Fahrenheit 451 is set in both a utopian and dystopian, post-literate future of America where books are illicit, and firemen, must destroy any books which are found. The title refers to what Ray Bradbury believed to be the auto-ignition point of paper (the actual temperature is roughly 800⁰F). The parable is told over three parts and stands among many mid-20th Century novels which prophesised the future Western civilisation.

Guy Montag is an ordinary fireman living with his wife, Mildred, who is apathetic and addicted to television, much like every other person in society. No one spends time by themselves nor thinks independently. Instead, they drive fast and listen to radios attached to their ears. Guy had never questioned the pleasure of night time runs on his job or the cheap thrill of watching books being consumed by fire. He had never questioned his hedonistic life until the day he meets a girl called Clarisse who is free-thinking, joyful and reminds him of the natural world. Then he meets an old professor who tells Guy about a future in which people could think. Guy suddenly has a desire to read and understand outlawed literature, no matter how reckless this may be.

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The startling and poetic prose had me captivated, however, upon finishing Fahrenheit 451 I had an uncanny feeling that many of Bradbury’s predictions are becoming reality. Mildred and Guy Montag live in a house with more screens than people, and it is true that many households do nowadays. It is also true that in Western countries, less and less people are reading books. However, like any good book, Fahrenheit 451 is multifaceted thus open to interpretation by the reader. Is it about enslavement by the media, censorship, conformity or subduing dissenting ideas? Is it commentary on humankind's urge to suppress what it doesn't understand? Or perhaps it was written as a response to Nazi book burning? The book is full of assumptions and vague symbolism which can be understood in different ways, so it is up to the reader to decide.

By Angela Okafor, Bancroft's School