On the recommendation of a friend, I picked this book up at my library recently and read it. I’m told by my lit teacher that it is considered a sci-fi classic. So, even though I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, I had high expectations.
Result: eh. For those two people of you out there who have not at least heard of it, it’s an Orwellian-type novel (if you don’t know what that means, google it, cave-dweller) about a futuristic society in which books are banned, and anyone who has them is labeled crazy, taken to prison, and their books and their house are burned. Morbid, huh? We follow one of the “firemen” in his relatively short, yet complex journey to the books, as he slowly (actually, rather quickly, but the book agonizes over his thoughts) realizes that they’re burning the keys to returning society, and people, to some semblance of intellectual literacy. Books such as these would be good for people who don’t like books to read. (Books such as Plague Journal, by Micheal O’Brien, would be similarly good for liberals to read.)
The book succeeds in striking terror into your mind, if not your heart, with images of the “firemen” burning a woman with her books, and a mechanical hound (for the purpose of tracking down book readers and killing them) that (crosses fingers) cannot be escaped. I enjoyed the writing style of the author, Ray Bradbury. It was fairly easy to read long passages of character’s thoughts, a task which can sometimes be laborious. Most of the book is excellent. However, I felt that it ended too soon. We’re left not knowing what will happen next, almost as if there should be a sequel. I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t read it, but it leaves the reader wanting more. This book left too much to the imagination after the story ends. It would have been better if Bradbury would have continued his story.
Nevertheless, the book is what you could consider a classic. It is certainly worth the read even if it does leave you feeling distinctly as if you have eaten only the appetizer and have yet to get to the main course of your meal.
Ratings on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 least, 10 most, 0 nonexistent:
Violence: 5
Sexually Graphic Content: 0
Language: 4
Character Development and Strength: 8
Plot:7
Overall: 7
The society depicted in Fahrenheit 451 was indeed a scary place. People were constantly bombarded by government brainwashing on the big-screen TVs that formed the walls of their houses. Books were illegal because books make people think for themselves. The government went to a lot of trouble to suppress reading because they wanted the people to be easy to control. What the book is saying in its theme is that totalitarian governments will never be able to hold people in bondage as long as information is available. Fahrenheit 451 is one of the great books of the twentieth century, and is interesting reading.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HE…POSTED!!!!!!!
“Sexually Graphic Content: 0″
That sorta makes me laugh because all the guys in my English class kept thinking there was something going on with the main character and that girl in the beginning. *chuckles*