Review | Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2013 A to Z Challenge: Letter R = Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job was to start fires…Books were for burning… along with the houses in which they were hidden, and sometimes even the people who hid them. His work was accepted and encouraged by the public majority.

Montag enjoyed his job and even found pleasure in watching books be consumed by flames. He never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid and who asked Montag if he was really happy with the life he was living.

This got Montag thinking (oh no!?!). What was in the pages of the books Montag burned? Did they contain something that might help him feel better about his life?

I was continually floored while reading Fahrenheit 451 as I thought about when Bradbury published it (1953). It is almost frightening, how accurately he has predicted so many aspects of our culture and technology.

At the beginning of the story, I had a difficult time connecting with the main character, but I’m glad I hung in and continued reading, as it didn’t take too long for me to become invested in the story and in Guy Montag.

As someone who has read quite a bit of contemporary, dystopian fiction, it was somewhat fascinating to read where it really originated from. And though many of the contemporary reads I’ve picked up, have great, fast-paced story lines and characters, I don’t know that the authors of those books will become quite as much an oracle about our society’s future as Bradbury seems to be through this work. I also love that this book is a stand alone, rather than part of a series, which often happens with contemporary literature, and I appreciated the hopeful manner in which it ended.

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Overall Rating:

Parent’s guide:

• Sex: none
• Violence: a few action scenes, a disturbing scene in which a woman sets herself on fire, a mechanical dog of sorts that chases people down, a scene where a man kills some other people with fire
• Language: a few swear words

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