Ray Bradbury “Fahrenheit 451” (Audio Book): Summary and Commentary
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Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) published in installments in the magazine «Playboy» in 1953 and born from a short story by the same author from 1951, The Fireman, published in Italy in two installments in the magazine «Urania» with the title The years of the stake. In Italy it is also known by the title Gli anni della fenice.
Fahrenheit 451 - the title alludes to the temperature at which paper catches fire: in the International System, around 233° C - belongs to the genre of dystopian science fiction, together with other famous novels such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) or 1984 (1949 ) by George Orwell, and describes a future society (approximately ten years after the date of publication) in which a totalitarian dictatorship has prevented the reading and possession of books, considered a very dangerous instrument of free thought and which are therefore burned by a specific police force. Fahrenheit 451 is thus a reflection on the role of reading and the mass media and on the freedom of the individual in contemporary society, as well as being able to be read as a satire of the period of McCarthyism in the United States of the 1950s.
SUMMARY
The protagonist of the novel, divided into three parts () is Guy Montag, a "firefighter" who, instead of preventing fires, burns books in compliance with the law that prohibits reading or possessing paper material. In the society of the future, in fact, there are few subversives who still hide books in their homes, while a large part of the population is dominated by television (which occupies most of the walls of the house) and the radio set that everyone holds to their ears. and which constitutes the body with which the totalitarian dictatorship spreads its ideology, removing concerns about a war that seems imminent against an unspecified enemy.
The corps of arsonists to which Montag belongs is aided in carrying out its tasks by a mechanical bloodhound, which senses the presence of subversives and, if not restrained, is designed to tear them to pieces. Guy loves his job, for the feeling of power and control it gives him, even if his life, devoid of entertainment or contact with the natural world, is in fact mediocre and superficial: his wife Mildred, silly and unhappy, he has practically no type of communication with him and lives in front of the giant screens that cover three out of four walls of his living room.
One evening, returning home from work, Montag meets his young neighbor, seventeen-year-old Clarisse McClellan, who undermines the protagonist's certainties: Clarisse, who comes from a family that has no television and whose members still talk to each other, not she is aligned with the way of thinking imposed by the government, so much so that she has stopped attending school and thinks freely.
At the end of this first meeting, the girl asks Guy if she is happy. Montag, in whom doubt begins to creep in, returns home to find his wife collapsed after having ingested a massive dose of barbiturates. Mildred is saved by the intervention of the nurses, who, without any emotion, pump fresh blood into her veins. The next morning, Mildred wakes up as if nothing had happened to her, she was only intent on finding a new television to occupy the last wall of the house; Montag understands that he has no real relationship with his wife and, in reality, that he doesn't know her at all. The daily conversations with Clarisse, to whom the protagonist is attracted, further undermine Guy's certainties, who begins to wonder what the meaning of his life is and to feel curiosity about the surrounding world, which he had never considered before.
Clarisse provokes sensations and reflections in Montag that he had never indulged in, making him feel for the first time curious about the things of the world, things that he had never stopped to look at carefully. While colleagues and his mechanical hound begin to notice the changes in Guy (so much so that the robotic dog growls at him threateningly), another event upsets Montag's existence: an elderly lady, finding herself in front of Montag and his team of arsonists, he prefers to let himself be burned together with his belongings rather than abandon his books. Montag saves one of his books from destruction and begins to read it secretly, discovering his unprecedented passion for reading. Montag thus begins to hide books in the air duct of the house and, aware of the unhappiness of his married life, would like to share all this with Mildred who, however, not understanding her husband's choice at all, also tells him that Clarisse is dead, overwhelmed by a car. Montag, disillusioned and eager to change his life, receives a visit from Chief Beatty, who, sensing Montag's attitudes, wants to prevent any possible crisis of his faithful subordinate. Beatty explains to Montag how the ban on books and the creation of the arson fire brigade came about: reading, by stimulating the development of different and discordant opinions, has over time aroused much controversy on the part of minority groups, aligned against each other others. At the same time, the change in lifestyles, which have become faster and more superficial, has led to the demand for written works that are easier and more understandable and which create fewer discussions and debates, favoring only trivial and light topics. The government, justifying everything as a service for the common good, decided to ban the books and systematically destroy them. Beatty admits that he has read books, but only to reassure Montag that they are useless and harmful; at the same time, he veiledly threatens the protagonist, inviting him to destroy any book he has in the house within forty-eight hours. The fire chief also reveals to Montag that Clarisse's family had been under their control for some time and that, due to his heterodox attitudes, he is It's a good thing the girl died. When Beatty leaves Montag's house, the latter reveals to his wife that he has hidden many books in the house, saving them from the flames, and that he will never work as an arsonist again.
Mildred is shocked, but Guy makes her promise that if, after reading some books with her, they are truly useless as Beatty said, he will destroy them. While he is reading, Montag realizes that a robot dog is wandering around his house; understanding the danger, Guy secretly goes to the English professor Faber, who is secretly in possession of books and from whom the protagonist expects help in understanding what he is reading. Montag brings with him the book of the burned elderly woman, a rare copy of the Bible, perhaps the last one left in the world. Faber illustrates to Montag the subversive power of books, explaining to him the importance of searching for the meaning behind words, while most people have gradually become satisfied with the simplest and most superficial explanations.
like those provided by television. Faber, after revealing that he knows someone who could print new copies of the books, gives Montag a micro-earphone to keep in his ear to always be in contact with him and through which to dismantle the mystifications of Beatty and the government. Montag returns home and, faced with frivolous speeches from his wife and her friends (completely insensitive to the news of the war that is about to break out), reacts by declaiming aloud verses of the poem Dover beach by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888 ), arousing the indignation of all those present. Guy then goes to the fire station, where he gives his copy of the Bible to Beatty, who is convinced of his repentance, confessing that he was once an avid reader and showing off many literary quotations. When the alarm sounds, Montag and the other firefighters head to a house, which Guy discovers is his.
Mildred has in fact reported her husband for illegal possession of books; after his wife abandons him, Guy carries out the task but, when Beatty discovers his earpiece and wants to capture Faber too, he burns him alive together with a mechanical bloodhound. Although wounded by the latter, Montag flees, chased by dogs and helicopters, in a unified manhunt broadcast on television screens in every home. Guy reaches Faber's house, who directs him towards a community of rebels and arranges to meet him in Saint Louis in some time.
To escape the police, Montag dives into the river, allowing himself to be dragged away by the current. The police, to cover Montag's escape, arrest and kill a passerby, passing him off as the protagonist. Guy, in the countryside, meets a group of exiles, led by a certain Granger, who constitute the literary memory of humanity: each of them has in fact memorized a literary text to pass it on to the new generations when the world is free from tyranny. While Montag joins the rebels' fight, the city is bombed and destroyed. Having survived the massacre, Guy and his new companions head towards the city to contribute to the construction of a new world.
COMMENT
Fahrenheit 451 fits into the genre of the dystopian novel with a science fiction setting due to its strong criticism of the society of the time and the profound reflection on the role of culture and free thought in the creation of a more just and open society.
Bradbury places the increasingly pervasive role of the mass media at the center of attention, exemplified by the regime's televisions which occupy three-quarters of the walls of Montag's home. The power of the vacuous and illusory image, conveyed by television screens, is opposed to the role of imagination and originality, represented by "forbidden" books and by the character of Clarisse, who, by rejecting the established order, knows how to undermine the granite Guy's certainties.
The protagonist goes into crisis just when he discovers, thanks to his young neighbor, another way of looking at and "reading" his own life: behind the appearance of order and security lies the latent unhappiness of the protagonist and of his wife. In fact, Mildred is at the opposite pole from Clarisse, representing the impassive addiction to everyday life imposed by the regime through the mass media. Although suffering (so much so that she attempted suicide), Mildred never knows how to accept reality, preferring to live in the virtual, morbid and voyeuristic world of television and inane chatter with her friends.
the book, for her, is just a disturbing element, which must be removed and destroyed as soon as possible, and to which the cheap satisfaction of more superficial pleasures should be preferred. Beatty is then Guy's main antagonist, with whom the protagonist has a particular relationship: he is certainly a dangerous but also fascinating adversary, capable of deceiving with his heated rhetoric but also of attracting literary quotations with his taste ( the last, before dying, from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar).
Beatty is contrasted by Faber, the professor who guides Montag and directs him towards rebellion: Faber is certainly a positive figure, but he often reproaches himself for his own cowardice, indicating it as the cause of the ethical degeneration of society. Guy must, for example, incite him to action by tearing up the precious pages of his surviving Bible in front of him.
