Fahrenheit 451

Skyla Rojas

F451 Essay

Mrs. Wirth

451 degrees Fahrenheit- the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns. This was an inspiration of the title of Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. His novel is about a society in an unknown futuristic time period that has done away with books. His book is considered a classic and is popularly read by many, including students. Some people, like this society, have tried to get rid of this novel because of language and religious reasons. People should be able to read what they choose. This novel should not be banned and our current society should not strive to be like the society in Fahrenheit 451.

        Our current society should not seek to be like the community in this novel. In Fahrenheit 451, there are firemen who ironically set fires rather than extinguish them. They set fires to anywhere they have reason to believe contains books. “It was a pleasure to burn” is the first sentence in the novel (Bradbury 3). It shows the mentality of the firemen in their society. This displays why today’s community should not try to be like the civilization from the novel.

        People have tried to challenge and/or ban Fahrenheit 451 because of different reasons. One reason had to do with religion because the novel makes references to the Bible such as on pages 78-80 where Montag, the main character, references the “lilies of the field” mentioned my Montag (Bradbury 78). Another reason was because the novel contains vulgar words such as “hell” and “damn”. It is understandable that one could be offended due to religious reasons. If that were the case then it would be reasonable to just stop reading this piece of literature instead of causing the novel to be banned and preventing others from reading an exceptional book.