Why is entertainment important in the book fahrenheit 451??
There are two forms of entertainment depicted in the book–those which are permitted (e.g. the teledramas produced by the State), which are so banal as to turn the population into mindless drones (cf. the protagonist’s wife); and those which are forbidden (i.e. all the books we currently regard as classical literature, including religious and historical texts), which it is the protagonist’s job as a ‘fireman’ to burn. The point is that the general population are oppressed and unhappy without even realising it, as a direct result of not having their minds and perceptions challenged by the mass-produced pablum they are fed. They have no interest in developing any kind of ciritical or aesthetic sense, because they do not realise that such a possibility even exists. Nor indeed does the protagonist, until curiosity leads him to hide and read one of the books he was supposed to be burning. Doing so once leads him to do it again, and again, until he is discovered and, after defending himself
