In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the
ending has significant messages for its reader.
In this
futuristic society, Montag is a fireman, and instead of putting out fires, these men
start them—burning books and homes with books in order to control
the populace, stamping out curiosity and the original thought. Montag meets Clarisse one
day, who notices everything that most people have forgotten: things as simple as the dew
on the early morning grass. And she ask questions: lots of them. Montag is the prime
candidate to be intrigued by Clarisse's unusual behavior: he has already started
hoarding books and asking himself questions.
Clarisse is
killed, and it is attributed a car accident, but with her independent thinking, one is
left to wonder if she wasn't killed for her dangerous behavior and influence on
others.
Montag feels that he has lost his wife to
brain-numbing television programming controlled by society. She likes her life and
eventually turns Montag in for the madness that has erupted from him for the want of
books: like the eruption of fire from his flame thrower that destroys everything in his
path...including her comfortable desensitization.
Bradbury takes the materials of pulp fiction and
transforms them into a visionary parable of a society gone awry, in which firemen burn
books and the state suppresses learning. Meanwhile, the citizenry sits by in a
drug-induced and media-saturated
indifference.
By the end of
the story, Montag has killed his boss over the burning of books, and ultimately the
burning of Montag's own house. Montag is on the run and makes it to the woods and the
water, where the Hound loses Montag's scent.
There Montag
meets with other people like himself: those who want to know the past, to read and
discuss what they have read. And as the men walk through the woods, the government drops
bombs and destroys their society. However as they move through the trees, their
commitment is to make sure that they remember these events, continue to read, to learn,
and to gather others who read and remember—rising as Granger puts it, like the mythical
Phoenix who is reborn from the ashes.
There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix
back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He
must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of
the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same
thing, over and over...
In
this way, the men hold onto a hope that they will be able to rebuild. The reader
understands that knowledge is essential to live a full life, and to avoid repeating the
mistakes of years gone by. It is not important that everyone agrees, as much as that
people think, have discussions and grow as individuals. Whereas the government sees
knowledge as a danger, paradoxically, knowledge—in books—is that which allows society to
evolve and remain healthy. These are the book's messages.
No comments:
Post a Comment