Fahrenheit 451 door Ray Bradbury

Main information of the book

Auteur: Ray Bradbury
Titel: Fahrenheit 451
Ondertitel: … The temperture at wich books burn
The novel of firemen who are paid to set books ablaze
Uitgever: Ballantine Books
Verschenen in: 29 – 11- 1989
Aantal Blz.: 179
Leestijd: 9 uur
Uitgelezen op: 04 – 01 – ‘03

Why I’ve chosen the book

I haven’t chosen the book because of the front page, that didn’t get my interest, but although, I began to read the back page and the story seemed funny to me. I read a few lines in the book and the way it was written wasn’t too difficult compared with other books I could chose from.

What I expect before reading the book

I think that it is a very unreal story, because it happens in the future. However, think it is funny to read because you don’t know if it will ever be like in the book in the future. You never know! Actually it’s the first time I read a book which story happens in the future, so I don’t really know what to expect. Maybe it really is a tragedy, and it isn’t as funny as I thought.

First reaction after reading the book

I think this work is:

1. Not 2. A little 3. Very

Exciting x
Gripping x
Touching x
Funny x
Realistic x
Imaginative x
Interesting x
Original x
Good to understand x

Short summary of the book

One evening when Montag walks home after a heavy day of burning books. He has the feeling someone is following him. He had been having this feeling for sometime now, until that evening, that is when his feeling became true. A girl follows him. Her name is Clarisse. They start to talk and after a while they start to like each other more and more. They meet up every night when Montag comes home from work and talk. But to Montag's surprise one day she is gone. Her whole family is gone. Montag thinks she's dead. One day his taskforce burns a house of an old woman, just because she has a library. The woman died in that fire. Montag can't keep the thought of the dying old lady out of his head. Because of this incident, he remembers that he has hidden some books in his house. When he decides to look at these books, he takes a day off to see what books really mean and are. He then starts getting thoughts about quitting the fire brigade. Montag says he sick. But Capt. Beatty knows what this is all about and comes to visits Montag. He doesn't actually see the books, but he knows Montag has one or two hidden somewhere. He tries to cheer up Montag and tells that every fireman has to go through this period. Montag knows that Beatty knows that he has a couple of books. Than he remembers his old professor, Prof. Faber. So he decides to go to Prof. Faber and asks him to teach him in understanding books and their contents. He agrees to help Montag. They both agree on arranging more books, so they can hide them in the houses of firemen al over the country. They would in turn, turn these firemen in, so their houses would be burned, as an act of revenge of some. A revenge for burning all this books. Faber also gives him some kind of microphone, which Montag has to put in his ear. This way they can communicate, when they are not together. Later that night he goes to the fire department to turn in the books. Beatty pretends that's enough. But at the end of the night there comes an alarm. With the fire truck, they drive to Montag's house. Beatty commands Montag to burn his own house. After he burned his own house, Montag feels pretty good. A the moment that Beatty wants to arrest Montag, he finds the microphone, so he knows there is another person is involved. Montag freaks and kills Beatty by burning him to death. He runs away after picking up the books that he didn't burn. In the meanwhile the police had arrived and started to hunt him down with a metal dog. He runs to Faber's house, where he changes clothes. When he ran to Faber's house he hid the books that he had kept with him in a firemen's house and turned the guy in. The fire brigade came and burned the house. Montag's battle against the firemen has begun. Then Montag runs from Faber's house to the river and dives in it, so the dog couldn't track him down. A couple miles down the stream he came out the river into the forest. There he finds a group of people, who are just like him. People whom like books. There he finds out, that the books aren't lost. People still keep them in their heads. And when the time's ripe they will write down the books again.

Working exercise

Exercise 12

Maak duidelijk waarom dit verhaal zich ook in een andere tijd zou kunnen afspelen. (in welke tijd? Welke gevolgen zou dat hebben voor de inhoud van het verhaal?) Of maak duidelijk waarom dit verhaal zich niet in een ander tijd zou kunnen afspelen.
The story in the book can take place in another time, because:
In the time that dictators had the power in a country (think of Hitler and Mussolini round 1928-1945), their was a lot of control over what’s written in the books. A lot of things weren’t allowed to be written in books.
I think that if this story would have been taking place in the time of Hitler and Mussolini, burning books could have been a very good option to avoid that those things which weren’t allowed to be written in books are written as yet.
The story of the book Fahrenheit 451 must change a bit if the time of the story is going to be round 1928-1945. There must be a dictator which must take part of the main case in the story, otherwise it won’t be clear enough why books aren’t allowed in the story.

Personal opinion

It was a really weird book, because the world in the book had very other standards and values. I have never thought about a world where books are burned and especially unaccepted. The world that is described in this book, is totally different from the world where we are living in. But the differences are only between the standards and values of the people, not between the world itself. The people in the book are just like us in a way, the same looks and everything. They live the same way, only they believe in other things. But because they live the same way, it makes the story believable.
There were very exciting parts in the story and I could imagine the situations very well because everything was described in details very well, so I could make a picture of the event in my head very well.
There aren’t a lot descriptions of the thoughts of the characters in the book, so I couldn’t really feel how the person in the book felt. Through that I didn’t got the chance to know the persons in the book well, that’s a pity, and it made the book a less interesting for me, because I like to read about the thoughts of people, what they think in certain situations.
Further I think that the story was a little complicated, some parts were very easy to understand but some parts I really didn’t understand so I had to look up some words in the dictionary. That was annoying, because I wanted to know how the story went on. Mostly I could read without understanding a lot of words, it became clear a few pages later, but sometimes I really had to look up some things in the dictionary, otherwise I didn’t understand it anymore.
However, it was a quite nice book to read, but not really my style. But that’s my opinion, maybe other people like this kind of books a lot more!