The Role Of Ignorance In Fahrenheit 451

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“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” This iconic quote from 1999s The Matrix reveals quite a lot about today’s society. People are only as blind as they want to be. Willful ignorance is seen as an escape from all the controversy and violence in the world. These people see the truth but refuse to accept it, instead they surround themselves with the illusion of a perfect society to make them feel safe. These are the people who take the red pill, those who want to believe what they want to believe. Then there are those who “want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.” They refuse to conform to society’s perfect mold and seek to destroy the illusion around them, opening the eyes of those around them. They take the blue pill. Similarly in Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag …show more content…

They don’t question the workings of society and don’t care for the truth. Montag loved to “see things burned, see things blackened and changed.” (3) He was ignorant of the effects his actions created. He burns books and has a good time doing it. But when he meets Clarisse he sees something he has never seen before. Clarisse represents innocence and naivete in a society where the people blindly accept government policy and are in constant search of thrills and gratification. Clarisse refuses to accept the values set forth by society and this scares Montag, but he tries not to think much of it. However when Montag is called to the house of the old lady along with the rest of the crew, he is confronted by the desire to keep books not destroy them. When the old lady is burned, Montag realizes that books may hold something of value and this information makes it impossible for him to work or live in ignorance anymore. After

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