Knowledge is a tool that is necessary in order to avoid fear, for with knowledge comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes power. However, if one were to truly be ignorant of something, that person would additionally be fearful of that same thing. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, a character by the name of Guy Montag embarks on a quest to seek his knowledge. With knowledge, no fear is unconquerable and no potential is unreachable.
Dominant, powerful governments have high potential to control a whole population, including the amount of knowledge within each individual. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag experiences this deceit, and decides to evade the status quo, and self-advocate. He murders Captain Beatty, planting his seed of knowledge. Once a person has gained knowledge of something, they lose all fear of that aspect. Montag at this point realizes that there is a whole new dimension of life, and that humanity is not chained to the level of thinking that it was at before Beatty’s death. In the world today, it is very much the same. Many people in this generation are hindered from the notion of knowledge because of the censorship surrounding them. This obviously produces a large amount of fear among the community, causing tremendous lack of power. Governments like this are very analogous to the one in Fahrenheit 451 and are very misleading if their purpose was to govern a successful society.
Although in many occasions people strive to gain the knowledge set for them, often there are those who never attempt to go beyond the restricted format. It becomes unfortunate to see this happening, but it is a true fact that sits firmly on the ground. Anyone in Fahrenheit 451 except for Montag and his scholars would be an example of this, a sad example indeed. Feeble, intimidated, and ignorant were the people in this book, and that helped the government do what it did best: burn all knowledge. To accomplish this, they burned books of every kind, even gaunt ones with very few words; anything possible to diminish the amount of knowledge in the vicinity. In present day China, a very similar story is taking place. Censorship has become a top priority for their government leaders and is moving the entire country in a downfall direction. However, it is not only this example that is heading or has headed this way, but is occurring widely throughout the world.
There are many possible ideas for themes in the novel Fahrenheit 451, and the same thing goes for its mode. Several readers could just zip through this book and pick out the simple fact that it is a true irony, which would be very unrefined. Alternatively, another approach at this novel’s mode is to state that it is a very ironic felt piece of literature up until the ending part where a minute romantic swing comes in, releasing a burst of hope or salvation. Throughout the story, Ray Bradbury uses a variety of ironic symbols, endeavoring to make the reader get into the ironic feel of the book. However, being the devoted Christian Bradbury is, he fits in a small point of salvation into the end, expressing how with hope anything is possible. Having the bombs descend onto the city was somewhat unexpected, yet it had an exact purpose. Bradbury wanted to stress to the reader that there is a romantic twist concluding the novel, and that a new life has been formed.
Ignorance is usually created by tremendous censorship, yet is sometimes caused by obstinacy. It is simple to abide by the status quo and take no risks in life. However, those who choose to veer away from this trail are the ones who acquire knowledge, and become individual. They fear less, for they know more about what will happen as opposed to wondering it. Once all knowledge has vanished from the earth, humanity will truly have a reason to remain in fear.
