Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis

901 Words2 Pages

William Shakespeare once said, “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, imagination is nonexistence and individual thought is not prevalent. When Guy Montag begins to notice miniscule details about life that he had previously overseen, he unravels the truth behind the corrupt society that imprisons innovative minds. Both Beatty and Faber reveal the importance of knowledge to operate independently whereas Clarisse accentuates the significance of knowledge in order to challenge ideas. An educated society will have the capability to develop. Without knowledge society becomes ignorant thereby devoid of creativity.
When speaking with Montag, Faber addresses the importance …show more content…

When Beatty discusses the past with Montag, Beatty criticizes the education system of the past. “Do you see? Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.” (52) Beatty disparages the people’s education system because students would come into college and leave with the little to no intellect gained. In the novel, the government has taken over the system deciding the education resulting in the people unable to think for themselves nor others. Society cannot rule over itself without the overarching supremacy of knowledge. Beatty then narrates the insidious downfall of books. “It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no!” Following society’s decision to rid the world of books, the government was able to raze the people’s authority and seize complete control. Although this may malign the government, the culture that lost interest in books had already strayed from the path of self-governing. Thus ultimately leading to the self-induced collapse of social infrastructure and the intensification of government involvement in Fahrenheit 451. Knowledge is the backbone of a self-governing society just as roots are to a tree. Without knowledge, a society could not think for

More about Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis

Open Document