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In Illinois, on August 22, 1920, Ray Bradbury was born. Ray showed promise as a writer from and early age, when he began writing short stories. As a child, he was fascinated by magic and fantasy and spent many days dreaming that he would grow to be some sort of magician or something along those lines. Bradbury first wrote, Holler Bochens Dilemma, which was printed in 1938 in an amateur fan magazine. He went on to publish his own magazine, called Future Fantasia. He published a short story called Pendulum in 1940.
During the 1940 s, he wrote mostly short stories and developed his own distinct literary style. The Big Black and White Game, published in 1945, earned Bradbury a name for himself as a short story writer. In 1947, he published a collection of his short stories entitled Dark Carnival. In 1950, Bradbury turned his attention to science fiction. The Martian Chronicles was written after World War II and described certain post war ideas espoused by Americans like life on other planets.
The book was very popular and gained Bradbury the reputation as a leading writer of science fiction in America. Bradbury continued to write science fiction novels and is best known for Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Many of his books have been made into major motion pictures and several have won him awards, including the O Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin award, the Aviation Space Writers Association Award, Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was also awarded the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Aside from his literary achievements, Bradbury served as the consultant for United States at the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. Currently, he continues to write and lecture on science fiction. The books main character is Guy Montag who is content in his job as a fireman in the 24 th century town in which he lives. He has learned to accept that his society is like a dictatorship which does not allow its citizens to read books or basically do anything fun or that has any real value to it. Montag has learned to take pleasure in the flames that shoot from his igniter when he is called to burn the houses of the citizens that possess books or commit other crimes against the society. The book opens on a typical day for Montag, he finishes work and heads toward home.
On the way, he runs into his teenage neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, who lives in the house next door to him. In their world, Clarisse is judged to be peculiar, because she is old-fashioned. She likes to figure out things and so she is seeing a psychiatrist because of her non-conformist interests. As she talks to Montag, Clarisse challenges him by asking, Are you happy? This simple question will haunt Montag and change his life eventually. Montag goes home to Millie, his wife.
There is no love between them; in fact, they seldom even notice one another. On this night, Millie commits suicide, which is a common occurrence in this society. The paramedics saver her easily. The distance between Millie and Montag becomes wider the next day when he tries to talk to her about her actions.
She claims not to remember what she has done and returns to her TV ignoring him totally. Over the next several weeks, Clarisse and Montag become friends. Because of Clarisse's influence, Montag grows more concerned about his own life. Then one day, Clarisse disappears and Montag is troubled. Work troubles him even more, for he must participate in burning an old womans home.
Refusing to leave her books and her belongings, she lights her own fire and stays inside, dying a martyr. Montag is touched by this. Almost in protest, he steals a book from the womans house. Back at home, Montag learns that Clarisse has been killed; her death upsets him greatly. He tries to talk to his wife about books and ideas and what is wrong with society, but she is not interested. The next day, Montag calls in sick to work, for he has lost all interest in his former life.
His boss, Beatty, comes to his home and warns him that sometimes firemen go through phases when they steal books; he reminds Montag if they do not return the books within twenty-four hours, they will be arrested and all their belongings burned. Montag thinks he should get rid of the books he has stolen, including the one from the old womans house. After Beatty leaves, Montag shows the old womans book to his wife; he also shows her some twenty others he has apparently stolen over the years. Millie is terrified and refuses to deal with the situation. In frustration, Montag takes one of his books and leaves to visit with Faber, an old friend. The two of them come up with a plan to save the knowledge from Montag's books.
They decide that Montag must memorize the books to ensure that their contents are preserved. When Montag goes home, he again frightens his wife by showing her his books. Then he goes to the fire station to turn over one of his books so no one will be suspicious of him. At the fire station, the alarm sounds and Montag must go with Beatty and the other firemen to destroy a house. When they arrive, he realizes that they are supposed to burn his home. At his house, Montag discovers that his own wife has turned him in.
In a rage, he kills Beatty. He escapes to where Faber is. Faber takes Montag to the country, where some other intellectual exiles are living. While Montag is in exile, the long-awaited war finally breaks out.
The city that Montag has come from is completely destroyed. After the fighting is over, Montag and the others walk back to the city. They are determined to strive to build the city over again. Humankind is seen as a phoenix that reemerges to rise once more. This book seems to have been written in order to show the consequences of censorship and restrictions of personal freedoms. In this society, humans have been reduced to nothing.
They are not allowed to have anything that might spark some bit of curiosity or intelligence in their minds. The society seems to be some sort of dictatorship. By placing all of the restrictions that they have, the government can easily control its citizens. The government has reduced the citizens to zombies incapable or even the most insignificant task. Machines are used for everything. While this book is quite extreme, it does get its point across.
It shows that personal freedoms and free exchanges of knowledge are key to the success and happiness of the individuals in a society. Without this, they are reduced to nothing. The society in this book go completely contrary to what God expects and government to do. God expects governments to protect an individuals freedoms and right not to suppress them especially if they are used for a good purpose. Suppressing them to prevent any opposition to their goals is wrong and that government paid the penalty for their actions, the destruction of the city and the victory of the intellectuals in hiding.
Ray uses the image of the phoenix rises out of the rubble of the city to allude to the reemergence of humanity. I really enjoyed reading this book. It made for some very interesting reading. Bradbury showed how important our freedom is and that we must maintain it so that what happened in this book cannot happen to us all one day.
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