Fahrenheit 451 Values Analysis

The values of man

In Fahrenheit 451 there are quite a few different values. The first values we are introduced to are Guy Montag's, who values, ironically, are the only ones who change throughout the book. At the beginning we see that he loves his job and is content with his life. "It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed... Later, going to sleep, he would feel the firey smile still gripped by his face muscles. It never went away that smile, it never ever went away as long as he remembered." (Bradbury 1) But later on in the book we see that his values have been changed. Largely by Clarisse, the woman who burned herself with her books, Faber, and his own reading of books. His values, by the end of the book, are more about giving society what has been taken from them, for so long: or the recipe for happiness, as Faber calls it. Quality, leisure, and the ability to act on the first two. (Bradbury )

Mildred is in the novel simply to show us what the average joe (or jane) is like. "In a story of extordinary people—Montag, Clarisse, Faber, Granger, and even

Beatty—we need to understand the status quo to appreciate the deviation from it." (Shmoop Editiorial Team) Even her attempted suicide is average, "We get these cases nine or ten a night. Got so many, starting a few years ago, we had the special machines built." (Bradbury 15) She is deeply unnerved by the fact that her life is filled with hours and hours of meaningless television, and emptiness but she continually convinces herself she is happy, again, portraying the average citizen.
Clarisse is the spark that pushes Montag, already riddled with doubt, over the edge and dares him to think for himself for once. The sharp contrast between the values and lives of Clarisse and Mildred are shown in the way that even after her death, Montag still thinks of Clarisse, but when Mildred is presumed dead, Montag almost does not care. Clarisse's values left an impression and caused a change.
Granger's values were hard to determine. His plan was to wait for the city to be destroyed and hope that mankind would want the things found in books again. (Bradbury) He is similar in a lot of ways to Faber, but his values are a little more obscured than Faber's. He has accepted the fact that mankind goes through these cycles of the desire for knowledge and the rebuking of it. He understands that this will happen again and he is just waiting for things to turn around. He does not try to change things, he just waits for them to occur naturally.
Captian Beatty is a very interesting character. He is probably the most confusing person in the whole book. Why does he know all these books? Why does he know about the past? All these things make his values even harder to determine. In my opinion, he seems to have been just like Montag at one point. Sadly, without the mentors Montag had— Clarisse, Faber, and Granger—he simply went a little psycho. He was overwhelmed and consumed with this knowledge he was getting from reading the books. That is most likely why he wanted to die. Why not just kill himself? Well, that would go against his values. Beatty clearly values being dominat and strong so to him, suicide would be an admission of weakness.
Ray Bradbury is one of the most fascinating authors I have ever read.

He seems to value the struggle for things of better value, as made clear by his character Montag. It does not seem like he thinks of suicide as weakness, more like just an escape. He obviously fears the route that television may go down. He believes it will lead to hours of mindless waste and an emptiness in society. Mildred's values are obviously the ones he finds most destructive. "I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks... Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger." (Murrow) Television itself isn't bad. It is the fact that we are using it to shield ourselves from reality by showing things like sitcoms filled with "good time vibes" instead of the facts of the world around

us.