Who has read Fahrenheit 451, and what is it about?
It’s about a distopian future in which it was determined that books were the root of all evil. They made people sad. They made people want things they could never have. They caused people to become depressed or suicidal. So the “powers that be” made reading illegal. In this future all homes and vehicles are fireproof so firemen have become the means by which the state enforces its laws against reading. Our Hero, Montag, is a fireman charged with the task of rooting out these illegal books and burning them. (The title of the book refers to the point of combustion of untreated paper.) After a particularly harrowing book burning, where an elderly woman burned alive with her books rather than live without them, Montag questions whether or not the law is right. He picks up a book and hides it. Later he teaches himself to read it… Other stuff then happens… Hope this helps.
