Thursday, August 9, 2012

Fahrenheit 451 - History and Society.

Based on the book, I think the author does believe certain responsibilities exist between groups in society . I also think that the author was probably influenced by his great love of literature, and a desire to protect it from alteration and other such horrible nonsense. That may have inspired him to write this book as a warning.

I think that the author believes in the idea that you have to be wrong sometime. He seems to believe that it is everyone's moral obligation to be wrong, so that you can think about it and fix it. Learn from your mistakes? If everyone starts to be right all the time, then there is never any improvement. Bradbury realizes that being wrong is crucial to one day being right. So, in order to show his readers what can happen if you take out all the "wrongs", he planned a world where books were burned and banned because they offended someone or other here and there (Bradbury 57). I think that perhaps there is a certain responsibility to offend and be offended every once in a while. Offense makes a person stop and think about things sometimes, and a society without disagreements between different groups just is not natural. When people do not fight with each other, something is essentially wrong. It is sad, but true. Beyond that, there is a certain responsibility to respect other people’s right to offend you. Freedom of speech being taken away is what really caused some of the more horrible parts of the future in the book, like the long list of banned books (Bradbury 34). Being offended really is not a fun thing, but not being allowed to voice an opinion when it is really important is not much fun either. Of the two, I would think the muzzle would be worse. The author understands that people responsible for being wrong so that they can improve on it.

I could be wrong, but I am almost positive that the author wrote this book because he loved books, and wanted to make sure that nothing happened to them in the future. Most people take for granted that they can read whatever they want. A book like this makes a person want to go out and read the most radical book they can find, just because they can. The book makes you realize just how wonderful it is to be able to go out and buy whatever book you want. The author was influenced by his love for books, and his writing about a world without them makes other people realize that they feel the same way. By spreading the word of the amazingness of books, he is helping society from becoming what it is in Fahrenheit 451.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1996. Print.

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