Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book based around the concept on censorship and government control. It starts with our main character Guy Montag living with his wife in a post-modern boring suburb. Guy is a fireman, but not the kind that we would think of today. He is a FIREman, Firemen are a team of men who burn all books and pieces of writing they can find, and whether it’s fiction, history, hard-backs, children books, and their job is to burn.

Guy then meets a mysterious girl on the way home from work one day. Her name is Clarisse and she is almost the exact opposite of Guy at first sight. Small, smart, loving, carefree, able of feeling, person. Clarisse opens up a new, unseen side of Guy that he didn’t even know about. He doesn’t want to burn books anymore, but read them and enjoy them. Former enemies turned friend so hat Guy can acquire books. His wife does not care for it but allows it. He spends a while avoiding the fire chief and continuing to rendezvous with former professors and scholars so that he can learn more about a time before they started book burning. All while the law is trying to apprehend Guy and his friends.


I highly recommend this book for many reasons: if you enjoy book about anti-censorship, if you enjoy a post-modern suburban setting, if you like being enveloped in an amazing story and eye opening realities. This book is unique in the fact that not many books cover the topic of censorship and heavy political topics like it. With the stylized writings of Ray Bradbury and the connection you make with characters. You can see why it is praised as a classic book.


Book Review by Escher S.

5 comments:

  1. I think this book seems very interesting, but I don't think that I would have the patience to sit and read it. Honestly, I don't like to read so for me to read a book about books doesn't seem that appealing. But I think the story has good potential. If this book were made into a movie I would probably go see it, but I don't think I would read it.

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  2. After reading this review, I am extremely interested in this book. This book sounds like an eerie prediction of the future. This subject of government control has been touched upon a lot recently, especially with the NSA. It's a scary thought that censorship like that is possible and it really caught my eye compared to the other book reviews. I've also have been told that this book is an instant classic because of its topic, theme and writing style, but I never took the opportunity to read it. I'll probably check it out soon.

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  3. I am and already was interested in reading this book. This book is intriguing because it tells a tale of how society could be set up differently than it is now. It reminded me of a book called "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow where after a terrorist attack the government invades most everyone's privacy to an extreme and accusing people of being terrorists just for being at the scene. It's scary to think of a world where you are being censored or controlled by government, that's why I think this would be a good read.

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  4. This book sounds extremely intriguing due to the fact that this idea of government censorship. Government censorship is too quickly coming a reality. The fact that I know people with government jobs with lots of classified information is appalling. The quality of the story reminds me of "house of cards". It's is a ver good show and very government based and very good.

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  5. I actually started to read this book before but I never finished. After reading this review, it makes me want to go back and read the entire book again. It appeals to me most the government is burning books and texts, it makes me question why and what is making them do it? This book reminds me of "The Giver". In "The Giver" the people see only black and white, only few know about colors and outside life. In this story apparently no one is allowed to read so they probably don't have knowledge of is going on around them. I will definitely be looking for this book.

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