Reading is a crucial part of culture throughout the world, and holds significance to millions of people. In society, it is important for people to read in order to obtain success in school and in the real world. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, it revolves around a dystopian society in which the importance of reading has been ignored and books have been replaced entirely with television and technology. The people living in this society lack exposure to the skills and knowledge obtained from books. But the few individuals who read books secretly, like the protagonist, Guy Montag, can get a better understanding of the world and the people around them that can’t be earned without reading books. Reading is valuable and beneficial to society because it helps people gain a deeper understanding of other people and the world around them, influences the mental and emotional …show more content…
development of children, and improves the reflection and analyzation of real life situations. When individuals are exposed to the knowledge and skills that can be gained from reading, they can acquire a better understanding of the people around them. In 1970, the British Cohort Study performed research on more than 17,000 individuals in Wales, England, and Scotland, and discovered how reading persistently “increased cognitive process over time” (Smith 4). This shows how reading allows people to get a deeper comprehension of society and the way people behave and react to different situations. They can also develop the ability to sympathize and interact with others in their society. The books that people read contain sensory details that affect their mental and emotional comprehension in the real world. These sensory details serve as exercise to the brain, and give books their value and texture. When people read books with sensory details, they mentally visualize the events that occur in their heads and can envision situations as if they occurred in real life. This can help people understand why people act and respond to different situations. They can interpret how different characters respond distinctly to certain situations, and how they would react if they were one of the characters in their book. Reading also allows readers to develop the ability to comprehend and share their feelings with other people. People can learn to understand the emotions and actions of others, and can develop interaction skills from reading. People of all ages can benefit from reading, especially younger children.
When children are taught to read at an earlier age, their emotional and mental development is positively impacted. The exposure of literature to young children helps them become smarter and allows them to understand more about the world. They learn simple yet valuable lessons that allow them to make wiser decisions and display better behavior around others. Psychologist Raymond Mar held a study in 2010 on children who read books when they are younger. Mar’s results showed that reading boosted their “theory of mind” and understanding of people’s feelings. This shows that children can benefit when properly taught to read books at a younger age. It also aids children in school and increases their intellectual engagement. Kids can develop the skills to question the emotional and mental aspects of books when they start reading at a younger age. Overall, children can be greatly influenced when they read at a younger age and their mental and emotional development is affected by the positive impact of
reading. The analyzation and reflection gained from reading is also beneficial to people in society. When people set foot into a new story, they discover what it is like to live through the actions and decisions of the characters. They also understand the unique perspectives of the characters and question how it impacts their life in the real world. Reading lets the reader take charge and it’s “like being a detective almost. It’s taking the evidence and the information and everything that’s happened, taking all that and putting it together” (Smith 3). It allows the reader to connect all the events and situations that occur and discover how the plot falls into place by the end of the story. Reading also shows people what they could potentially become and can change them to act similarly to the protagonist in stories. They can question their decisions in the way characters in a book would, and follow the behavior of different characters in books. When readers reflect and analyze the characters and events in books, they can show a better attitude and make better choices in life. As technology constantly improves and becomes more popular in today's society, books are starting to become less popular and are starting to receive less attention. Books hold significance to society because of “some of the things that were once in books” (Bradbury 78). The sensory details in books help readers earn a deeper understanding of the people and the world around them. Reading at a younger age can affect the development of children, both emotionally and mentally. People can improve their reflection and analyzation of society when they read books. Reading plays a significant role in our culture, and it is important to preserve the skills that can be obtained from reading.
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 leads from an average beginning by introducing a new world for readers to become enveloped in, followed by the protagonist’s descent into not conforming to society’s rules, then the story spirals out of control and leaves readers speechless by the actions taken by the main character and the government of this society. This structure reinforces the author’s main point of how knowledge is a powerful entity that would force anyone to break censorship on a society.
In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.
Imagine a world in which there are no books, and every piece of information you learn comes from a screen. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, this nightmare is a reality. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman who instead of putting out fires burns books. He eventually meets Clarisse who changes his outlook on life and inspires him to read books (which are outlawed). This leads to Guy being forced on the run from the government. The culture, themes, and characters in Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 construct a dystopian future that is terrifying to readers.
Imagine a society where owning books is illegal, and the penalty for their possession—to watch them combust into ashes. Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, illustrates just such a society. Bradbury wrote his science fiction in 1951 depicting a society of modern age with technology abundant in this day and age—even though such technology was unheard of in his day. Electronics such as headphones, wall-sized television sets, and automatic doors were all a significant part of Bradbury’s description of humanity. Human life styles were also predicted; the book described incredibly fast transportation, people spending countless hours watching television and listening to music, and the minimal interaction people had with one another. Comparing those traits with today’s world, many similarities emerge. Due to handheld devices, communication has transitioned to texting instead of face-to-face conversations. As customary of countless dystopian novels, Fahrenheit 451 conveys numerous correlations between society today and the fictional society within the book.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses the life of Guy Montag, a fireman in a near future dystopia, to make an argument against mindless conformity and blissful ignorance. In Bradbury’s world, the firemen that Montag is a part of create fires to burn books instead of putting out fires. By burning books, the firemen eliminate anything that might be controversial and make people think, thus creating a conforming population that never live a full life. Montag is part of this population for nearly 30 years of his life, until he meets a young girl, Clarisse, who makes him think. And the more he thinks, the more he realizes how no one thinks. Upon making this realization, Montag does the opposite of what he is supposed to; he begins to read. The more he reads and the more he thinks, the more he sees how the utopia he thought he lived in, is anything but. Montag then makes an escape from this society that has banished him because he has tried to gain true happiness through knowledge. This is the main point that Bradbury is trying to make through the book; the only solution to conformity and ignorance is knowledge because it provides things that the society can not offer: perspective on life, the difference between good and evil, and how the world works.
Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable of manipulating. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, such a world is brought to the awareness of the reader through a description of the impacts of censorship and forced conformity on people living in a futuristic society. In this society, all works of literature have become a symbol of unnecessary controversy and are outlawed. Individuality and thought is outlawed. The human mind is outlawed. All that is left is a senseless society, unaware of their path to self-destruction, knowing only what the government wants them to know. By telling a tale of a world parallel to our own, Bradbury warns us of a future we are on a path to -- a future of mind manipulation, misused technology, ignorance, and hatred. He challenges the reader to remain open-minded by promoting individualism, the appreciation of literature, the defiance of censorship and conformity, and most importantly, change.
Bradbury attacks loss of literature in the society of Fahrenheit 451 to warn our current society about how literature is disappearing and the effects on the people are negative. While Montag is at Faber’s house, Faber explains why books are so important by saying, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores” (79). Faber is trying to display the importance of books and how without them people lack quality information. In Electronics and the Decline of Books by Eli Noam it is predicted that “books will become secondary tools in academia, usurped by electronic media” and the only reason books will be purchased will be for leisure, but even that will diminish due to electronic readers. Books are significant because they are able to be passed down through generation. While online things are not concrete, you can not physically hold the words. Reading boost creativity and imagination and that could be lost by shifting to qui...
Of all literary works regarding dystopian societies, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps one of the most bluntly shocking, insightful, and relatable of them. Set in a United States of the future, this novel contains a government that has banned books and a society that constantly watches television. However, Guy Montag, a fireman (one who burns books as opposed to actually putting out fires) discovers books and a spark of desire for knowledge is ignited within him. Unfortunately his boss, the belligerent Captain Beatty, catches on to his newfound thirst for literature. A man of great duplicity, Beatty sets up Montag to ultimately have his home destroyed and to be expulsed from the city. On the other hand, Beatty is a much rounder character than initially apparent. Beatty himself was once an ardent reader, and he even uses literature to his advantage against Montag. Moreover, Beatty is a critical character in Fahrenheit 451 because of his morbid cruelty, obscene hypocrisy, and overall regret for his life.
People nowadays have lost interest in books because they see it as a waste of time and useless effort, and they are losing their critical thinking, understanding of things around them, and knowledge. Brown says that Bradbury suggests that a world without books is a world without imagination and its ability to find happiness. The people in Fahrenheit 451 are afraid to read books because of the emotions that they will receive by reading them and claim them as dangerous. Bradbury hopes to reinstate the importance of books to the people so that they can regain their “vital organ of thinking.” In Fahrenheit 451, Montag steals a book when his hands act of their own accord in the burning house, regaining his ability to read and think on his own (Bradbury 34-35; Brown 2-4; Lee 3; Patai 1, 3).
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
In today’s world, there is an abundance of social problems relating to those from the novel Fahrenheit 451. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the protagonist Montag exhibits drastic character development throughout the course of the novel. Montag lives in a world where books are banned from society and no one is able to read them. Furthermore, Montag has to find a way to survive and not be like the rest of society. This society that Montag lives has became so use to how they live that it has affected them in many ways. Bradbury’s purpose of Fahrenheit 451 was to leave a powerful message for readers today to see how our world and the novel’s world connect through texting while driving, censorship and addiction.
I began to read not out of entertainment but out of curiosity, for in each new book I discovered an element of real life. It is possible that I will learn more about society through literature than I ever will through personal experience. Having lived a safe, relatively sheltered life for only seventeen years, I don’t have much to offer in regards to worldly wisdom. Reading has opened doors to situations I will never encounter myself, giving me a better understanding of others and their situations. Through books, I’ve escaped from slavery, been tried for murder, and lived through the Cambodian genocide. I’ve been an immigrant, permanently disabled, and faced World War II death camps. Without books, I would be a significantly more close-minded person. My perception of the world has been more significantly impacted by the experiences I've gained through literature than those I've gained
Fahrenheit 451 makes me more appreciative of the things I have. In Fahrenheit 451 books are banned, no one is allowed to own a book, every book must be destroyed. This has a great impact on their society, it makes their society apathetic, and unable to think. Books are taken away and everyone’s time is spent doing activities that do not require any thinking at all; these activities are meant to bring them joy when all they do is distract them from reality. It is much like our society today, technology distracts people from more important things and keeps them ignorant, just like the people in Fahrenheit 451. And the sad part is that we actually have books, we have the opportunity to read and learn, unlike the people in Fahrenheit 451 who aren’t allowed to have any books; people would die for books, while people in our society completely neglect reading, and take books for granted. I don’t understand why they do, books are great, they let one enter a whole other world, see
Listening to an inspirational song, reading an enjoyable book or writing a story can bring an individual encouragement and joy. Literature conveys knowledge, lessons and possibilities that stretch a person’s imagination, helping them to grow mentally and spiritually. The fictional character Guy Montag from Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451” found motivation and optimism in books, just as the author J.K. Rowling found reassurance and hope in her writing. The author J.K. Rowling found comfort in writing stories that helped her escape the adversities she experienced in her life. Similarly, the fictional character Guy Montag becomes hopeful for the future of mankind when he realizes he can preserve the knowledge and ideas of the past by saving books. Books, songs and stories bring inspiration to people, as literature allows them to imagine a different time and a better future. Both Montag and Rowling are able to find a more positive outlook through the enjoyment of literature.
The society has been abolishing the knowledge of the citizens by confiscating the books from their position. Normality has made their lives easier without the books making them always happy. On the contrary the lack of books has given life to a dystopic society. Ray Bradbury the author of Fahrenheit 451 has revealed some extraordinary tactics to get the theme through his writing to his readers. Nevertheless the theme of this book portrays amazing imagery and depiction to capture all the hidden significance. Certainly in this novel Bradbury emphasizes in the theme that normality and no book is destroying the society, reducing the knowledge and happiness.