Importance Of Ignorance In Fahrenheit 451

Ignorance is the lack of knowledge and understanding. Intelligence is the opposite. Ignorance is widely viewed as something bad as it is very damaging to one’s self esteem. But what would happen in a society filled with just that? Ray Bradbury writes about that in his book Fahrenheit 451. A novel about a fireman who was once ignorant like the rest of society, but then starts to awaken his intelligence. Though people who are like him are widely viewed as queer. Being knowledgeable and intelligent gets you shut out. In a society such as that, a key piece is missing. Knowledge. Without it, society will never function as it rightfully should. Knowledge should be valued, without it then society is missing a much needed piece of essential material.

It takes a lot of courage and guts to be able to do something that could get you killed and all your belongings destroyed just because you were a little bit curious about the concealed secrets in the world around them. Faber hasn’t ever done anything like that, he has done the first two steps but he has yet to ever do the third one. He hasn’t yet taken the big step to do something about this. But once meeting Montag, he finally is ready. “I feel alive” (Page 131). Of course, he is beyond nervous about this. After all, this could result in his and Montag’s death. “A numbness in a numbness hollowed into a numbness” (Page 120). Montag has the biggest step of all, he is on the run. He has killed Beatty, a mechanical Hound, and two other firemen. Sure, their deaths aren’t important since why should society care. But Montag read books, so is being hunted down. Montag is petrified of what is to come, he is anesthetized with fear. But he takes the step, he runs away. Then he starts to see the world in its true colors. “Time was there”(Page 146). Montag has done it, he has taken the steps needed. He finds people that are like him, and also have taken those same steps. These people, his people, have everything. They have time, silence, and