Rating: 
Summary: A very interesting and intriguing book
Review: This book is very intriguing both in what its theme is and also in how much the main character changes throughout the course of the story. It has great discriptions even if they are abstract and also a great development of characters within an action plot. I would have to say that my favorite character in the entire book was Clarisse. She seemed so soft, so fresh, so new, and so likeable, especially compared with some of the other characters in the book. She was so full of life and the joys she could find in it that I really enjoyed her character and I was very sad when she dies. This book always kept me interested with its implications and its deep meanings and because of that it always kept me thinking. I would have to stop for a few minutes to think about what I had just read but that is a good thing and it made me feel like I became more familiar with the book becuase of it. Overall I think that it is a very well written book in every aspect. The main character though not very likeable in the beginning becomes someone you can and want to cheer for as the book progresses. I really enjoyed reading this book and am glad that I did pick this book to read.
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Summary: Good Book
Review: This book is just one of those you must read. The style is very good and it's loaded with phrases and metaphors for you to figure out well into the night. Nevertheless, I loved it and it's one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: buy it
Review: this is a good book. buy it.
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Summary: Fahrenheit 451: There is a Fire in All of Us
Review: FAHRENHEIT 451 is a grim yet thought-provoking novel of a dystopian future. Other novels that show a bleak future--1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD come to mind--focus on what their authors see as the root cause of the implosion of human values. Ray Bradbury envisions this implosion as a gradual process of extreme cultural homogenization that, in the words of the novel's antagonist, Fire Captain Beatty, reduces 'everyone to the consistency of paste pudding.' Whatever it is that stamps one individual as different from another, the society of FAHRENHEIT 451 ruthlessly if not mindlessly grinds down and out that uniqueness that once marked a creative thinker.
Guy Montag is a fireman who likes his job, which is to start fires and not extinguish them. He burns books to ashes, and then burns the ashes, as his firemen's slogan boasts. He sees nothing wrong with that, and at the start of the book, he is not unlike nearly everyone else in his acceptance of the Way of Things. Yet, Bradbury hints early on that Montag's mind and soul are ripe for a literary infection that is just as contagious as the Black Plague ever was. He meets a young girl Clarisse, who insists on asking him questions whose apparent nonsensical purpose is really meant to probe the paper thin layer of protection that Montag had built up over the years. She asks him if he is happy. She asks him if he has ever looked at the moon. With these seemingly innocuous questions, she infects Montag with the forbidden desire to know the 'why' of things. By the end of their first meeting, Montag now knows that his life has been a cotton candy lie. For the first time in his life, he can see that the society in which he lives is dedicated to the ultimate communistic ideal: each citizen is encouraged to reach only to a preordained level. To attempt to reach beyond that lies the swift punishment of the flamethrowers and the Mechanical Hounds. After only a few days, Montag is now stealing and reading forbidden books. The plot is not what sells the book or what has made it required reading on most college and high school campuses. The lure of FAHRENHEIT 451 is the manner in which Bradbury weaves the threads of present day trends of soap operas and quiz shows into a quilt whose collective and stifling weight crushes individualism just as surely as Orwell's Big Brother does in 1984. Bradbury uses a number of symbols (fire, books, the salamander, the Phoenix) which allow the reader to view a troika of social elements that contained within themselves the promise of death to the Thinking Man. Bradbury creates a triangle of public school education, technology, and interpersonal relations, all of which are perverted to create a society whose primary function is to use one's brains as minimally as possible for unthinking personal pleasure. The school system drills learning by rote in children's minds. No books are need for that. Technology provides huge televisions so that the stars of these shows interact with an audience to the extent that true human relations are shunted aside for a fake television 'family.' Personal relations of family and friends are then limited to inane conversations of the type that we here in the real world see on our tv commercials. Montag sees his wife Mildred as bad off as any of her equally brain-dead friends. He tries to infect her and them with the same teasing questions about the Meaning of Life that Clarisse used on him so successfully. To his horror, Montag learns that they are immune to the germ of curiosity. He cannot change his society, though he tries mightily by plotting with a former college professor named Faber to plant forbidden books in the homes of firemen. He learns that since he cannot change society, he must leave it.
One of the best parts of the book is the cat and mouse game that Fire Captain Beatty plays with Montag. Beatty is seen as a man who once had been infected with the bug of individualism, but had since 'cured' himself and now is determined to cure Montag. Their extended dialogue is one of the great literary dialogues between oppressor and oppressed. Beatty explains how his society came to be and Montag learns that somewhere along the line, the process went horribly wrong. By the novel's end, the reader can only hope that the literary virus of infection will never meet its cure. For Ray Bradbury, this cure was not very far away. For Guy Montag, the cure was even closer.
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Summary: Probably one of the greatest American novels
Review: I read through a bunch of the lowest-rated reviews for Fahrenheit 451 and was amazed. Lots of people claimed that this book "made no sense". I remember reading it when I was twelve or thirteen (though not for school, as many people said), and found the plot and premise refreshingly straightforward. The language Bradbury uses is powerful and beautiful, and he doesn't get carried away as much as he does in his other works.The theme behind this story is censorship - which provokes the ironic claim by those lower-rated reviews to burn it - but it is also about complacency in our society. Not only is something burned if it offends us, but, as the fire chief explains, if a book is too confusing or difficult to read, it is also burned. This is the first book I ever read that really made me want to write. The imagery that Ray Bradbury creates is still the most vivid of any author I've read. The characters may not be too complex, and the themes not very subtle, but it is a joy to read this book. The plethora of single-star reviews really don't amount to much: judging by the grammar and spelling, the reviewers are school children who disliked the book simply because they cannot read. Which makes Fahrenheit 451 even more important today.
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Summary: Fahrenheit 451
Review: The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an interesting novel filled with lots of hidden meaning and excellent in depth characters. The story takes place in a futuristic American city where censorship runs wild. Books are banned and firemen no longer put out fires, in this city they start the fires. Burning books is a way to control the population and stop people from having original thoughts of their own. With an overwhelming entertainment industry controlling every aspect of people's lives, the people feel content being ignorant and have a false sense of happiness. Guy Montag is the main character in the story. He is a fireman by trade and burns books to stop people from questioning their surroundings and to "keep everybody happy." He never questions his job or his marriage until he meets Clarisse McClellan. She is a young girl of seventeen and is different from the rest of the people. She questions the world and book burning and this is what starts to sway Montag into questioning his world. Soon Montag realizes his wife Mildred Montag is just a hollow shell that does not love him, actually she loves nobody and cares only for a family that only exists on television.
With this realization Mantag sets out to change things if not on a large scale maybe just for himself. Meeting professor Faber teaches Montag about the meaning and purpose books. Montag decides to no longer burn books, instead he decides to preserve them. He does this with the help of some hobo's he meets outside the city after fleeing from prosecution for protecting the written word.
Clarisse is a character I can definitely relate to. Her outlook on life and the small quirks that make us wise and happy are the things she notices instead of the mass entertainment that envelops us all. By accepting the role of an outcast and continuing her intellectual quest to better the world, she displays her huge will power. With such will power the majority of the people could find peace in whom they are, instead of always conforming.
I enjoyed the meaning of this book but found that the author used far too much symbolism. The imagery hid the plot and story line of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the parts where he rebelled against the system, especially the part in which he recites poetry to the hollow beings on television destroying their happiness by shattering what keeps them happy and content. He used a type of a "mirror" to show them their terrible faults. After hearing the poem they realized that their actions have been unforgivable and become consumed by guilt and tears. If I could, I would increase the action of the story by making Montag act in defiance of the system in more places in the book. This would give his actions a sense of great accomplishment instead of just another try at what had been tried and failed so many times.
This is a good book to teach the value and wealth of knowledge contained in books and arts. Without literature and the arts we can't record the feeling or motives of the present and the future cannot benefit from the great trials and tribulations that the human spirit endures every second of every day.
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Summary: perspective changer
Review: I originally picked up Farenheit 451 for a summer reading book but in being touched deeply by this book and the realization that the book wasn't on my summer reading list I realized it was much more than just a quick read. I love reading but this book really made me think about how some of my friends despise reading. Now, it doesn't seem like much, but in Guy Montag's society, the main character, reading and just owning books was a crime. I started thinking about how much knowledge can be attained through books, and this book made me think about what books offer. That is because this book offers so much to the reader. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it had no closing to the story. I personally like closings but some people like to imagine the end and it always works for teachers to have a finish the book kind of project. But anyway, this is a truly great book.
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Summary: A book like no others!
Review: This one of those books that are like no others that I have read. A story of censorship where all fire men instead of put out fires they start fire but only to books. The book was written in the early 50's and is a novel of what is to be the future of all books, there are to be set ablaze. A man soon sees that it is wrong to set books on fire and tries to stop all that are against books. I think this is really a book like no other.
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Summary: Free to be me!
Review: I guess I've always wanted to be an individual, to look deeper and find the rich goodness of life and freedom in being me. I have found this richness through books. When i discovered Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, it was the book that defined my love of the me that I am. I think Faber said it best, when he told Montag "I don't talk things, sir; I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I am alive." After I read this book I knew I wasn't the only one who craved a richer life through the great world of imagaination and books and knowledge. You see, I am alive and thinking.
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Summary: Still relevant regarding the First Amendment
Review: Fahrenheit 451 came out over 50 years ago, first as a novella called The Fireman (1950), and finally in its full novel form (1953). In those days we were probably most concerned with censorship from the right. Now, the liberals who advocated free speech at Berkeley have taken up the cause to tell us what we can say, so as not to offend anyone. So the First Amendment risks assault from both ends. One way to solve the problem is for us all to develop thick skins. If somebody calls me a bad name, why should I spend my time complaining and give the impression that my ego is a basket case? (Now physical assault is another thing. No First Amendment protection there.) Ray Bradbury's Coda is at the end of newer editions of his book. This is a valuable addition that gives specifics on some of the problems mentioned above. But there is something lacking in the newer editions. When Ballantine published the first edition in 1953, they included two short stories at the end, "The Playground" and "And The Rock Cried Out." These have since been excluded and are not easily found elsewhere. They are excellent stories, and I hope that someday Del Rey will consider reinstating them. For this reason, I now rate the book a 4 rather than its deserved 5.
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