The book introduces us to a man, Guy Montag, whose job is to set houses with hidden books on fire. In this post future world firemen burn what they judge to be the only thing that prevents people from being happy – Books. Books are regarded as something that mess with people‘s mind. Learning, thinking, knowledge are dangerous. It is believed to be equivalent to force and power. And therefore, must be eradicated.

The world is set to make people as busy as possible so they don’t think or talk too much. Four walls TV parlour are created to entertain, sport is encouraged. The world must not be questioned. One of the characters, Clarisse, a peculiar young girl, is considered as a time bomb because instead of knowing how a thing is done in school she wants to know why.  On his way home after work, Montag meets Clarisse who end up asking him after an unusual conversation if he is happy. The question hits him, he realizes that he is not happy and from this moment on he becomes more attentive to the world he lives in and sees that something is wrong. Something must be missing. His dangerous journey to discover the meaning of all starts after his team of firemen is called on to set the house of a lady on fire.  The lady refuses to follow them and commits suicide by letting herself burn with her books. The tragic event shocks Montag and leads him to question things more than he ever did at the risk of becoming the next target.

I have never given that much away in my previous blurbs but this time I cannot help it but explain the story a bit. The book is fantastic. It made me think, question things and even myself. I realized how easily humankind can become subjected to an ideology. Even when the ideology fights against what constitutes a human – his mind. I loved the idea of a character with no special abilities other than this ability to burn properties and books being the protagonist who goes on the search for meanings.

What is interesting is that I did not see much change in term of intelligence in the main character after being in contact with books. He suspects that books may make him aware of something. Montag does not become a brilliant man or a genius overnight. His duty is to shift things around and he believes that books are going to help.

I enjoy reading the arguments in favor and against books in a society given respectively by Faber and Beatty.

In the following quote Faber enlightens Montag of the necessity of books. “It is not books at all you’re looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old photograph record, old motion pictures, and old friends. Look for it nature and look for yourself. Books were only one type of respectable where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might project. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” P107/108

In this quote, Beatty attempts to warn Montag about the danger of books.” “Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff bang, you’re ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. ” p137

What may be terrifying is that you can agree to Beatty’s arguments sometimes because they can be quite valid.

There is so much more to say about and learn from Fahrenheit 451. The ending is powerful and quite disconcerting. No spoiler but I could not take my mind off the last few lines for a couple of days.