Rating: 
Summary: From the Ashes
Review: A book revolving about the burning and destruction of books seems kind of ironic, right? But that is exactly what the plot of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is based on. Taking place in the not so distant future, Fahrenheit 451 revolves around one fireman, Guy Montag, whose job was to start fires instead of stop them. Living in a world where is was a crime to read books, punishable by getting your house burned down, and where the government controls all forms of entertaining media, Montag never questioned what he did for a living. All this changes one day when he meets a strange seventeen-year-old girl on the way home from work one day, and asks him a simple question; "Are you happy?" This triggers a chain reaction within Montag when he comes to the conclusion that he is, in fact, not happy with his life. Throughout the rest of book, we see how Montag struggles with this and how he quests to do something about it.
Bradbury breaks down Fahrenheit 451 into three parts. In the first, the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his life and background information up to this point. However, as mentioned earlier, when he meets the young girl, Clarisse McClellan, everything is turned upside down for him, making this the defining moment of this part. She asks him if he is happy which starts to make Montag really sit down and think, a rarity for the people in this particular setting.
"He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing and now blown out. Darkness. He was not happy. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl 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," (Bradbury 12)Through the author's use of similes, it is easy to see that this is the beginning of the change within Montag after his encounter with Clarisse. From there on, the reader experiences the inner conflict raging within Montag, and then later, outside him. With Bradbury's frequent use of symbolism and metaphors, the reader can get a clear picture of just what is going on in the protagonist's head, yet not so much that the reader would not have to think about it. The way Bradbury writes with these literary devices also helps him depict the imagery of each scene. An example being:
"With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins if history," (3). Keeping with one of the themes of the book, Bradbury is also constantly comparing things to the aspects of fire, or fire to a blooming flower and he compares books to wings or birds of purity and peace. The unique style in which Bradbury combines these traits helps to distinguish Fahrenheit 451 into the classic novel that it is.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Fahrenheit 451. I found the plot intriguing and oddly believable for a futuristic sci-fi piece. It was written in a way easy to understand yet not so simple that it takes away from the novel. The characters were well developed and the protagonist was likable as well as easy to sympathize with. There was little to complain about except maybe the ending seemed a bit too abrupt. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good science fiction story.
Rating: 
Summary: The Difference in Flames
Review: What began as a short story in 1950, evolved into one of the greatest American novels of all time. Fahrenheit 451, originally titled The Fire Man, was Ray Bradbury's first novel. It is ironic that the place that Bradbury chose to write a novel about book burning was in a book haven - the basement of the University of California's library. Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a future where knowledge is despised and thought of as an unequalizer. People are made to believe that in order for everyone to be happy and live in harmony they must be equals. Since books spread knowledge and knowledge is an unequalizer, most books are banned from reading and burned in order to be kept from society's hands. Due to the fireproofing of houses, firemen are no longer needed to put out fires. Instead, firemen set ablaze houses that contain illegal books, sometimes burning the people within the houses if they refuse to leave. Guy Montag was a fireman who loved to watch the flames dance in the sky and the books shrivel and die, that is until he met a young girl named Clarisse. Clarisse opened his eyes to the world around him, and no longer did Montag want to burn books, he wanted to save and learn from them.
The story picks up when the protagonist, Guy Montag, is walking home from work with his baked on smile and the smell of kerosene hanging about him, having just finished attending a call from the firehouse. While nearing his house, he is accompanied by a strange young girl who introduces herself as Clarisse McClellan. They begin to talk and Montag realizes she is very different from everyone else he knows. She looks at the world around her and sees it for what it is and then takes the time to wonder why it is that way. Before they part, Clarisse asks him something that turns his world upside-down, she asks, "Are you happy?" (Bradbury 10). One might say that those three little words are the most important in the entire book because they set in motion the series of events that are to follow. At first, Montag tries to laugh it off saying, "Happy! Of all the nonsense." (10). However, as Montag entered his house and looked around the quiet rooms and at his silent, stone-like wife, he knew that he was not happy, he knew that something was missing.
Subconsciously, Montag knew he was not happy for a long time and had been collecting books from the houses he went to burn. After further discussions with Clarisse and much thought of his own, Montag realizes that there had to be a better way to live and that books could teach him how. Montag pulled out the illegal books he had been hiding and began to read them. However, try as he might, he could not understand and retain what he was reading. Bradbury compared Montag's struggle with sand and a sieve, "the faster he poured, the faster it sifted through . . . His hands were tired, the sand was boiling, the sieve was empty" (78). The sand is a metaphor for the knowledge within the books and the sieve is a metaphor for Montag's brain. The more and the faster Montag read, the faster it slipped from his memory.
Montag continued to try to read and learn more from books and was found out by his boss, Captain Beatty. Of Montag's situation, Beatty makes an allusion to the Greek myth of Icarus, saying "Old Montag wanted to fly near the sun and now that he's burnt his damn wings he wonders why" (113). In the story of Icarus, his father Daedalus builds him a set of wings, fastened together with wax, so that he can escape from the island of Crete. Icarus was reckless, though, and flew too close to the sun so that the wax melted, breaking his wings and causing him to fall to his death. For Montag, the island that he was trying to escape from was not a physical restraint, but a mental island of ignorance. Montag was reckless like Icarus and came too close to the sun, in his case, knowledge, which caused his downfall, according to Beatty.
Overall, I found this book thoroughly enjoyable and frightening at the same time. I look at the world around me and see it slowly turning into the world that Bradbury so vividly described. There are several students in my class that when given the assignment to read a book and do a report on it, opt to watch the video and skim the cliff notes instead. Movies and cliff notes merely brush the surface of books, which is what the parlor walls in Fahrenheit 451 do to all the information and stories it portrays. The idea of a future society where people do not think about their actions, the consequences, or of anything with substance is terrifying and yet incredibly believable in this day and age. It is this idea that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Taking a Step into the Future
Review: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most important and influential books of all time. In 1950, when it was written he didn't know he was going to predict today's society. Guy Montag, the protagonist, loved his work. There seemed to be nothing that he liked better than to spray kerosene on a pile of books and watch the pages curl and turn into ash. Until, one day he meets Clarisse, a 17-year-old girl who has been educated about the world. At one point in one of their conversation she asks if he is happy. Montag realizes that people should have the right to read books. He finds that books mean a lot to people when a woman chooses to burn herself with her books. Guy comes up with a plan to get revenge on other firemen in an effort to stop book banning.
Montag's boss, Beatty tries to reason with Montag about the banishment of books saying "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs. Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy (61)." The people of Montag's society live under such a principle, even though at some times they may not know it.
The turning point in the novel is when his wife, Mildred discovers what he is doing. She becomes scared. Eventually, she turns him in, and he is forced to burn his collection of books. This is the climax of the book because the reader is unsure what lies ahead. The adrenaline of the reader is at its highest, and ones mind is trying to think of all the possible outcomes.
The censorship that is in Bradbury's novel comes from an inferior dictatorship. It is a culture that does not want its citizens to be lured into the meanings of books. Today, our culture is bombarded with advertisements. Everyday it seems as though we have less time to ourselves. Today we are not burning books and bookstores are popular, but we still seem to ban books for one reason or another. Fifty years later the book still remains relevant to our society.
Fahrenheit 451 is a brilliant novel. In my opinion, it is as meaningful perhaps even more so than it was when it was written in 1950. The novel shows what censorship can do to a society, and the importance of free speech. People must learn to accept different views, whether they agree totally or not. We must always be open to new opportunities that arise and never except the norm. Everyone should read Fahrenheit 451, take what they learn from it and apply it to their everyday lives. Overall, I think that the novel has a good message and I am glad that I spent my time reading it.
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Summary: Timeless Appeal
Review: I read Fahrenheit 451 years ago in highschool, and just reread it last month. It was the feature book in our town's One Book, One City program. What I found was that F451 doesn't lose it's impact all these years later. The ideas of censorship, of book burning, of reading in general come sharply into focus as the reader experiences Montag's journey.
Rating:
Summary: Fahrenheit_451
Review: I'm a highschool freshmen and I read the book last year when was in 8th grade. I loved it! It makes a very eerie reflection of what we are and what we are becoming. It's about censorship and civil disobedience. Farhrenhiet 451 is a must read for young and old a like. If you haven't read it you're really missing something.
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Summary: Unavailable editon - are you kidding???
Review: The Amazon.com editorial review ends: "...and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title." How appropriate. Maybe this editon of the book has been BURNED!?!?!?!?!?!?????
Rating:
Summary: Dramatic, Powerful and well written
Review: If it's written by Bradbury, its got to be good. He is one of the best science-fiction authors, and Fahrenheit 451 is no exception. It is dramatic, with broken bonds, chase scenes, and runs with the law. The ultimate ending is powerful and strong and creates a great ending for a great book.
Rating:
Summary: seeing into the future
Review: This was a great book. It is very thought provoking and powerful. The future world he proposed gets more likely every year. It's message gets more important. Even if you don't like sci-fi or Ray Bradbury, this book is worth it just for the insights he makes.
Rating:
Summary: The future is now
Review: What a treat to re-read this book with the added bonus of the Coda at the end and the Conversation with Ray Bradbury. In my memory 451 was about book burning, but it is actually about the death of thinking and conversation and culture. Anyone who watches TV today knows we are certainly headed in that direction with the dumbed down shows and news casts. We are certainly not supposed to question authority. Our library checkouts and bookstore purchases can be monitored for daring to read outside the boundries of correctness. Dare to read this book and think about what Ray Bradbury foretold.
Rating:
Summary: book, book, book
Review: throughout the novel, you are exposed to many different thingS comparing to our world to this books words. the main character Guy is a firemen and his job in this world is to burn books that they find among the people. This book repersents the amount of learning that the people will be doing in the future of our county it tv will keep going as it is. the book is a good book it has the posibility of telling people what we will come to if we stop reading. There are factors that leading to the general lack of interest in reading and factors that make people actively hostile toward books. Nature is presented as a force of innocence and truth with one of the characters.Blood appears throughout the novel as a symbol of a human being's repressed soul or primal, instinctive self. Montag often feels his most revolutionary thoughts welling and circulating in his blood. thsi book kept me interested un till the end because you did not know what crazy thing was goin to go on next.
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