Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury Essay, Research Paper

One of the themes which happens to be the biggest one is

burning books because they conflict with each other and the

ideas of society. The firemen don’t fight fires, they start them

when they find books. Recollections and thoughts, writings

and teachings from the greatest minds in history go up in

flames because the government doesn’t want people to fill

their heads with it and develop an individual intelligence.

The government is afraid of the books because they

stimulate people’s minds to think for themselves and away

from the main track that the general public was expected to

follow. The government covered up the problems of the

world that still wore on, like war, and didn’t let the people

see it or have it affect them. They heard about it and that

was all. In general, people’s lives became better, but it was

of no consequence because they didn’t know what it was

like to have things not go well and as planned. A candy cane

is much sweeter after you think about eating oil.

Another reason they burn books is because they don’t

agree and they aren’t real. The government figures that there

is no use in people thinking about things that don’t exist,

especially when each book’s ideas conflict. I think that

conflicting ideas helps us think for ourselves because we are

forced to make decisions. Making a decision is a lot better

when you have more food for thought to work with. Also, it

would be boring not to have conflicting ideas.

So many things that we value and we can be proud of in

terms of the accomplishments of the human race went up in

flames in the book. Everything from Socrates, Newton, the

Bible, Thoreau, Hans Christian Anderson and Shakespeare

was wiped out because they didn’t go together fluently with

each other and the ideas of society at that time. Even if ideas

changed, those writings could never be recovered, the ashes

never reconstructed.

I think the book was a good book for making you realize

how important books really are. I hope this book never

becomes a reality, and that it continues to be read so that

other people can see how lucky we are to have them.