Transcendence in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
At some point of our life, we always question ourselves if we are important for someone else. It is our inner need for transcendence: to live eternally in someone’s mind. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the protagonist, has reached this point, and he will change his life in order to leave a personal “touch” in someone or in history.
Montag is a fireman that lived over-controlled in a society where, in order to be happy, everyone had to think the same way, do the same but nothing productive at all, because they did not need to think. They were happy watching non-sense TV the whole day, like Mildred, Montag’s wife, or burning knowledge – books – for a living without knowing their informative and educational purpose, like Montag. Clarisse, a 17-year-old neighbour, said that school “runs us so ragged by the end of the day we can’t do anything but go to bed or head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break windowpanes in the Window Smasher place and wreck cars in the Car Wrecker place…” (p. 37) [1].
The Government encouraged this monotonous life: they did not want people to criticize anything, because it is easier to control ignorant persons than those who think. With people living like that, the social mass believed they were happy, because there were no discussions, no frustrations and so no melancholy. They had no choice of doing something different, but they were happy because they did not conceive a different kind of life.
However, Clarisse affirmed that “…people hurt each other nowadays… They kill each other” (p. 37). Clarisse was one of the few that were aware of and criticized the manipulation of the population. She once said: “’But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else’” (p. 38).
Faber, a cynical man[2], had a similar opinion: “(…) ‘the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, (is) the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority’” (p. 116). He thought society was oppressive because no one had the freedom to express their personal identity. Everyone had to live a standard life, maybe without their consent. People were like industrially produced: closely the same in every aspect of life.
Montag started to question the meaning of life after meeting Clarisse. He began to think about his future and of what he had done to be remembered after he died. When he thought about Mildred, he felt pity for her because she never did anything in her entire life, neither for herself nor for the community. But when he asked himself what he had done, he realized that he had done nothing:
“(…) ‘poor Millie. I can’t remember anything. I think of her hands but I don’t see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lie there on lap or there’s a cigarette in them, but that’s all.’
Montag turned and glanced back.
What did you give to the city, Montag?
Ashes.
What did the others give to each other?
Nothingness. (p. 163)
Nevertheless, Montag was not as ignorant as his wife. As a product of a hypnotizing education, Mildred only followed what television said and her opinion was the one that television expresses. She did not need to think, because life was easy. And life being easy meant that people were happy. A person who did not seem pleased would be considered a rebel[3].
Although Montag was brought up in the same way as Mildred, Clarisse changed Montag’s point of view about life. Montag faced reality and wanted a change:
“He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over, and down on itself like a tallow skin (…) Darkness. He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl (Clarisse) had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.(p. 19) (…) ‘Mildred, how would it be if, well, maybe, I quit my job awhile?”(p. 58)
He escaped from his routine. He stopped being a fireman to think, which he does when he relaxes in the river and lets it take him away to a new life. He became aware of the manipulation taking place in society. He wanted to do something to change that situation, and he supposed the solution was in reading books. He felt books contained important information, and that was why they were prohibited.
“’I’m going to do something,’ said Montag. ‘I don’t even know what yet, but I’m going to do something big.’ (p. 72) (…) ‘We can’t burn these (books). I want to look at them, at least look at them once. (…) We’ve got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we’re in such a mess, you and the medicine at night, and the car, and me and my work. We’re heading right for the cliff, Millie. ” (p. 73)
_-cropped-.jpg/488px-Ray_Bradbury_(1975)_-cropped-.jpg)
Reading books constituted a revolutionary action that had to be counteracted by the burning of the house where books were found. Montag’s house was burnt, and he provoked a huge chaos by killing three persons and destroying a mechanical dog. This caused his persecution by the police; action caught by cameras and broadcast live. He escaped from the chase, even though, the parlours transmitted a wrong image where he was killed. But the victim was a different man. This was done to keep people calm and to show society that they had to follow the rules in order to survive.
The same night after this episode, when Granger told Montag his grandfather’s story, Montag wanted to do something useful so as to be remembered. For example, Clarisse changed Montag’s life in only one week before she disappeared. She made him appreciate life. He started to be curious and made lots of questions. She had touched his life in such a way as to make Montag never forget her.
To be remembered he must do something. He wanted to be like Clarisse, not like Mildred. But his hands had never touched anything; they were working or just dangling meaninglessly. He had “not been there at all”; not living his own life, just obeying the orders he was given:
“’I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always. (…) I didn’t really think of it myself. When do I start working things out on my own?’
‘You’ve started already, by saying what you just said’, said Faber. ” (p. 100)
When he thought of his life, he became conscious he had been living a monotonous one. Being a fireman was the way the government controlled him, making him do everyday the same activities which he didn’t really enjoy.
The opposite of what Montag had been was Granger’s grandfather, a man who, despite being a common citizen, had been a loved man, till many years after his death. “’He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man’ said Granger” (p. 163). This man had done something to the world: he worked for his family, played with his grandchildren or helped the community with its necessities. He would eternally live in the mind of people who knew and loved him.
When we talk about posterity, it is in terms of how we have touched other people’s life, which may not always be essentially good. E.g. Captain Beatty was a powerful man that had proved, for us readers, that “Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found’ (p. 114), quoting Pope, and then Dr. Johnson, who said that “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty” (p. 115). He had read a lot in order to control the subordinate mass and uses his knowledge to manipulate Montag. He thus left a negative mark.
To be remembered we do not need to be the president of the United States, or discover penicillin, or write a novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. “’It doesn’t matter what you do’, Granger’s grandfather said, ‘so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hand away” (p. 164). We can be remembered by doing simple activities in the way we leave our personal touch on them - also the simplest form of reaching transcendence and a sense of redemption.
At some point of our life, we always question ourselves if we are important for someone else. It is our inner need for transcendence: to live eternally in someone’s mind. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the protagonist, has reached this point, and he will change his life in order to leave a personal “touch” in someone or in history.
Montag is a fireman that lived over-controlled in a society where, in order to be happy, everyone had to think the same way, do the same but nothing productive at all, because they did not need to think. They were happy watching non-sense TV the whole day, like Mildred, Montag’s wife, or burning knowledge – books – for a living without knowing their informative and educational purpose, like Montag. Clarisse, a 17-year-old neighbour, said that school “runs us so ragged by the end of the day we can’t do anything but go to bed or head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break windowpanes in the Window Smasher place and wreck cars in the Car Wrecker place…” (p. 37) [1].
The Government encouraged this monotonous life: they did not want people to criticize anything, because it is easier to control ignorant persons than those who think. With people living like that, the social mass believed they were happy, because there were no discussions, no frustrations and so no melancholy. They had no choice of doing something different, but they were happy because they did not conceive a different kind of life.
However, Clarisse affirmed that “…people hurt each other nowadays… They kill each other” (p. 37). Clarisse was one of the few that were aware of and criticized the manipulation of the population. She once said: “’But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else’” (p. 38).
Faber, a cynical man[2], had a similar opinion: “(…) ‘the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, (is) the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority’” (p. 116). He thought society was oppressive because no one had the freedom to express their personal identity. Everyone had to live a standard life, maybe without their consent. People were like industrially produced: closely the same in every aspect of life.
Montag started to question the meaning of life after meeting Clarisse. He began to think about his future and of what he had done to be remembered after he died. When he thought about Mildred, he felt pity for her because she never did anything in her entire life, neither for herself nor for the community. But when he asked himself what he had done, he realized that he had done nothing:
“(…) ‘poor Millie. I can’t remember anything. I think of her hands but I don’t see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lie there on lap or there’s a cigarette in them, but that’s all.’
Montag turned and glanced back.
What did you give to the city, Montag?
Ashes.
What did the others give to each other?
Nothingness. (p. 163)
Nevertheless, Montag was not as ignorant as his wife. As a product of a hypnotizing education, Mildred only followed what television said and her opinion was the one that television expresses. She did not need to think, because life was easy. And life being easy meant that people were happy. A person who did not seem pleased would be considered a rebel[3].
Although Montag was brought up in the same way as Mildred, Clarisse changed Montag’s point of view about life. Montag faced reality and wanted a change:
“He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over, and down on itself like a tallow skin (…) Darkness. He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl (Clarisse) had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.(p. 19) (…) ‘Mildred, how would it be if, well, maybe, I quit my job awhile?”(p. 58)
He escaped from his routine. He stopped being a fireman to think, which he does when he relaxes in the river and lets it take him away to a new life. He became aware of the manipulation taking place in society. He wanted to do something to change that situation, and he supposed the solution was in reading books. He felt books contained important information, and that was why they were prohibited.
“’I’m going to do something,’ said Montag. ‘I don’t even know what yet, but I’m going to do something big.’ (p. 72) (…) ‘We can’t burn these (books). I want to look at them, at least look at them once. (…) We’ve got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we’re in such a mess, you and the medicine at night, and the car, and me and my work. We’re heading right for the cliff, Millie. ” (p. 73)
Reading books constituted a revolutionary action that had to be counteracted by the burning of the house where books were found. Montag’s house was burnt, and he provoked a huge chaos by killing three persons and destroying a mechanical dog. This caused his persecution by the police; action caught by cameras and broadcast live. He escaped from the chase, even though, the parlours transmitted a wrong image where he was killed. But the victim was a different man. This was done to keep people calm and to show society that they had to follow the rules in order to survive.The same night after this episode, when Granger told Montag his grandfather’s story, Montag wanted to do something useful so as to be remembered. For example, Clarisse changed Montag’s life in only one week before she disappeared. She made him appreciate life. He started to be curious and made lots of questions. She had touched his life in such a way as to make Montag never forget her.
To be remembered he must do something. He wanted to be like Clarisse, not like Mildred. But his hands had never touched anything; they were working or just dangling meaninglessly. He had “not been there at all”; not living his own life, just obeying the orders he was given:
“’I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always. (…) I didn’t really think of it myself. When do I start working things out on my own?’
‘You’ve started already, by saying what you just said’, said Faber. ” (p. 100)
When he thought of his life, he became conscious he had been living a monotonous one. Being a fireman was the way the government controlled him, making him do everyday the same activities which he didn’t really enjoy.
The opposite of what Montag had been was Granger’s grandfather, a man who, despite being a common citizen, had been a loved man, till many years after his death. “’He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man’ said Granger” (p. 163). This man had done something to the world: he worked for his family, played with his grandchildren or helped the community with its necessities. He would eternally live in the mind of people who knew and loved him.
When we talk about posterity, it is in terms of how we have touched other people’s life, which may not always be essentially good. E.g. Captain Beatty was a powerful man that had proved, for us readers, that “Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found’ (p. 114), quoting Pope, and then Dr. Johnson, who said that “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty” (p. 115). He had read a lot in order to control the subordinate mass and uses his knowledge to manipulate Montag. He thus left a negative mark.
To be remembered we do not need to be the president of the United States, or discover penicillin, or write a novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. “’It doesn’t matter what you do’, Granger’s grandfather said, ‘so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hand away” (p. 164). We can be remembered by doing simple activities in the way we leave our personal touch on them - also the simplest form of reaching transcendence and a sense of redemption.
.
.
.
Antonieta
.
.
.
.
.
.
[1] Bradbury, Ray (1996). Fahrenheit 451. Great Britain: Harper Collins Publishers.
[2] Faber said: ‘Mr Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the “guilty”, but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself’. (p. 89)
[3] For example, having a book at home was prohibited, that was why, when Montag showed his books to Mildred, she “ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator” (p. 73). She was afraid of breaking the law, and reacted as she had been taught: burning books.
No comments:
Post a Comment