Government Mandated Happiness Essay, Research Paper

“Fahrenheit 451″ by Ray Bradbury Government Mandated Happiness By Rebecca Irwin “Fahrenheit 451″ is the temperature where books start to burn by themselves. “Fahrenheit 451″ is the title of the book, because the whole book is about burning books. In this futuristic world, books are thought to lead to unhappiness and happiness is the most important thing in the lives of the characters in the book, as well as people in real life. Mr. Bradbury foresees a time when firemen are used to start fires, instead of stopping them. They are used for the opposite of their original intention. In the book, it is the government that decrees that all books should not exist. So the firemen do their job of starting fires to eradicate the illegal novels and such. The government does make the law that owning or reading a book is illegal. The point is made, in the history lesson by the local chief fireman, that the government did not truly originate the ban of books. Society, by progressing to a faster pace of life, and with material possessions becoming bigger, better, faster, and brighter, placed less emphasis on things that took time. It was the culture that prized the shallow aspect of life, and discarded the meaningful ones. The government merely followed society’s whims in order to keep the people happy.Montag was the main character in the book. Although Montag appears to be satisfied (not happy but satisfied) with his work when the book starts, later information reveals that he does not always follow the station house policy to the letter. It was illegal to own books and it was revealed to the reader that he did in fact have books of his own. Was Montag trying to find his own happiness instead of having the government or society push on him what they think could make him happy? One night while Montag is walking home from a day’s work, he meets a young, bright girl named Clarisse McClellan. She was bright and full of energy. She look at life as questions which needed to be thought about intellectually and answer rhetorically by the asker (liver). In that fast paced world, she took the time to observe her world, not just exist in it. She tasted the rain on her tongue. She asked him if he was happy. “Happy! of all the nonsense.” (p10). Montag couldn’t stop thinking about the girl and telling himself he was happy. He was happy because society said that with everything he had, he would be happy.Shaken up by this little girl and all her questions, Montag felt too sick to face another day at the firehouse. This was the job, that just weeks before, he had enjoyed. Those questions led Montag into his personal pursuit to find that happiness. Was the lady who died with her books as the firemen burned down her house happy? What did the books have that would make her willing to sacrifice her own life . Montag didn’t have that kind of passion. He was numb. He hated that numbness. He wanted to feel, even if the feelings weren’t good, any feelings at all would be better than the numbness he had. Some purpose to this life would make it worth living. Life without knowing and reading, could that be life or just existence. Captain Beatty comes to call at Montag’s bedside, apprising him of the true history of book burning. According to Beatty, this began without the lighting of a single flame but instead with the advent of mass communications; the masses, says Beatty, wanted all information boiled down to a “paste-pudding norm,” to “snap endings” – like those provided by the TV parlor shows that fascinated Mildred but disgusted Montag. Could conforming to the norm of society make him happy? What was in those books that would make him unhappy, considering how unhappy he felt already. What was in those books that might make him happy? The censorship of burning books was what Montag’s society thought could bring about peace, harmony and happiness (although the world was at constant war during the entire novel). Firemen who were paid to start fires may have been a Bradbury idea but he did not have to invent book burning.

Censorship was a real and frightening concern in the U.S. when “Fahrenheit 451″ came out in 1953. This was during the height of the career of Joseph McCarthy, the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, who’s unfounded accusations of a Communist-infiltrated Department of State led to the suppression of information and the propagation of falsehoods and fear. The pressure to scrutinize, modify , and prohibit was on, and writers, publishers, moviemakers, performers, and advertisers felt the need to conform so that they would not be accused of this heresy of being communist. Freedom and happiness cannot be censored into existence and you can’t conceal faults by concealing the evidence that they ever existed. Just because everyone is the same, everyone is conforming, does that bring happiness? A people’s differences is what puts the spice into life.Towards the end of the novel, Montag goes to the house of Professor Faber, a man he had met a year earlier in the park, and Montag talks him into letting him in because Montag has a copy of the Bible. The two men start collaborating together to try to find a way to bring the information of books back into the world. Faber is very reluctant to do anything that might disrupt his somewhat happy life, so he gives Montag a miniature earpiece that acts like a walkie-talkie. This way Montag would be the only one physically exposed to the danger and he could stay safe and snug back at his house, offering his assistance to the cause by giving Montag advice through the ear piece. They use the ear piece to keep communication between the two as Montag faces his boss.Montag goes back to work to listen to Beatty again tell him that books are burned because they contradict each other and make people displeased. Since worldwide happiness is a goal of the government, books are destroyed. Then the alarm is sounded and Montag is surprised to learn that his own home will be burned. During an evening of entertaining his wife’s friends, he brought out a book from his hidden collection and started spouting off poetry in an effort to get some response from them. Those friends, including his wife, turnedhim in. Captain Beatty gave him the fire hose and ordered him to burn his own house. He turned the flame thrower on the house and in the shuffle lost his ear piece. In an effort to keep Professor Faber hidden (Beatty finds the earpiece), Montag ends up burning the fireman and the mechanical dog and escapes into the forest.It is here that he finds men like Professor Faber and men like himself. Men who want to preserve the knowledge that books can give a society, even if the society doesn’t want them. The world around Montag destroys itself at the end of the novel with a massive bombardment of the city – a city at war. Perhaps now, they can find happiness by restarting a printing press and give people again what was missing — the ability to think, feel, experience everything for themselves, instead of having someone or some government dictate that supposed happiness. Happiness can’t be dictated. Each individual person has to find their own happiness. Happiness means many different things to different people. Despite government intervention, people will stand for their beliefs and go to great lengths, like memorizing books, to keep what’s right from perishing. How can a person truly find happiness, if they don’t know all the other emotions evolved with being human. Numbness is not happiness and neither is censorship.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953.