Theme Of Ignorance In Fahrenheit 451

Ignorance is inside every person and is present everywhere. With knowledge, people everywhere can use the power of ignorance allowing them to be their own governors. In the book Fahrenheit 451, a great example of this would be the main character Montag. Montag was an ideal, ignorant human-being, all of that changes once he runs into a young girl named Clarisse. Clarisse helped Montag unlock the inner knowledge he had locked within him. With all the new knowledge he had just learned, he meets with Faber who helps him have a better understanding for the meaning of knowledge and to go away with the ignorance that he once had. When finally he has the conversation with Beatty that completely destroys his ignorance allowing him to better see he

is own governor and not anyone else. With the experiences that Montag faces with meeting Clarisse and having conversations with Beatty and Faber, Ray Bradbury helps to establish the theme of knowledge and to destroy the unquestionable ignorance that is lead to enlightenment on his novel.
When Montag has his bump in with Clarisse is opens him up to a world full of knowledge and to help him to remember the past and why it was important.

Knowing Montag was a very ignorant person, and learning about the past all of that changes when she asked him a question about the history of firemen. She continues to ask him if it was true that firemen put out the fires instead of starting them. Montag tells her homes now-a-day don’t catch on fire because they are fireproof. Clarisse then tells him she had heard they had accidental fires and firemen were called to put them out. (pg 6) When Clarisse told Montag about how “firemen use to put out fires instead of starting them”, his ignorance is shown when he say no he would know since he is one. This helps show Montag is an ignorant human-being. After a few minutes of thinking it over he does realize that firemen might have put out the fires instead of creating them. This helps us show that the shell of his ignorance is starting to break open and to show he is capable of thinking/wondering about the past with the knowledge he had just gained. It breaks even more when Clarisse compares Montag to the other citizens describing how he is different from the others like when he is talking to her he looks at her and when she told him something about the moon he looked up at the moon the others wouldn’t have looked up. Clarisse tells him whenever she tried to talk to them they would walk off and ignore her or threaten her. She tell

him “it’s strange you’re a fireman because you’re the only one that has stopped to talk to me, it just doesn’t seem right for you”.