Fahrenheit 451 Quotes About Ignorance

Ignorance is an odd thing. Many people berate people who are unknowing, but then always say that ignorance is bliss. Is ignorance truly bliss? Yes, ignorance is a true bliss, because when someone is ignorant, they will never know. Ignorant people don’t have the knowledge to understand that they are anything but oblivious. When people are oblivious to the world’s problems, they are naturally happier, they don’t have the knowledge ruining their lives. Who is happier, the man who questions the meaning of life or the man who doesn’t need to?

Think of Montag before he meets Clarisse, he is pleased and comfortable with his life. He does not question, he does his job, which he takes pride in, goes home to his beautiful wife, and enjoys himself. He does not crave the knowledge since he doesn’t know that it’s there. It’s how the author introduces Montag; “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame. He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked, in the mirror.” (4) Montag smiles while destroying the knowledge that he later goes on to crave and risk death for. He is ignorant, and he content while being so.

He is desperate, he has lost everything that he loves and is now decimated. Clarisse has died, he burned a woman for doing the exact thing he’s doing now, his wife betrayed him, he lost his home, he killed a man, and he will never see Faber again. His life is in shambles and everything he loves has gone. Montag’s feelings of despair show when the bombs drop; “Montag, lying there, eyes gritted shut with dust, a fine wet cement of dust in his now-shut mouth, gasping and crying, now thought again, I remember, I remember, I remember something else.” (160) Montag his crying for his family, and all he has to comfort him is Ecclesiastes and Revelation. He only as his knowledge to cling, and in the end, is it worth