him back. Faber's tiny voice comes in over the communication device and supplies Montag with some words of wisdom to counter Beaty's diatribe.

Suddenly an alarm sounds and the firemen race to the scene of the crime. Beaty reveals that the house is Montag's: Mildred, Montag's wife has betrayed him to the authorities. As she races away in a taxicab, Beaty orders Montag to destroy his house and the books that he has held so dear. He lights the house and burns without discretion.

Beaty senses that Montag is somehow getting help and finds the earpiece that Faber had been using to communicate with Montag. When he threatens to track down the man on the other end Montag turns his flamethrower on Beaty and kills him, thus becoming a fugitive. On the run, Montag is attacked by a mechanical hound, which he kills with the flamethrower. Before leaving the ruins of his house he gathers up some of the books he had hidden. Hiding them in a fireman's house, he calls in an emergency, thus beginning the plan he and Faber had concocted.

He escapes to Faber's house where he learns that a great hunt has been started to track him down. Another mechanical hound has been put on the scent. Television helecopters are in pursuit. Montag gives Faber some money he had saved and tells him how to remove his scent from the house so that the mechanical hound will not catch his scent.

Montag escapes to the river as the whole city watches the chase on television. He escapes downstream and meets a group of men who have memorized entire books to preserve the literature of past ages. The men pull out a small television and show Montag the "end" of the chase. The mechanical hound closes in on a man who the public thinks is Montag, satisfied that the chase has successfully ended.

The war that has been brewing begins as bombers fly over and destroy the cities of the nation, destroying them in the fire in which they destroyed the literature they once enjoyed. The men set out to find survivors and to rebuild their lost civilization. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/summary.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451

"Fahrenheit 451 is one of Bradbury's most famous books, and it reads like a fever dream -- intensely cinematic, directed by its own weird dream logic, and full of the quality of images that haunt you for days." -James Schellenberg, Challenging Destiny http://www.challengingdestiny.com/reviews/f451.htm

"FAHRENHEIT 451 is a brilliant, disturbing novel. It is as meaningful today --- perhaps more so --- as it was when it was written in 1950." -Judith Handschuh, Bookreporter.com http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0345410017.asp