By: Eevee Li
Social Commentary: Burning books have affected Montag, Mildred, Beatty, Clarisse, and Faber physically and mentally in a negative way.
Montag, a protagonist, was a fireman who loved and enjoyed burning books. He starts to change his viewpoint and realize the importance of books after seeing a woman committing suicide. She died with her books when firemen wanted to get rid of them and burn them. It impacted him physically in a negative way because he sacrificed his life to save some of her books when other firemen were trying to burn them. Because the Government did not allow them to be in the society, many people also believe that they are illegal. The biggest decision that Montag made was reading out a poem to Mildred and her friends. In his head, he thought that it was the right thing to do. He wanted to prove that books are useful resources that could help them realize that they could change them into thinking and asking questions more, like how books changed Mildred. He also wanted to scare them that they've been living in a society where this is not right to do. However, Montag proved to Mrs. Bowles that her viewpoint of books are true, which is that books are to hurt people.
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Burning books have physically and mentally harmed Mildred, who is Montag's wife. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, she communicates with her TV walls by talking to them like the person in the TV is a real person. This changed her to be emotionless and careless. When Montag told her that a woman died of committing suicide to save her books, Mildred told him that the woman deserved to die. She only cares for herself. Because of her obsession over technology, she has paid more attention to them, rather than real people, not even her husband! On page 69, Bradubury wrote, "Now... my 'family' is people. They tell me things; I laugh! And the colors!" She is so obsessed with the TV walls that she even believes that they are her family.
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This video shows the interaction between Mildred (Linda in the video) and the TV walls. Without books, she is thoughtless and is brainwashed into thinking that all her answers were right. The Government wants technology to not make people to think, so they quickly say that the answer is correct, even if the answer was nonsense.
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Beatty, one of the antagonists, triggers Montag how the society is flawed by burning books. The effect of the woman's death have made Montag really dig deeply into the words inside them. Surprisingly, Beatty is actually a book reader himself and knows a lot about books, but yet he is against it and is sided with the Government. On page 102, Beatty proves that he read books by quoting off from many books when he talks to Montag. In the beginning of Chapter 3, Beatty forces Montag into burning the books. Because Montag is forced to do so, that left him to no choice, but to burn and kill Beatty.
Burning books have negatively affected Clarisse because she was like an outcast from children around her age. She had a difficult time being in school with them because she was very different from them. For example, she thinks that she is very social, but her classmates think oppositely of her. "I'm antisocial, they say... I'm very social indeed... Social to me means talking to you about things like this... But I don't think it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk..." (Bradbury 27). Because of technology and no books, children that are around her age do not ask questions and are "learning" with technology by watching TV for an hour, having transcription history, and/or paint pictures. There is really no thinking involved because teachers give out the answers for them. She is so different that she is even afraid of children around her age!
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The burning of books affected him mentally because Faber viewed himself as a coward. "Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I'm one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out and when no one would listen to the 'guilty,' but I did not speak and this became guilty myself" (Bradbury 78). When firemen were starting to burn books, Faber, a retired English Professor, did not say anything about it, nor did he fought and rebel. Instead, he stayed at home to save himself. It affected him physically because he is no longer an English Professor and only stays at home. The society does not allow people to think, so there is really no use for English Professors.