Fahrenheit 451 Themes

"What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway." Those were the wise words of Mother Teresa, which is a subtle message to authors everywhere. However, in the future generation of book burners in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, this quote of hers apply to the burning of the books, which take a lifetime to create and only a moment to destroy. This is also true for our values, and the scruples we have preserved over time. People had forgotten the value of a human life as suicide rates peaked and wars rage on like unquenchable flames, it showed how they treat human lives as easily dispensable. This is the future that Ray Bradbury predicted, and what's frightening is the fact that some of his predictions really did come true sixty years after he wrote Fahrenheit 451. Can you imagine what will happen in the next sixty years?

Have you ever noticed "there's dew on the grass in the morning"? When Clarisse pointed it out, Montag hadn't realized. Our lives are a blur of flashing colours, like traffic lights and car lights fast forwarded in the night. We no longer take the time to stop and pay attention to the details of life. Mildred herself is a prime example of this aspect of humanity. When she wants to get her head cleared, she drives fast in the beetle. Mildred never pays attention to anything at all. She didn't know that she nearly died from taking too many sleeping pills. She had even forgotten to tell Montag that the next door neighbours, Clarisse and her family, had passed away.

In contradiction to what we've been taught at school, have you ever thought that perhaps there could be cases where the truth gets distorted in history? According to the Firemen of America, firemen had always stoked fires up and get them going rather than prevent fires. To think there was a time when houses were not fireproof and firemen prevented them, the firemen laughed at the idea and deemed it preposterous. When Clarisse told Montag the truth about firemen preventing fires in the olden days, Montag's first reaction was the same as his fellow firemen. However, to think that there was a possibility that his knowledge had been wrong, it loosened the strings of the fixed knot of his beliefs. This was the prelude to Montag's rebellion towards the authority which he had been taught to give respect to since he was a child. It was the start of Montag going against his father, and his father's father, who had been firemen who believed in everything a firemen should. It was Montag going against the fireman in him, the essence of his very being.

In this journey called life there is one thing we all need. It is neither fame, nor money, nor power. What we do need is someone who can hold onto our bikes until we are steady enough to ride on our own. What we all need is someone who can guide us, for one does not venture into the unknown alone. Montag first needed