One constant in the advancement of art throughout history was the need to produce thoughts, ideas, and concepts in a physical form. The greatest manifestation of this need was the art of literature. Modern civilization has embraced it, and no matter how advanced our technology becomes, real, paper books are irreplaceable. However, in Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, society has chosen to destroy all forms of literature in an attempt to eradicate unique thoughts and inspirations, therefore establishing a dystopian society of mundane citizens. Guy Montag works as a fireman, which in this society means being ready at a moments notice to burn and destroy books whenever called upon.
Unlike what Montag’s fire chief chief, Beatty, says in Fahrenheit 451, literature truly does have power, as seen in the fear of the books displayed in this society, the impact they have on readers like Montag, and the extent that the firemen go to to destroy them.
One of the most prominent ways that Ray Bradbury displays the power of literature in Fahrenheit 451 is through the fear on display in the dystopian society in which it takes place. Montag’s partner in rebellion, Faber, attempts to explain their society’s fear of books in saying , “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless” (Bradbury 83). Things such as literature is what distinguishes humans from animals because they’re expressions of the depth that each human being has within them called their soul. Books aren’t just words on paper, but bits and pieces of the author’s soul being released in a tangible form. The fear in society sources from the government, which ordered that books be destroyed in order to destroy the humanity in its people so as not to create conflict. There can’t be opposition or conflict without any emotion or different opinion to express, so by removing literature and history, they took what made each human unique. Therefore this society requires people to destroy books in an efficient and timely manner, ensuring that no possible thread of humanity is exposed to the outside world. The government officials knew there’d be no way to breach through mundane and prosaic lifestyles its people lived if there were no books to move their hearts, mold their brains, and inspire their soles. Montag’s slowly realizes this more and more throughout the novel, and it eventually leads to him making incredible life changing decisions.
Montag becomes increasingly exposed to literature throughout Fahrenheit 451 and the development and change of his persona are evident by the end of the story.
He tries explaining his confusion to his wife Mildred early in the book, saying “You weren’t there, you didn’t see, there must be something in the books, things we can’t imagine, to make a women stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing” (Bradbury 51). After witnessing a woman light her own home ablaze with a match while she’s still in it, he begins to piece together the puzzle of why there are no books within the world he lives. His dried out soul lacks creativity, so he cannot fathom why the woman does something so foolish. Yet it shifts his perspective on the very thing he lives to perform: burning books. This serves as the first major turning point in who he is fundamentally as a person, and this is even before he had picked up one of his books and read it. Montag is right there’s got to be some power in literature if that’s all it takes to shape a person.
However, his government must have seen this coming as they have devised an extraordinary method of destroying these books that they are so afraid of.
Coming, as they have devised an extraordinary method of destroying these books that they are so afraid of. Another way in which the power of literature is on display in this dystopian society is in the incredible conflagration of the books that it’s government is so deathly afraid of. The firemen of this world start fires instead of putting them out, and there’s no chance of those books ever being identified again. Montag and the other firemen were on call at a women’s house when Bradbury states, “Kerosene! They pumped the cold fluid from the numeral 451 tanks strapped to their shoulders. They coated each book, they pumped the rooms full of it” (Bradbury 35). This woman’s house wasn’t filled with books, and the only place they found books was in the attic, yet they filled the entire house with Kerosene. They would have sent the whole place up had the woman not stayed behind and done it herself. Either way, that house was going to become a wondrous orange blaze for the whole neighborhood to see. The excessive amount of security in burning the house down is a testament to how much the government feared books, which indirectly is an example of the great power books hold.
In Fahrenheit 451, the power of literature is a consistent theme as seen in the fear of books displayed by society, the impact books have on their readers like Montag, and the effort put forth to eradicate them. This story was really more about Montag than anything else, but more specifically focused on how he was changed by the experiences he had. Ultimately he made the decision to burn his captain alive which was what finally plunged his life into turmoil.
Literature caused Montag to stop burning books, start reading books, question his culture, rebel against that culture, and finally murder a man who opposed him so that he could flee the poisonous culture he had been so accustomed to in the beginning.