Fahrenheit 451: Books – A Part Of Our Past Essay, Research Paper

Fahrenheit 451: Books – A Part of Our Past

One of the biggest issues raised in this book was the idea that people

are starting to forget more about books and what they mean. People have

started to take books for granted, instead of reading books they watch a movie

or a program on the television. People do not realize that books, scrolls,

manuscripts are a big part of our past.

Since the beginning of time, people have been recording things they saw,

did and took part in on birch bark and later very primitive paper. People do

not realize that without those scratching on the birch bark that we would have

no recollection of the past. Sure there would have been word of mouth, but

things would have gotten so turned around that it would not have been our past

anymore, it would have been a made up one. In the time of Shakespeare there

were no televisions, not even close to that technology yet. Who would we study

and learn about, if no one had written things. Man kind would be studying the

man who had invented the television because he would have been able to record

himself, and then everything after that, which is only about fifty years. But

without the recordings of Einstein and all the other famous scientists,

television probably would not be invented that early.

In our day and age people are watching too much television. We figure

that everything that is in books is on the television. If we need to learn

about something we rent a movie about it or watch a show on it. No one reads

books anymore just for the fun of it, or so they can read the paranormal,

science fiction, horror, classics, fiction or non-fiction novel that surround

our world. If we want to see stuff like that we will watch ?The X-Files? or

rent a Stephan King movie. Actually when you read books there is much more

satisfaction about it. They help you develop your imagination which can be

very good in many things. The description in them makes you use your brain to

see the picture and the action behind it. The picture that comes into your

head is more real than the picture on the television. It never seems like they

just threw a dummy out the window, it actually looks real in your head. When

you read stuff like ?Moby Dick?, you actually see Captain Ahab and Ishmael and

the rest of the crew trying to slay the great Sperm Whale, then you see the

huge White Whale come up and attack the craft that attacked it. In many books

you can actually see yourself there with the characters in the books, slaying

the dragons or fighting in the many Solar Systems beyond ours, you never get

that kind of satisfaction out of watching a movie, it just goes in one ear and

out the next.

Reading also keeps people from going illiterate and it encourages other

to read. What would the world be like if everyone were illiterate? It would

be terrible, those who could read would be named ?freaks?, just like the people

who read book in Fahrenheit 451. They would be outcast from the rest of the

world. It would be like as if everyone were racist against those people, and

we all know the racism is one of the worst things to plague man kind. Where

would those in the world without enough money to get a television hear the news,

or catch a glimpse of that favorite show that they seen at a friends house. In

a way reading books kind of keeps us in touch with ourselves. The kind of

book we read reflex on our own self. When you read a romance, it says that you

are one of those people that believe in true love and that like to be given a

dozen roses just for the fun of it. When you read a adventure it screams out ?

I like trying new stuff all the time and I like the thrill of life?. When you

read fantasy it says that you like to imagine that dragons were real and that

maybe they will appear again, you are constantly using your imagination.

Showing people the kind of book you read is like showing them the open pages of

your brain and how is works. No one gets that kind of stuff by what television

show you watch or by what movies you watch, you could be watching it because of

the cute person who is in it.

Our lives would be very dull without books and without the literature of

the past. It will probably always be that television will be more dominant in

the home unless people rediscover the treasure in the books that are in their

own home or in the library. Parents have to encourage their children to read

more often instead of always sticking them in front of the television. People

will never know what books are in their true form unless they find out for

themselves by reading them and actually getting into the book.