2008 Woodie Awards
Ray Bradbury Sizzles With Fahrenheit 451
Not the Michael Moore movie on President Bush, but a great read nonetheless
Gina Covelli
Issue date: 9/23/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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In the world we live in today, with every moment saturated with technology, it is easy to lose the essence of life. There is an inner beauty that is no longer seen through our eyes. We watch TV, talk online, and drive ourselves mad playing solitaire on the computer. Conversations consist of last night's episode of "The Real World" instead of the originality of intellectual thoughts. We are creeping very quickly towards a world that was created by Ray Bradbury in his novel Fahrenheit 451.
The novel opens with a grotesque scene of books burning at the willing hands of men. As a result, books were almost extinct. Now, meet Guy Montag, a fireman who begins to realize the empty life he has been living for ten years. When we first meet Montag, he is in the midst of burning and he is happy. Burning is a joy to Montag, just as men are almost euphoric with the concept of destruction. It isn't until Montag meets Clarisse McClellan that he begins to question his happiness.
Through Clarisse, Bradbury shows the significance of life outside the machine. Clarisse is a simple character that is continually asking about the world around her. She does not settle for the answers that are shouted at her from the wall-sized televisions. She stirs Montag's mind, forcing him to remember a world without technology. After his first meeting with Clarisse, Montag's mind races to find an ounce of happiness in his mechanical life. Through the course of the book, we see that Montag had a latent desire in his soul to break out of the mold society forced upon him. Montag no longer belongs in his society.
Montag begins a journey in order to find a freedom that includes individual thought and self-expression. Eventually, Montag's journey becomes a race for his life as he struggles to convince his friends, boss, and wife that he has not changed.
Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 is an enticing story about one man's journey to find resolution. Bradbury filled this novel with many concepts that relate to the society in which we live in. Bradbury makes it very easy to connect with all the characters on some level succeeding in writing a very human story.
The novel opens with a grotesque scene of books burning at the willing hands of men. As a result, books were almost extinct. Now, meet Guy Montag, a fireman who begins to realize the empty life he has been living for ten years. When we first meet Montag, he is in the midst of burning and he is happy. Burning is a joy to Montag, just as men are almost euphoric with the concept of destruction. It isn't until Montag meets Clarisse McClellan that he begins to question his happiness.
Through Clarisse, Bradbury shows the significance of life outside the machine. Clarisse is a simple character that is continually asking about the world around her. She does not settle for the answers that are shouted at her from the wall-sized televisions. She stirs Montag's mind, forcing him to remember a world without technology. After his first meeting with Clarisse, Montag's mind races to find an ounce of happiness in his mechanical life. Through the course of the book, we see that Montag had a latent desire in his soul to break out of the mold society forced upon him. Montag no longer belongs in his society.
Montag begins a journey in order to find a freedom that includes individual thought and self-expression. Eventually, Montag's journey becomes a race for his life as he struggles to convince his friends, boss, and wife that he has not changed.
Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 is an enticing story about one man's journey to find resolution. Bradbury filled this novel with many concepts that relate to the society in which we live in. Bradbury makes it very easy to connect with all the characters on some level succeeding in writing a very human story.