Name: Kevin Castellano

Fahrenheit 451: A Double-Edged Sword

By Kevin Thomas Castellano

What makes burning fun? One may find satisfaction or pleasure in

witnessing the slow, heated destruction of matter with poor connotations
attached to it, while others may just enjoy the orange beauty of the flame.
Of course, however, there’s always risk in “playing with fire;” don’t get
yourself burned in the process.

Summary
Ray Bradbury--the author of many well-known books and
poems--strikes back with Fahrenheit 451; a dystopian novel originally
published in 1951. The novel stars Guy Montag, who has a job burning books
in a futuristic dystopian society. Perfectly content with his life in its current
state, Montag meets a girl named Clarisse McClellan on his way home from
work one fateful night who is different from anyone he’s met before; she
thought about things. Discussing elements of current society versus the
past, Clarisse asks him a question that alters the course of Montag’s life
forever more: “Are you happy?” Montag begins an emotional journey,
beginning to question the very fabric of his world that he once never
thought twice about, leading him to realize the lack of connection or bond
between himself and his wife, Mildred, the undeserved oppression of
literature caused by his job, et cetera. He feels that Clarisse is the only
person left that he appreciates and can relate to in his newfound mental
state, until he discovers her passing. With that, Montag turns to an old man
he recalled meeting once named Faber, who is a caring man that wishes to
preserve the knowledge of books, but is too cowardly to stand up for his
beliefs. They team up to thwart the fire chief, Beatty, who doesn’t care for
literature despite understanding it in order to keep people from thinking or
feeling unequal to others because of knowledge. However, Montag’s
emotional outrage towards his wife and her acquaintances causes his
hidden books to be discovered and reported. Montag burns his own house
down, officially disconnecting himself from his past relationship and way
of life as he burns Beatty and destroys the Mechanical Hound, once
programmed to find books. Now on the wanted list, Montag escapes to
Faber in need of assistance and comfort, who helps him disguise his scent
with old clothing and whiskey to avoid the new Mechanical Hound chasing
him. After escaping to a pond, Montag floats off, losing the Hound, and
meeting a group of old folks who live away from the city and have devoted
their lives to preserving the knowledge, history, and social commentary of
books. One of the old people, Granger, informs Montag that everyone leaves
something important behind that can never be replicated, be it an item or
an action, as Montag watched the city fall to pieces, envisioning Mildred’s
passing.

Fahrenheit 451’s plot, in a general sense, succeeds at providing an

intriguing and dramatic plot with flying colors. The plot is unique,
creative, and offers a wondrous social commentary on modern society
that now seems all too accurate. But what’s a good plot without good
execution or...

Characters
Beginning with Montag himself, he makes for a great protagonist
in his character development. Beginning as content and carefree,
Montag’s transformation into a wiser person is well-executed
gradually, and he feels the most human out of all the characters for it.
His barrage of different emotions and feelings throughout the story
help him to feel like the most grounded character to form him into the
perfect protagonist of this dystopian novel. We see him defensive
when Clarisse asks him if he’s happy, stubborn when Beatty lectures
him about society, guilty from the old woman burning herself,
flabbergasted when Beatty informs him of his dream, et cetera. By
contrast many of Montag’s associates, companions, and acquaintances
don’t leave as strong of an impression, but still serve their purpose.
Clarisse is much more than a mere plot device to stimulate Montag’s
crisis; her conversations with Montag make her into a legitimately
interesting character. Her willingness to share her feelings and
questions about society demonstrates her genuine connection towards
Montag that emphasizes how poor Montag’s marriage is excellently. It
also helps the audience to better understand the society as a whole
and how it differs from the current world. This contrast reveals itself
in the form of abnormalities such as elongated
billboard-advertisements and the lack of porches in front of houses.
Montag himself even begins thinking about what Clarisse points out,
such as when Clarisse states, “When I talk, you look at me. When I said
something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The
others would never do that” (Bradbury 21). On the opposite side of the
spectrum, Mildred is Montag’s dull, depressed, suicidal wife who
serves as exactly what one may fear Clarisse would be, had she not
been so outspoken about her feelings. Mildred is a bore, plain and
simple. She certainly serves her purpose by emphasizing how
Montag’s normal way of life is prosaic and depressing, but as a
character in her own right, she could’ve been handled much better.
Mildred can be characterized as inattentive, careless, and
self-centered. One may argue that these traits marvelously to show
how poor Montag’s former life was, and while I do agree, I also feel
that Mildred gets too much attention placed on her. She’s a character
that has meaning, but it isn’t intricate or subtle enough for me to really
care about her. This issue is most prevalent towards the middle of the
book when Clarisse passes away because it's when Mildred begins
getting more attention; the issues in their relationship remaining
clear as daylight. By the time Montag asked Mildred when and where
they first met and she couldn’t remember, I had the character’s
number, and all of her appearances following that moment became
predictable. When Montag asks Mildred, “Will you bring me aspirin
and water?” (Bradbury 46) all I can think to myself is ‘Of course she
won’t, there’s no connection between them.’ The only time that any
scene involving Mildred is interesting is when Montag is the focus,
such as Montag’s reading of Dover Beach. Aside from Mildred, the
other person who leaves a negative impact on Montag is Beatty--the
fire chief at Montag’s job who plays the role of the antagonist in the
story. Beatty is a very intelligent and unique villain because he’s a
person that’s been in Montag’s exact situation in the past. He
demonstrates extensive knowledge of literature when he quotes many
different books, including the bible. This helps his character because it
shows Beatty’s beliefs that ignorance is bliss and society’s issues
should stay locked behind closed doors. His intentions have meaning,
but his knowledge allows him to exploit Montag in ways that few
villains do: psychologically. But, to help him overcome Beatty is Faber,
the cowardly, wise old man who loves books, but is reluctant to stand
up for his beliefs. While Montag and Faber’s partnership serves its
purpose, once again, it doesn’t work well in execution because Faber is
the most lackluster character in the novel, simply because he plays
right into the book’s greatest flaw. I’ll elaborate on it later when I
discuss the style and pacing of the story, but for now, let’s just say that
Faber subverts the well-known paradox less is more. Granger is the
final main character of the book, met by Montag after his float across
the river to escape the police and the mechanical hound. Granger is a
wise old man who loves books and often speaks in figurative language,
just like Faber, except his goal is to preserve the knowledge from books
for future generations. His character traits are essentially identical to
that of Faber, making for a character that feels redundant in every
sense of the word. Unfortunately, Faber and Granger individually
aren’t very complicated characters, minus their contributions to the
novel’s underlying flaw that I’ll address later.

Overall, Fahrenheit 451’s characters are very hit-or-miss. While

every character serves their purpose to keep the plot going and assist
Montag on his emotional journey, not all of them do it in the greatest
way. Montag, Clarisse, and Beatty manage to serve their purpose in
intriguing ways to keep my attention, but Mildred’s predictability, and
the practically indistinguishable Faber and Granger dampen the
overall image of the character lineup. However, the characters are
only one side of the story…
 The Execution
Strengths and weaknesses; they’re everywhere. Everything, everyone,
everywhere, strengths and weaknesses are always present. However,
sometimes, the magic wand is the kryptonite, a double-edged sword, if you
will. Fahrenheit 451, as previously established, uses a lot of figurative
language and literary techniques. Not one page can go by without a clever
metaphor or careful diction to emphasize the poignancy of every situation.
The novel’s greatest moments all revolve around this one key factor. For
example, in the morning after Montag and the firemen watched the old
woman burn herself to a crisp along with her house, Montag says to
Mildred, “You ever see a burned house? It smoulders for days. Well, this
fire’ll last me the rest of my life. God! I’ve been trying to put it out, in my
mind, all night” (Bradbury 48). This is a really important quotation because
it briefly, yet meaningfully shows how Montag is changing as a character
at this point in the story. Montag was once carefree and content with his
job, but by using hyperbole in saying that this fire will last “the rest of [his]
life,” it shows the guilt he had for the old lady that he never would’ve
possessed before. Additionally, his diction also emphasizes his sorrow and
demonstrating how he is changing because yelling out God’s name indicates
emotional distress, and Montag trying to “put it out” shows how he is
struggling to remove the old lady from his memory because it is merely
increasing the conflict within him, ignited by Clarisse. This scene is
brilliant in moving the plot along and making Montag feel more human all
at once. It shows his inner frustration with his current mental conflict in
just a few, clever words. Another example of great literary techniques is
when Montag lashes out at Mildred’s friend Mrs. Bowles after she chastises
him for his reading of Dover Beach, telling her, “Go home and think of your
first husband divorced and your second husband killed in a jet and your
third husband blowing his brains out, go home and think of the dozen
abortions you’ve had, go home and think of that your damn Caesarean
sections, too, and your children who hate your guts!” (Bradbury 98). In this
quotation, Montag runs a mile in a minute, exposing all of his frustrations
with Mrs. Bowles’ ignorance. Through exquisite diction, Montag exposes
Mrs. Bowles for her ignorance, from her three past husbands that don’t
mean anything to her, to all of the children she’s had aborted and killed
without thinking about it, to her current children that despise her. Montag’s
fit of rage shows how Mrs. Bowles doesn’t have a heart; she hasn’t love or
even tolerance for her children or her husbands, when she could be a much
better person and help to set a precedent for all by feeling for her children
as a compassionate mother, or spending time with her current husband to
fully appreciate them rather than tossing the past off to the side and
simply remarrying again and again, achieving unfulfillment in her life.

These are just two examples of when Fahrenheit 451 is at its absolute
best: speedy drama with emotional distress galore. That’s what Fahrenheit
451 is best at. Speedy drama. Which leads me to Fahrenheit 451’s
greatest problem; the worst double-edged sword of all time:

Its inconsistent pacing

Fahrenheit 451’s pacing is abhorrently poor, so much so that it deters from
the quality of the book immensely. Allow me to explain…

Bricks and Hearing Aids

As I previously remarked, Fahrenheit 451’s greatest strength is its
literary techniques that help to emphasize the importance of each
situation--or, at least, that’s what they’re meant to do. Above, I gave
examples of Ray Bradbury’s excellence befitting the story stupendously.
However, the pacing of most of this novel is less than pleasurable. Most
notably due to massive brick walls of text found on certain pages. When
writing, like any other art form, it is possible to lose yourself in the
moment, free from writer’s block, writing and writing and writing
constantly, consistently, not stopping. Fahrenheit 451 has many walls of
text from certain characters or just from a description of how Montag is
feeling in the scene. At the beginning of the book, these paragraphs dazzle
the audience, overwhelming them with a broad sea of information on the
characters and setting, building tension, imagery, et cetera. The extreme
poignancy is unsurpassed by anything ever seen before. But that was at
page 40, and now I’m at page 158. I’m sick and tired of it.

What is your favorite food? Steak? Fish? Cake? Well, would you ever
want to eat just one of those for every single meal of every single day of the
rest of your life? No, it would get tiring. The food wouldn’t be special
anymore, it would lose what made it taste so great before, and by the 158th
day in a row, you’d rather be eating anything but steak. That perfectly
summarizes how I feel about Fahrenheit 451 by the end of the book. The
overwhelming amount of excellent literary techniques is mind-blowing at
the beginning, I cannot stress that enough, but that poignancy that made it
so great early on is lost later in the book as its attempts to set the mood for
each individual situation start to become ineffective. This is the reason why
Clarisse is so much better than Faber or Granger, even aside from
personality. She shows up early in the story when everything is fresh and
new to the audience. She spoke about things she thought were peculiar or
interesting that many just overlooked, giving deeper insight on the way
this dystopian world works and an insider-opinion on it. But by the time
Faber is introduced, these literary devices become a dull slog, emphasized
by the fact that Faber is a far less interesting character than Clarisse. The
happy-go-lucky girl who asked questions and played games all the time
was replaced with an old man who babbles on and on in his seemingly
infinite wisdom from his love of literature. I find myself groaning whenever
I see a page akin to page 79 where Faber goes on and on about books. I
understand that, to many, this wouldn’t come across as any less than
brilliant, and I do understand that Bradbury’s talents are still present in
lines such as “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They
show the pores in the face of life” (Bradbury 79). In spite of this, I cannot
look at a giant wall of text half way through a novel such as this and feel
excitement--instead, I feel impatience and boredom. Fahrenheit 451 is at its
greatest height when the characters are interacting with each other in a
quaint conversation or when a hectic, climactic scene is taking place where
tension is high and stakes are raised to the top of the mountain, such as
when Montag is burning down his own home, officially ending his
relationship with Mildred and destroying his former life as he knew it. This
is precisely why it pains me to see the book slow down to tell me about
what’s wrong with their society in a dull social commentary late in the
story when it has already been established that this dystopian society has
more than a few problems. It doesn’t go into my head to be processed and
deeply considered every time, many times it merely falls on deaf ears. This
loss of poignancy even applies to smaller things, such as Bradbury’s
overuse of ‘and.’ I specifically recall reading lines at the start of the book
such as “And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped
tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and
talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind” (Bradbury
10). Lines such as that were immaculate to me--they blew me away with
their parallelism. It was so bold, unlike anything I’d ever witnessed before.
Sadly, though, once I reached the end of the book, this repetition of ‘and’
lost all meaning that it once carried. A sentence that included it no longer
made me feel anything, such as “After all the running and rushing and
sweating it out and half drowning…” (Bradbury 137).

Most egregious of all is the elephant in the room: Beatty’s long speech
to Montag about why he should stay a fireman that goes on for
approximately eight pages! All Beatty does in these pages is babble on and
on about the importance of firemen, and it unfortunately rubs off as tiring
and superfluous. The quote, “Not everyone born free and equal, as the
Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every
other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower,
to judge themselves against,” (Bradbury 55-56) serves as the perfect
summarization for what Beatty lectures Montag on for eight long pages.
Everyone is kept equal without books because books bring knowledge and
recognize the faults of society to work towards improvement. That deters
people from literature, and keeps society equal from the lack of knowledge.
Yet, even with something as simple as that, Beatty still rambles on and on. I
do enjoy him as an antagonist, but here, his speech isn’t even having any
effect on Montag, as shown by his thought, “I’ll never come in again”
(Bradbury 60). If Beatty’s words aren’t even penetrating Montag’s head
whatsoever, why should I expect them to penetrate mine? The worst part is
that the book attempts to redeem itself with another speech from Beatty
later, and succeeds with flying colors. Beatty’s lecture to Montag about his
dream where they got into a quote war works much better because it is
short, sweet, and to the point. On only one page, we see Beatty and Montag
quarrelling over quotes from a variety of authors, poets, and more, with
Montag constantly shouting out quotes of inspiration and Beatty calmly
replying with more disheartening quotes from the same authors and poets,
Beatty rising to victory by the end. Not only do the quotes show how both
characters feel towards literature, but they also show how powerful of an
entity Beatty is as an antagonist. His use and interpretation of knowledge
from books is much stronger than that of Montag’s as he has much more
experience and wisdom that he uses to keep society equal. His differing
desires combined with his background are enough to leave Montag
completely bamboozled, as displayed by the quotation, “Montag’s head
whirled sickeningly, He felt beaten unmercifully on brow, eyes, nose, lips,
chin, on shoulders, on upflailing arms” (Bradbury 103). Montag and Beatty’s
quote war effectively gets its message and purpose across in a quick and
interesting manner that doesn’t come out like garbledeguck the way
Beatty’s speech about the importance of firemen did. In a way, the quote
war is almost metaphorical for the book as a whole.

Another issue with this pacing is that it often makes the characters
feel less human. In the real world, one doesn’t often hear people speak like
Faber or Granger does; in constant metaphor, hyperbole, simile, and much
more. Thus, when Granger says something like ”Grandfather’s been dead
for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of
my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprint,” (Bradbury 150) I find
it very difficult to take him seriously, especially when he keeps talking
about it. Perhaps it’s just me that doesn’t have the patience for a story of
this caliber, but even then, I still feel that aside from my personal vendetta
against this book’s walls of text, the pacing is remarkably inconsistent and
jumpy. The ending of Fahrenheit 451 leaves such a mixed taste in my mouth.
The theme that books carry knowledge of the past we need to know to
improve is a good one that I believe everyone should know of, but after
climbing my way through the rocks to get to Montag and his new group of
friends dedicating their lives to remembering books, I feel more exhaustion
than anything else.
 Conclusion

Fahrenheit 451 is a book with a lot of talent and passion, undoubtedly. The
literary techniques used all throughout are astonishing, and help to stress
the importance of many specific scenes. Additionally, every character
serves their purpose in moving the plot along, and the plot itself is dramatic
and intriguing from beginning to end, except for when the book slows
down. Montag and Clarisse have a fantastic dynamic and Beatty works
really well as an antagonist that can manipulate Montag’s inner psychosis
and put him into a state of mental crisis. Despite this, Mildred is a character
who’s predictability weakens many of the scenes she’s present in, while
Faber and Granger are essentially watered-down versions of Clarisse with
much less unique personalities. On top of that, the book’s greatest strength,
being its poignancy stemming from its use of literary devices, doubles as its
greatest weakness because of its overuse, making the beginning an
overwhelmingly dazzling experience, and the end a dull slog of an
experience that, while not necessarily bad, becomes a little too much to
stomach from the constant walls of text that cause me to sigh when I glance
at the following page. The more I read Fahrenheit 451, the more I wanted to
stop and come back later. It’s a great book that has its perks, but that I’d
have trouble finishing in only a couple of sittings because of its pacing
problems. It is a book that plays a very important role in commentating on
what modern society could’ve (and in some ways, has) become without
acknowledgment of the past, but certainly hasn’t aged as well as fine wine.
 Closing
For all that I’ve said about Fahrenheit 451, I want to make it clear that I do
not dislike the book. I respect it completely and acknowledge its place in
history. This is a very important piece of literature that clearly had tons of
blood, sweat, and tears put into it. I just felt that there were a lot of flaws
that many overlook when discussing this book, either openly singing the
praises for it or just calling it boring and dropping the microphone on the
stage. Regardless, I sincerely wish that you enjoyed this review of a classic
novel. Hopefully, this book can continue to transcend through generations
and continue spreading knowledge to young and old...

When we get back home.