Fahrenheit 451

4 Pages 1105 Words

Set in the 24th century, Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of the central character, Guy Montag, who at the start of the story takes pleasure in his profession as a fireman whose job is not to put out fires - houses are now fireproofed - but rather to set fires to burn books, which are contraband, and the houses in which they are kept illegally.
Montag soon begins to question the value of his profession and, in turn, his life. As he develops a friendship with his teenaged neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, the girl's humanistic outlook and inquisitive nature prompts Montag to examine himself. He realizes that he is unhappy in his relationship with his wife, Millie, who is unwilling to deal with reality and instead chooses to immerse herself in an addiction to tranquilizers the virtual world provided her by television and radio. He is unfulfilled by his occupation as a book burner, and discontent with his society, which seems unconcerned with reports of an impending war, he begins to wonder what it is about books that make them such a danger.
Driven by his increasing uneasiness, Montag steals a book from a collection that he has been sent to burn. Soon after, he is shaken when the owner of the books, an older woman, refuses to leave her home, which is to be burned to the ground. Instead, the woman sets fire to her house herself, and remains there as it - and she - is destroyed by flames. That a person could feel so strongly about books and the information contained therein makes Montag realize that perhaps the key to the happiness he lacks lies in the written word. He returns home sick to his stomach, made so by the scene he has witnessed and the thought that he has been an instrument of destruction rather than service during his ten-year career. When he learns that Clarisse had been killed, hit by a speeding car his condition worsens.
The next day, Montag is visited by his boss, the abrasive and patronizing Captain Beatty. Beatty hints th...