It Was a Pleasure to Burn: A Review of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

By Seoyeon Claudia Kim '28  • Nov 10, 2025

Cover of Fahrenheit 451 —Ray Bradbury’s timeless warning against censorship and conformity.

Introduction

Fahrenheit 451, a novel written by Ray Bradbury, takes place in a dystopian society where books are banned by the government. In this society, firefighters are figures that burn books and arrest those who possess books; they are not the ordinary firefighters who put out fires. The protagonist, Guy Montag is a firefighter, who begins to uncover the uncanny reality of burning books. Although he shows an optimistic attitude towards book burning at first; the novel starts with him saying that it was a pleasure to burn them, as the story continues, he encounters diverse people, and his curiosity towards books grows. The curiosity grows to lead to Montag’s discovery of his true nature as a preserver of books. Through illustrating a dystopian world, the novel focuses on highlighting the dangers of the government being in control of individuals. Bradbury also focuses on the growing attention towards TVs during the 1950s when the book was published, and warns people of overly relying on it. In addition, Fahrenheit 451 is often considered a prophetic novel, it precisely captures the modern society’s over reliance on technology and the side effects of being alienated and isolated due to overly relying on technology. To better understand the reality of today’s society, understanding the context of this novel allows one to gain an insight about the topic. 

Analysis

The novel delivers the story of Guy Montag’s change in perceiving books, and its influence in his life. Montag is a diligent fireman; he does his assigned deed without questioning, and is a hardworking husband to his wife Mildred. However, his core beliefs in perceiving life starts to change as he encounters his neighbor who asks him questions that no one had ever asked him before, Montag thinks this action is quite peculiar; others tend to not like firemen, and aren’t curious about life. A crisis of a woman being burnt with her books comes as a huge shock to him, as he has never seen anyone prioritize books over their life. This further alters Montag’s conception about life, and provokes his curiosity in books. He succeeds in stealing a book and starts to read it at home. He first thought that there would be some kind of magic in them; magic that leads one to become solely addicted to them, but he finds out that there is no magic of any kind. While Montag shows immense attention in books, Mildred finds books boring. She rather enjoys exposing herself in the media, calling the people on TV her family and plugging earbuds even during sleep. After Montag is reported to have possessed books from Mildred and her friends, he kills his boss, Beatty, out of fear of him being in danger. He runs away from his house and floats over to a river. He encounters a group of bookkeepers after reaching land, who memorise books to preserve them. Montag becomes a part of them; his gradual change from a fireman who burns books to a bookkeeper who protects books.  

Fahrenheit 451 emphasis on topics of new technology, the alienation of individuals and the overcontrol of the government. By focusing on topics that are recently discussed, Bradbury left prophetic clues through the context of the novel. TVs were a new invention when the book was published. Bradbury foresaw the future of people becoming overly reliant on technology, spending the majority of their time looking at screens. Mildred uses earbuds in the novel, in desire for constant connection to exterior stimulations. People in the novel resemble the people today; they are alienated as everyone spends their time watching television. Furthermore, the government overly controls the citizens, forbidding them from reading books. Bradbury is highlighting the dangers of overcontrolment of the government. The writing in Fahrenheit 451 is regarded as modernism. Modernist writing was a genre of writing that was popular post WW1 and 2, and modernist writers tended to be skeptical towards new technology.

Bradbury uses long and descriptive sentences, and various literary devices in his writing. Rather than straightforwardly writing the novel, he uses descriptive language to set a tone or mood adequate for a scene. He uses metaphors and symbolism to highlight important themes that he talks about throughout the novel. His writing is quite fastly paced, the novel being only three chapters long, and showing the major change in Montag’s life. These huge changes are made quite gradually in reality, but it feels like the events in the novel are sudden rapid changes. 

Personal Thoughts

Fahrenheit 451 overall was a great read; the story itself was enjoyable and the way that the themes were conveyed in it was amusing. The concept was interesting; a book that talks about a world where books are banned. The symbolistic aspects such as the salamander, and sand and the sieve were perfectly melted into the text without making the story too complex. Literary devices that were used enhanced the reader to focus on the book, by implying a specific tone of the characters and the scenes.

However, I felt like the story was too fast paced, even though the story was focused on a significant change in Montag’s beliefs that largely influenced him. I personally think it would have been better if the story was longer; certain scenes were jumped under the short novel of 180 pages. Moreover, although the scenes talked throughout the story were detailed, it felt like other scenes could be mentioned as well. 

Fahrenheit 451 shares a similar idea with George Orwell’s 1984. The novels both take place in the near future of a dystopian society, and concepts of government’s overcontrol and individual’s isolation are talked about throughout the story. Fahrenheit 451 views the theme of government control through the action of burning books, and 1984 examines it through the presence of “Big Brother”. Although the plot itself is completely different, what the authors are trying to deliver through the context is similar. 

Conclusion

Overall, I’d give this book a rating of 4 out of 5. The storyline itself and the metaphorical content were impressive but the length of it was too short, and some scenes were missing to exquisitely illustrate Montag’s metamorphosis. The scenes mentioned were very detailed, but it felt like I skipped some pages under illustration of Montag’s significant changes. If the book was longer and detailed evenly through the whole plot, I would have given full points. I’d recommend this book to everyone living in the 21st century, where society is full of external stimuli and people rarely read books. By following Montag’s story, the readers will be able to look back on themselves and recognize the value in reading books.