book review: Fahrenheit 451

 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

⭐⭐⭐⭐(4/5 stars)

This is a remarkable science fiction/dystopian work. Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of a future where all books are outlawed. Life is centered on television (which can be viewed on giant screens on house walls) and other shallow sources of pleasure. “Firemen” burn books if any are found. The main character, Guy Montag, is one of these firemen. He, like nearly everyone in the society, accepts that literature causes division and works to eliminate it. That is, until certain events in his life cause him to change his views, but also land him in serious trouble.

I usually don’t read dystopian books which are aimed at teens (because they all have similar ideas and themes and often unnecessary teenage romance), but this book was different. It showed the importance of mind stimulation, and how people can be led to believe awful things if they don’t think for themselves. However, I think certain ideas in this book were overgeneralized. It is very hard to believe that only a handful of people would be rebelling against the no-books rule, and also hard to believe that all books would be banned in the first place. Most people wouldn’t be satisfied with living by shallow forms of entertainment and such ways of life. Also, the whole idea of “all television is bad and brain-killing” is not completely true. If books were banned, people would turn to other media sources to get their messages across, including television. Personally, I think generalization is okay for a short story, because it has to be short and pack a punch. The overall message is clear in this book, but for a novel of its length, I was expecting the main concepts to be more developed.

The beginning and middle of the story had parts were slow and plodding, loaded down with so much description that it was sometimes hard to read. At least this style seemed appropriate for the story, though — the brain-dead atmosphere was well portrayed. The ending of this book was very intense and full of action, and so was the conclusion of the story. It made me wish for more, yet it was a very elegant place to end at.

This book isn't for everyone. But it is for people who want an idea written with thick description and emotion, and for those who often wonder about humans on the path to becoming brain void zombies.