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A review by pagepixie
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Book Club Book !!
This was my first dip into a classic for a while and I have so many thoughts but I was not disappointed.
First I know this may be exposing my own ignorance (ironically lol) but I had no idea this book was dystopian. I had no idea what it was about at all besides “it’s about burning books” but honestly, it’s barely about that.
This could be interpreted as a story to proclaim the superiority and useful of books and those who read them and the uselessness and inferiority of television and those who do not read. HOWEVER, I think it’s much less specific than that. It’s merely about the idea of willful ignorance and what a whole society looks like when people choose to not know or question anything.
What would we look like if we ignored everything bad? It wouldn’t go away and we wouldn’t be happy.
This book feels like a skeleton. While the skeletal nature may leave you feeling unsatisfied I think that’s the beauty of it.
It’s huge metaphoric allegory. The characters aren’t truly characters as much as they are caricatures. And the setting is less of a specific city than any society that allows itself to become overrun with purposelessness in an effort to avoid individuals feeling inferior.
There is no world building, no real explanation because this could be any work, any place. Much of it was eerily familiar and I saw a lot of our modern society (2023) in its pages. It was spooky and ominous and a sense of doom hovered over me while I read.
There is so much you can dissect in this book, but I’ll settle for this.
Beaty and Montag represent the two options who have when faced with enlightenment to your ignorance. When you can no longer use your ignorance as a shield you can either choose to change or you can stay the same. I believe that Captain Beaty went through what Montag went through, but he decided to do nothing. When he sees Montag going down the same path he tries to convince him to settle like he did (and as he may have done with the other Firemen who were tempted) expect this time Montag could not settle and he decided to take the other path, the path of change.
Of course much of this review is my interpretation of the book, which I think is what’s so cool about it.
I’ll leave it with a comment on the actual writing. I think Bradbury’s writing style is captivating and beautiful. I could not put it down and devoured it in 3 hours.
This was my first dip into a classic for a while and I have so many thoughts but I was not disappointed.
First I know this may be exposing my own ignorance (ironically lol) but I had no idea this book was dystopian. I had no idea what it was about at all besides “it’s about burning books” but honestly, it’s barely about that.
This could be interpreted as a story to proclaim the superiority and useful of books and those who read them and the uselessness and inferiority of television and those who do not read. HOWEVER, I think it’s much less specific than that. It’s merely about the idea of willful ignorance and what a whole society looks like when people choose to not know or question anything.
What would we look like if we ignored everything bad? It wouldn’t go away and we wouldn’t be happy.
This book feels like a skeleton. While the skeletal nature may leave you feeling unsatisfied I think that’s the beauty of it.
It’s huge metaphoric allegory. The characters aren’t truly characters as much as they are caricatures. And the setting is less of a specific city than any society that allows itself to become overrun with purposelessness in an effort to avoid individuals feeling inferior.
There is no world building, no real explanation because this could be any work, any place. Much of it was eerily familiar and I saw a lot of our modern society (2023) in its pages. It was spooky and ominous and a sense of doom hovered over me while I read.
There is so much you can dissect in this book, but I’ll settle for this.
Beaty and Montag represent the two options who have when faced with enlightenment to your ignorance. When you can no longer use your ignorance as a shield you can either choose to change or you can stay the same. I believe that Captain Beaty went through what Montag went through, but he decided to do nothing. When he sees Montag going down the same path he tries to convince him to settle like he did (and as he may have done with the other Firemen who were tempted) expect this time Montag could not settle and he decided to take the other path, the path of change.
Of course much of this review is my interpretation of the book, which I think is what’s so cool about it.
I’ll leave it with a comment on the actual writing. I think Bradbury’s writing style is captivating and beautiful. I could not put it down and devoured it in 3 hours.