Fahrenheit 451. The temperature at which books burn. Fahrenheit 451, the book about the temperature at which books burn. Ray Bradbury’s story introduces us to a future America, where noise is constantly being played, televisions dominate living spaces, and people are too busy zooming by in cars to notice anything else that goes on around them. Sound familiar? But not only do people not read books in this dystopia, the books are burned. Firemen set fires instead of putting them out. This story is about one particular fireman named Guy Montag.

Through Montag, we learn about this peculiar world he’s living in and the peculiar rules that follow. It is illegal to walk about town, aimlessly, as his friend Clarisse McClellan soon learns. She is one of the few people who is not indoctrinated by the TV “parlors” that are installed in citizens homes. It is a fast-paced life where the pursuit of happiness is an alienable right. Anything that causes unhappiness is bad. It should be avoided at all costs. As tragedy begins to strike, Montag becomes increasingly aware of the world around him. A void is slowly filled. Not with books, but with knowledge.

Fahrenheit 451 was written in the 1950s, when the revolution of TV was on the rise. Suddenly, every household had one of these devices. This story is a cautionary tale against the consummation of anything that tries to tell you what to think. Even Bradbury’s story should be taken for what it is, a fictional story. So, we should read. We should read newspapers. We should read novels and nonfiction. We should read to entertain, inform, and enlighten. Above all, we should read to learn and have knowledge because when all the books are being burned, knowledge is the only thing that can’t be taken away.