I recently finished reading Fahrenheit 451 for my English class.
I found the premise of the novel interesting, but until I finished it I didn't really think about any sort of connection to the world we currently live in. In the story, books have become illegal and the job of firemen has changed from putting out fires to setting books on fire. Only about 1/3 of the way through did I manage to find any sort of connection between this and the overtone. In the story, everyone is completely desensitized to the world around them. They don't care about anything. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
What really disturbed me though was the connection I managed to draw between that and the world as we know it. At one point my English teacher told us about some kids in Denver who shot a jogger purely out of boredom. When they were arrested, they didn't even TRY to cover that up! They literally claimed they shot the guy because they were bored. No alibi, no subtext, nothing. They just came right out and said that.
The connection I drew was that the more I think about the events of the novel, the more I feel like the society we live in is turning into that society.
The point of these science fiction stories is to make a point. They serve to critique human nature and what human beings need to change about themselves. So when a book as iconic as Fahrenheit 451 can't get that through people's heads, it's more than a little worrying.
I found the premise of the novel interesting, but until I finished it I didn't really think about any sort of connection to the world we currently live in. In the story, books have become illegal and the job of firemen has changed from putting out fires to setting books on fire. Only about 1/3 of the way through did I manage to find any sort of connection between this and the overtone. In the story, everyone is completely desensitized to the world around them. They don't care about anything. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
What really disturbed me though was the connection I managed to draw between that and the world as we know it. At one point my English teacher told us about some kids in Denver who shot a jogger purely out of boredom. When they were arrested, they didn't even TRY to cover that up! They literally claimed they shot the guy because they were bored. No alibi, no subtext, nothing. They just came right out and said that.
The connection I drew was that the more I think about the events of the novel, the more I feel like the society we live in is turning into that society.
The point of these science fiction stories is to make a point. They serve to critique human nature and what human beings need to change about themselves. So when a book as iconic as Fahrenheit 451 can't get that through people's heads, it's more than a little worrying.