Ray Bradbury’s dystopian story, ”Fahrenheit 451,” takes place in the 24th century- where the government has switched from knowledge to ignorance. Montag, a fireman who burns books with potential illegal knowledge, starts to wonder why books are so bad in the first place. He meets Clarisse, a 17 year old girl, who sees the world so differently than he does. Montag begins to wonder what these books hold inside, and eventually steals a book and reads it. One lesson the story suggests is that curiosity can have dangerous potential.

 

In the beginning of the story, the introduction shows that Montag has no doubt that fire is so mesmerizing; ”The bright orange flames dancing with the ashes.” After walking home one night, he claims to see a woman; ”Her face is said to be as bright as snow.” That woman, turned out to be Clarisse, the teenager who starts to stir up his curiosity. With her known quote; ”Don’t firemen prevent fires, and not get them going?” Montag began to wonder what he was really doing in the first place; ”That phrase made Montag question for a long time, what did he do wrong?” He goes to work the next day, reading his job’s slogan in his mind; ”Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Falker. Burn ’em to ashes.” After that, he realizes what he’s doing could be wrong, and wants to make a change.

 

By the middle of the story, Montag gains more curiosity about more subjects. His wife, Mildred, who is addicted to her ”TV family”, is beginning to drift away from him for good. This gets Montag extremely tense and begins to ask questions; ”Mildred, do you love ”him”, or, do you even love me?” Looking at the quote given, Montag’s love for Mildred begins to fade as his curiosity grows about her ”TV family”.

After this, Montag is called into the firehouse to do a task. He drives to a woman’s house. She appears to have many illegal books, which she refuses to give up. After countless times of trying to make her give them up, Montag is eventually forced to burn the house along with the woman; ”The house began to fall like slaughtered birds and the woman stood below like a small girl.” He sees the books as they fall as well; ”While the books went up in sparkly whirls and blew away, leaving the scent of smoke behind.” After his task is done, he begins to wonder why the books were so important to her, that she would take her own life for them! The thought of it gets Montag angry; ”I haven’t decided. Right now I’ve got an awful feeling I want to smash and kill things.” This shows that his anger is brewing slowly.

 

Maybe it can show that the theme could be about risks, but it’s not in the full story. Although the story does show all the risks people have taken from protesting to the government, to protecting their books, this isn’t shown in the full story. Throughout the story, Montag is shown to be curious about the government decisions and decides to make a change that could potentially be harmful. While the theme of risks could be a claim, it isn’t expressed in the full story, so it would be difficult for it to be the main theme.

 

Near the end of the story, Montag curiosity goes extreme as he steals an illegal book. Captain Beatty, his main boss, soon finds out about this; ”Hand it over Guy, Beatty said with a fixed smile.” His nervousness with having the book is bluntly shown in the story; ”The people…tapping their feet. One two three, one two three, one two three. He thought nervously.” After Captain Beatty finds out about his illegal books, he tricks Montag into thinking that they are on another task. Beatty however, drives him to his house, with a plan to burn it into ashes.

”Why.” Montag said, ”We’ve stopped at my house!” After Montag realizes this, Captain Beatty goes right into burning the house; ”The flames rise like the midnight sun to sweat you.” Montag has had enough, he knew his curiosity has been taken to the extent of his problems. Now, Montag is filled with emotions of anger and frustration; ”Well, now you did it.” he said in anger.” Montag eventually has a plan, that is potentially dangerous. His idea is to kill Beatty; ”With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world.” Montag takes a flamethrower and sets it upon Beatty, eventually burning him into a crisp.

After this, authorities soon find out about this and send a Hound to find him. Soon, more authorities came after him, and they planned to capture him; ”A gunshot went off and blasted his leg, shots of pain in the system.” Even with this, he still feels the need to escape. He runs with the need for a new idea, a new life. As he finally stops to take a breath, he realizes he is no longer being chased. Montag rests for a few minutes, but he hear something in the distance, and the smell of smoke. He fallows the scent to find a group of men around a campfire. They end up being men who are against these laws as well. After that, he doesn’t feel alone.

 

He realizes what his curiosity has done, and looks back on the government.. He went through the pain of his mistakes and his heartbreaks. After the government fell, he officially leaves for good; ”The pain is left behind, but somehow Montag still felt grief.” He knew his mistakes had done harm, and wishes that he didn’t do them in the first place. Eventually, he goes with the thought of removing the past from himself and going to bright hopes for the future. When you feel the urge to change the world, no matter what it might be, curiosity can have dangerous potential.