Fahrenheit 451 - Could We Be Headed This Way?

I remember reading Fahrenheit 451 in my Junior year of high school. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry is a dystopian novel about a society that is constantly watched, monitored, controlled and censored by a government entity called "Big Brother".

As a high school student who normally felt burdened by mandatory reading, I actually really enjoyed this book. It gets you thinking and really makes you question everything.

The book follows a firefighter whose job is to burn books and destroy them. Guy Montag's job is to destroy any trace of literature by creating fires, not putting fires out. He meets a girl named Clarisse who makes him question his job and sees that his life is full of emptiness. Montag has to respond to an old lady who had been illegally hiding a large stash of books, and he is shocked that the old woman chooses to be burned with her books. He steals books, and realizes that his life is full of nothing and that his job does not make sense and the world around him seems like a waste of humanity.

He gets caught that he has books and his supervisor explains how books came to be extinct. His boss, Beaty, explains that there were too much argument with opinions and people became offended by content. Authors tried to mask their writing but society all together decided to rid society of such difference in opinions. Montag is told he has 24 hours to read his books and then turn it in.

He stress reads and decides to tell a man names Faber about his concerns and how he wants to keep reading. Montag sees value in these books, and sees how his life has been pointless without it. Faber tells Montag that books should be enjoyed freely and you should be able to form opinions around them. He then becomes watched and deemed a traitor. The city gets bombed and together they decide to escape their society and find any surviors with the hope of rebuilding a society with the freedom of thought.