"Fahrenheit 451"

The following example essay on “Fahrenheit 451” is an analysis of Ray Bradbury’s 1953 literary work. The essay reveals the plot of a science fiction dystopian novel and reveals the images of the main characters of the story.

Resist your fear; fear will never lead to a positive end. Go for your faith and what you believe (T.D.Jakes). The fear is permanently one of the main factors which are keeping people from changing their lives. They may know their intentions but are not willing to take all the risks to make them true.

The theme of the change disquiets the society for numerous years, including the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, where the dystopian world splinted into people who agrees on it and who does not. Citizens who are trying to evade the terror of the surroundings must face loads of obstacles.

The novel arranges for the readers all the types of people within the community which is forcing them to be the copies of themselves, with no personalities.

Then, the monarchy of the government is demolishing all the resources to find any valuable information – it burns all the books. Most of the people are acting like a herd of animals which is being dictated by the one shepherd. Some other citizens, like Faber or Clarisse, are realizing the nuisance of the reality but are just not able to get the message of the resolution to the tremendous dystopia.

On the other hand, the main character, Guy Montag, is going through all the stages from ignorance, to fear, and in conclusion, finds the way to amend himself and his world.

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He is endlessly investigating all the options and stumbles on new possibilities of his own mind. Likewise, the fear might hold people back from being open with the ideas that people are apparently not ready to accept the depressing reality.

The main character is signifying the opposite perspective. The bravery to support others is demanding a lot of self-work and development. By examining the fact that the dystopia is manipulating the society to accept the rules, only brave individuals can resist the system by self-discovering his own beliefs, trying to change the others in the society, and, eventually, find the way out of the dystopia.

To begin with, the way to make a start of the self-discovery is the hardest step to the optimistic end. First, the character should face all the suspicions about his views on life. The crucial barrier is that everyone just does not grasp the other way of living, they are already born during the broken system. Moreover, the government erases not only the books of history but it also changes it in its own way. The novel Fahrenheit 451 reveals it when Beatty and the firemen substitute the concepts of the history and even called a Benjamin Franklin as First Fireman (34). The path to finding the truth is full of twists and turns.

It requires a myriad amount of motivation and patience because it is almost unfeasible to know which right and which way is wrong. The professor Faber says: Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And its upon to you now to know with which ear youll listen (108). It is correspondingly tough because only a slight percentage of the population distinguishes the truth about the world, and they are also being regularly removed by the polity.

The readers may detect it during the disappearance of Clarisse, right after she starts talking with Montag and begins to influence him. Due to his aspect, it is obvious that even if the character is ready to make any changes, he is more likely to stay lonely for a lengthy period of time. This happens with professor Faber. He once states: if you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and youll never learn (104). The truth is that people should stop being frightened of their mistakes and try to seek the benefit out of them. The main issue in the dystopian community is that they are convincing themselves that they are happy. The realization of the root requires a lot of researching, and, the most important, thinking.

The dystopian society is not able to do that. Montag breaks the system by observing all the points and choosing the right one. He conclusively starts to contemplate and discovers himself right after he leaves his usual life and commences to analyze every aspect of it. As for others, the authority leaves absolutely no alternatives from its regime just because this strategy creates the perfect community to be manipulated with. Overall, by observing the disorders of the dystopia, the readers recognize the undeniable fact that not everyone is capable to overcome the jungle of difficulties to find all the answers.

Furthermore, the readers already comprehend an understanding of how challenging it is to coexist with the people who are not aware of reality. The compassionate and courageous person, Guy Montag, tries to help to explain his beliefs and ideas to this type of society even though he commits all the consequences it may probably cause. He is not calm and quiet when somebody argues with him, he stands his own position to the end.

The audience also beholds a countless number of scenes when Montag feels sorry for his own wife, Mildred. She is not capable to simply listen to him; she sees only the one side of the screen and cannot perceive any other one. Montag is discussing this theme with Faber and says that: Nobody listens anymore. I cant talk to the walls because theyre yelling at me, I cant talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough itll make sense (82).

He is almost desperate at some points of his journey when he actually sees the world without the pink glasses. He does not care what people are going to think about him anymore, he goes straight ahead to the bleak truth without any concessions. He says: I made them unhappier than they have been in years, I think (103). He tries to open their eyes to help and does not intend to offend them. After that incident, he suddenly realizes why are they holding on to the fictional world. There are no problems over there, it is perfect. But Montag shares his own thoughts about it: We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy (82).

Most of them just prefer the sweet lies over the sour truth. Montag is not trying to revolutionize anyone after this experience. He is going by the opposite plan. He starts to feel the anger inside of him and it and creates too many unintended and irresponsible mistakes because of that. He drops his last books to a random firemans house, causing somebody to burn in the flames of innocence. His anger eventually turns to revenge.

The behaviour of the main character leaves a straightforward message that he does his best to achieve the ambition of helping others, but their conformity is not allowing him to implement that. The right people are going to listen, just like Montag listened to Clarisse once and maybe: Someday the load we’re carrying with us may help someone (163-164). In other words, courage is one of the main characteristics of realizing the destiny of empathy. The empathy is the foundation of the healthy community and it must exist to maintain the perfect utopia.

Additionally, the great escape from the dystopia obligates with big courage. Not many people are able to admit that they must run from their own hometown or even the country. They would probably just hide the books and never think about that. The main character finds a powerful quote from the book called Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and it says that: “It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break eggs at the smaller end” (68).

The quote opens the perspective to Montag that a lot of people would rather die than suffer from the nonsense of current reality. This concept is very close to real life because some people choose to end their lives during an enormous trauma, and others choose to move forward and overcome it. Montag is the protagonist who chooses the hardest option and seeks for the way out. The self-discovery teaches Montag a lot, but it does not make him to leave the town. Montag sees how the end is coming and the picture of how the close people are disappearing or even betray him. He is sick of those typical people and decides to stop it as soon as possible.

The audience may see how he cannot believe that this is actually happening to his life and not on the screen of the parlor: With an effort, Montag reminded himself again that this was no fictional episode to be watched on his run to the river; it was in actuality his own chess-game he was witnessing, move by move (138). He was frightened and fascinated at the same time. Montag cannot believe that even the water is real or that he is free from the worldwide prison where he lives his whole life. Montag feels it: He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new (140).

The main point is that the fear does not surpass and does not take control over him. It may seem sometimes that Montag is making a lot of irrational actions, but this is not the bad thing at all. He remembers that professor Faber tells him and regularly learns from his own mistakes. Then, Granger also says his word about this topic: We all made the right kind of mistakes, or we wouldnt be here (150). He also confirms some of the books wisdom. Overall, the end of the maze is open to everyone, just not everyone is ready to see and admit it. The main protagonist of the Fahrenheit 451, Montag, proves it be discovering his courage and pushing his goal to the end.

Summarizing, the courage of the individual can develop a strong resistance from the dystopian regime by self-discovering himself, showing empathy towards the others, and then finally escape it. The negative surroundings are not giving any opportunity to grow any further and nobody should leave an outlook to get away from it. It is always hard to believe in yourself, but people should keep in mind that most of the time they assume worse about themselves than they are.

The fear of change may completely turn somebodys life upside down in all ways possible. The fearful person may completely lose his dreams and goals and just simply follow the ships of the copied people. There is nothing wrong with being different. All the people from world history are different from the others by their goals and achievements. It is well known that nothing comes easy and the goal to gain the courage to reveal the true individuality behind the mask is real.

The main character, Montag, from the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury represents his own journey to the audience. He is going through ignorance, recognition, fear, self-discovery. And conclusively discovers all the answers in his own head. The puzzle of his life reveals a lot of messages from the author which are beneficial for anybody within the society. He is making the most burdensome choices of his entire life and determines the method of how to analyze the information from this.

The analysis of the future is terrifying and frustrating, but it is mandatory for further development. Not to mention, the development of the community is one of the key points of the dream future. The future should represent the utopia with no pressure from anybody, especially the government. So, the last steps to the utopia do not require a lot but, unfortunately, the start is often the most challenging part.