Humanity is in a constant struggle, grappling with the meaning of our life and its use in society. We find ourselves falling down an endless abyss with seemingly no end, and so we stop thinking, however, this leads to a greater suffering. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury follows Guy Montag in his pursuit of knowledge within a world of mindless ignorance. Throughout the novel, we learn that knowledge is a far greater path than one of mindless ignorance as without knowledge there is truly no meaning.
I, like many others in today’s society, found it normal to scroll mindlessly on social media, to fill myself with ignorance, however, Fahrenheit 451 challenged my preconceptions about the societal issue of knowledge against ignorance and the ends of both paths which I now see far more clearly for the first time. Bradbury portrays this idea strongly throughout Montag and his conversations with others.
Montag first realises the world outside of ignorance through his conversation with Clarrise. From the beginning of the novel, Montag lives his life in mindless ignorance as he eats, works and sleeps with no thought on anything else. Clarrie tells Montag, ’People ask me what I do with my time. I tell them that I sometimes just sit and think. and just like that Montag’s world breaks as he, like Clarrise begins to think and realises .I wore a mask of Happiness and Clarrise had run off with it…’
As Montag begins to think he notices that he despises his life in ignorance, in nothingness, and so he begins the pursuit of knowledge. Bradbury uses this conversation to make us question like Montag are we too wearing this mask? And so Bradbury helps people like me and others within society escape from the unspoken grasp of ignorance and pursue a better life of knowledge. I had originally thought that ignorance was fine, but now I truly see the toll it has on humanity. These masks can be seen all over society, one of the most prominent places of today is the mask we apply on social media. We smile and post about how wonderful our life is without even thinking about the sadness living life with this mask gives us. Montag believes that if we hide this sadness deep within ourselves it doesn’t even exist, however, these sorrows do exist and that is the toll we must face. This is the truth that Bradbury wanted to show people in society with the same preconceptions as I and to break free of this mask.
Mildred, Montag’s wife has always lived her life in a mindless ignorance, unlike Montag no one was there to point out the mask she wears. In Fact, she has become so dependent on this mask she seemingly can not live without it. Mildred feeds this ignorance with technology such as the Parlour walls which act as wall TV’s that spout, nothing, nothing, nothing and loud, loud, loud. as Montag says. When Montag asks Mildred to turn off the Parlour walls she retaliates saying, ‘They’re like my family,’ referring to those on the screen which truly shows the level of delusion that the path of ignorance takes you to.
At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 Mildred attempts suicide due to the feelings hidden behind her mask of ignorance. Bradbury shows the audience that feeding your ignorance will only lead us to harm and suffering. As Bradbury wrote this novel in the 1960 he began to see the roots of this problem as people began to become more dependent on technology as an escape from reality, and turning to mindless ignorance, so Bradbury writes this speculative fiction to warn us against this path. However, we did not listen and these roots have grown immensely as it is now no longer just television as Bradbury raised his concerns about but now a plague of social media.
Before reading Fahrenheit 451 I too like Mildred would feed my ignorance with mindless feeds of social media such as Instagram and Tik Tok trying to keep myself oblivious to the nothingness that Bradbury warns us of through Montag. My preconceptions were challenged as I saw Bradbury’s purpose which shows us that society will only be harmed by living this way.
The antagonist of Fahrenheit 451 is Captain Beatty. His ideals are that of the opposite of Montag’s as he has seen the path to knowledge however he remains within the path of ignorance. To combat Montag’s formed way of thinking Beatty says, ‘Words are like leaves, where they most abound, little fruit of knowledge is found.’ Beatty quotes the famous poet Alexander Pope to combat knowledge which acts as a sort of irony as literature is extensively knowledge. Beatty’s quote shows that he understands knowledge however he fears the infinity of it as he says, ‘a man who can pull a TV apart and put it back together is far happier than the man who tries to measure and equate the universe, which will not be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely’. So he chooses to side with ignorance, however, this choice leaves him without a will to live and so he allows Montag to kill him as Montag realises. Beatty wanted to die…. often like Beatty we are too scared and lazy to follow the path of knowledge as we also ignore the rays of knowledge seen within literature. In our society Beatty’s choice has been normalised which is what I too once believed. This destructive belief is something humanity always tries to hold, however, Bradbuy’s purpose of Beatty’s choice shows the audience that fearing knowledge and still pursuing it is far greater of a choice than siding with ignorance and losing our will to live.
Beatty’s choice can be seen within the ancient philosopher Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ in which those who remain in the cave are sided with ignorance and those who escape will journey the path to knowledge. Beatty can be seen as someone who saw the outside of the cave but was blinded by the sun of knowledge, so he remains in the cave, in the seemingly comforting darkness of ignorance. Plato and Bradbury share the same concerns and purpose of writing on this societal problem of ignorance which shows us that this is a problem that has lasted throughout humanity’s history.
Though bestial and lonely Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has challenged and altered my original perspective of life in ignorance. I once thought that ‘ignorance was bliss’ however as Bradbury has shown me the true outcome of ignorance seen through the conversations of Montag with others I now see the world in a whole new light outside of the cave and unlike Mildred and Beatty I urge everyone to find this light that Bradbury aimed to show us.
By Lalindu Munasinghe – St Patrik’s College, Silverstream, Wellington (Age: 16)
