Genre: Fiction, Dystopian
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
One Sentence Description
Ray Bradbury develops a dystopian future in which books are burned and the television is the captor of our attention.
⛰ What It’s About
Fahrenheit 451 follows Guy Montag as he begins to rebel against the social constraints of his life. In the novel, firemen burn books and the houses that contain them, instead of putting out fires. They do this because society no longer wants to read things that make them feel emotions or think deeply. Instead, people are content to speak with their “family”, a set of shallow, interactive people on the wall size TV’s in their parlors. Guy meets a girl and a professor that show him books and life have much more meaning then he ever could have thought. This will change his life forever.
🔍 How I Discovered It
Like 1984, Fahrenheit 451 has always been on my radar from other people in school reading it, but I just never got around to it.
🧠 Thoughts
I think this book is very applicable in the age of information and the smart phone. Bradbury’s foresight into the actions (maybe not so much the technology) of the characters who are glued to their parlor TV’s are very similar to the image of everyone being glued to their phone instead of going out and doing things.
The obsession with meaningless drama can also be likened to a lot of the hype surrounding celebrities.
What I Liked About It
I really enjoyed Ray Bradbury’s method of delivering his message, through the characters’ actions and words, rather than an outline of facts or as a manifesto.
Bradbury’s development of characters is also very natural and deepened my immersion in the narrative.
What I Didn’t Like About It
The ending, while it worked, didn’t feel complete to me at the time.
🥰 Who Would Like It?
Anyone who likes dystopian fiction or owns a smart phone (at this point, everyone).
📚 Related Books
George Orwell wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, which certainly are similar in genre and I have yet to read others that compare to this set of classic dystopian fiction.