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Conformity In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

720 Words3 Pages

A multitude of books in all generations, from Anthem by Ayn Rand to Divergent by Veronica Roth, often revolve around one simple topic: the power of being different from everyone else. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the reader is introduced to Guy Montag, who ostensibly is conformed to his indoctrinating society, but inwardly knows something is missing from the society. However, Montag’s meeting of one person—one “different” person—leads him to truly discover the aspect of life that society has tried to hide and destroy from the population; the spread of creative ideas. Fahrenheit 451 elucidates how the mindless pull of sameness can degrade a society, and how one individual who can escape complete conformity to a mind-numbing …show more content…

Montag is made especially aware of the saccharine happiness among civilization through Clarisse McClellan, a teenage girl who is eccentric in terms of society, but is simply a girl who enjoys talking about “…how strange the world is” (27). Clarisse befriends Montag and makes him the aware of the natural pleasures of life around him. However, Montag is antagonistic towards Captain Beatty, the chief firefighter at the firehouse Montag works at. In an intense conversation with Montag, Beatty insists, “…we must all be alike” (55) in order for all people in society to be happy, and the burning of books is what creates this happiness, as men cannot be offended by the ideas of other men. As a result, Montag seeks and finds an older companion, Faber, who is “different” in society, as he believes books are for reading, not burning. Faber explicates to Montag that happiness does not come from physical books themselves, but “…in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us” (79). He relays to Montag that the happiness and uniqueness of society does not just have to complete with books, but

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