Human Instinct In Fahrenheit 451

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Ray Bradbury published Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. Fahrenheit 451 is about Guy Montag, in a futuristic city where books are outlawed and firemen are the ones burning them. Fireman start fires rather than putting them out, televisions characters are treated like family and watched on room-sized television sets, and everyone is always in a hurry. People's minds are blank and their movements are carefully choreographed into a repetitive routine. Montag, who is a fireman, meets Clarisse McLellan, a seventeen year old girl who believes in literature and rain and all things beautiful. By showing him things in nature and asking him questions about himself, she gives him the key to being happy. In Guy Montag, Bradbury creates a character with severe mind/body disconnect because he wants to show that there is a natural human instinct to preserve or be knowledgeable of nature and the past, even in a society brainwashed by technology. In the …show more content…
Montag’s hands are always searching for literature, despite the consequences. The hands frequently act on on their own accord, stealing literature and bringing hope. “His hand had done it all, his hand, with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief. Now, it plunged the book back under his arm, pressed it tight to sweating armpit, rushed out empty, with a magician’s flourish” (35). When Montag visits Faber, Bradbury conveys hope for literature and poetry. Even if the hope in society is not fulfilled, it is still always there. “Faber held his hand over his left coat pocket and spoke these words gently, and Montag knew if he reached out, he might pull a book of poetry from the man’s coat. But he did not reach out. His hands stayed on his knees, numbed and useless”
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