Knowledge versus Ignorance in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

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In the world, people are wired to hunt for happiness, but what they are really deeming for is satisfaction. Happiness and satisfaction are similar, but not the completely the same. Satisfaction is the content feeling you get after a big meal or taking a long nap on a Sunday afternoon, while happiness is a chosen factor that can only be achieved through willpower. Many try and search the external world for the happiness that only lies within. Clarisse asks Montag is he is happy, and we he realizes he is not, he turns to knowledge to find it (Bradbury 10). People turn to ignorance to erase the bitterness and anger from their life, while others like Montag, try to understand with intelligence, the anger and bitterness. At first he was tangle in the lies fed to him by society, but as he precedes through the novel, he realizes that he could search for happiness through intellect. In the end, Bradbury showed that knowledge and ignorance are contradictory throughout Fahrenheit 451, but that people use them both for the same reason; to find happiness.

In order to have a safe world that lacks understanding, knowledge and awareness should be destroyed. As the saying goes, Ignorance is bliss and in the world Montag lives in, that is the truth, or so it seems. Montag starts out as unknowing in the beginning. An example is when Clarisse says, “Bet I know something else you don’t. There is dew on the grass in the morning” and Montag thinks to himself that that was a simple fact he had not known (Bradbury 9). Captain Beatty is the promoter of the ignorance portrayed in this novel. He burns books, the knowledge inside them and believes that without knowledge, there will be no suffering. He states, “Burn all, burn everything. Fire ...

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...he society believes that intellect is unnecessary when you could do physical things that are fun and make you ‘happier’.

Works Cited

Lewis, Andrew. "StopPress." Ignorance Is Bliss: Why Happiness Has Nothing to Do with knowledge ::. N.p., Feb.-Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 201

Hudson, Paul. "Knowledge Is Power, Ignorance Is Bliss: Happiness Is Striking The Perfect Balance | Elite Daily." Elite Daily. N.p., 7 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

Kusnst, Jennifer. "A Headshrinker's Guide to the Galaxy." Is Ignorance Bliss? N.p., 24 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

Burkeman, Oliver. "This Column Will Change Your Life: Ignorance v Knowledge." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 25 July 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

Caruso, Denise. "Knowledge Is Power Only If You Know How to Use It." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Mar. 2007. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

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