Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 is as relevant today as it was when Bradbury wrote it over thirty years ago. Bradbury was
averse to many of the technological changes taking place in society at that time (even preferring to walk rather than drive a car) and was able to state his societal fears in a way that requires the reader to question the many laws, rules and regulations set forth by
government(s). The story is set in the future, although how far in the future is anyone’s guess. In Bradbury’s future there are
firemen, but these firemen start fires rather than extinguish them. Any citizen caught with a banned book, found not only the book being burned, but the house in which the book resides also being burned to the ground, while the citizen is arrested and taken to jail. One fireman, in particular, begins to have troubling thoughts about his actions. Montag, the fireman, is concerned when a young lady who has been living across the street turns up missing. He had established a relationship with the girl, finding her exciting and intoxicating due to her troublesome manner, and her way of asking him disconcerting questions that no individual had taken the time to ask him before. When she ends up missing, Montag is disturbed when his wife laconically informs him that the girl is dead. The reader does not know whether to believe the wife or not, especially since earlier in the book Montag had returned from setting a fire with his fireman cohorts to find his wife overdosed on drugs and almost dead. He pays an uncaring medical ‘expert’ to help his wife and is informed that attempted suicides, such as his wife’s, take place on a regular basis. Montag continues to recall events from his past, including an event that took place over a year ago, in which he met a secretive old man. The man’s secret affects Montag so much that he seeks him out in order to question his actions. However, Montag also has secrets and surprises the old man by presenting him with a Bible. Montag wishes to know why that book (or any book) was so important that people would allow the firemen to burn their residences to the ground in an effort to save those written words. Ultimately, Montag discovers why, and the answer changes his life. In some ways, Montag discovers that the individual in a society actually does have more importance than he previously believed, and that the written word was just as important in his society as it has been in many of mankind’s societies since even before Guttenberg began cranking out the first mass produced books society had ever witnessed. The book gives credence to the belief that as we give up certain rights in an effort to ensure societal ‘safety’ that society is traversing a winding road of bondage. Certainly, as a society, the direction taken by the travelers in Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 leaves the reader with a host of disturbing thoughts when compared to the actions of the world’s governments in today’s environment.