100 Best Books Challenge: Bradbury

I started this journey at the bottom of the list, and honestly I am surprised.  To be completely honest I had never read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury before and it automatically jumped to one of my all time favorites.  After looking at my list of 100 books I am surprised this one landed at the bottom of the list, but I have a lot more reading to do.

The book follows the main protagonist, Guy Montag.  Montag is a fireman, and the book takes place is a dystopian future where firemen start fires.  Specifically book fires.  Books are outlawed and the idea for this future is all about equality and fairness (and not in a good way).  With books there are too many ideas and thoughts that could influence people in the wrong way.  Montag begins to see issues with the society in which he lives in and I'll stop there as far as a summary goes.  The book deals greatly with censorship and government influence or control over society.  There are many resemblance's in his novel and the society we live in today, which is actually pretty scary, considering this novel was written in 1953. 

Bradbury was warning of a time when censorship is all too prevalent and the written word is thrown by the wayside, because it conflicts with the government and the media's agenda.  I don't know if we ever reach a time where all books are banned and we see people burning books in the masses, but we do see signs of this today.  In fact we have a whole week of the year devoted to banned books.  Coincidentally the top banned books of all time are often considered some of the best ones ever written.  Many times authors take subject matter that is challenging, and unfortunately as a society many are not up the challenge.  Fahrenheit 451 gives a stark warning of a world consumed with censorship and total control of the individual.  Montag is likable and easy to relate to, at least for me.  Bradbury places an importance on reading, but more importantly an importance on individuality. 

At the heart of the book is a profound lesson in the importance of education.  Bradbury was always a strong proponent of early literacy.  Reading is the foundation of knowledge, and with so much content nowadays we tend to veer away from that foundation.  I'm not saying learning and knowledge cannot be attained in other forms, but we have saturated our influences so much that, for many, the idea of picking up a book is far-fetched.  If we focused more attention on building a love and appreciation for the written word, we would get a variety of different thoughts and ideas, which in turn can foster new ideas and worldviews. 

I think it was very appropriate to start the challenge off with this novel.  It kind of speaks to the challenge as whole.  The goal is to learn and gain understanding of the world and society through the ideas and thoughts of some of the greatest authors of all time.  A task that could not be completed in the dystopian future laid out by Bradbury.  We have to remember that, much like in the novel, the burning of books was not started by the government, rather the people who started a movement, and eventually the influence grew to a larger scale, too big to put out.  I see parallels in the world we live in now, it may not be with reading books, but that is the beauty of reading, we can find meaning within the words themselves or between the lines.  Pick this one up, it will not disappoint.  A special note, the movie versions of this book are not good.

Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Published: Originally in 1953 by Ballantine
Page Count: 173
Date Started: November 12th 2019
Date Finished: November 17th 2019