Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. During his childhood, Bradbury would have these frightening dreams, which later he transformed into books. He became a full-time writer in 1943. He often mixes science fiction with social criticism and writes about the ruinous tendency in humans to use technology at the expense of mortality as seen in one of his many books, Fahrenheit 451. In this book the government destroyed books to prevent people from destructive thoughts. I think Bradbury heard about this (burning books) during World War II and heard about the horrors of Nazi Germany. I enjoyed this book because it was enlightening to read about a world reigned by mind control and how society is affected as a whole if something so familiar to us as books were taken away.
             I think this book was symbolic because it was about people's loss of freedom. Guy Montag lives in a world that allows no books. This is a society which discourages free-thoughts and opinion, two qualities which are mainly attributed to those who read. If people are found with books, the firemen burn the house containing the books and they are sent to prison. Montag, one of the firemen, realizes after ten years, that what this government is permitting is wrong and unjust, so he contacts a professor who educates him and becomes his accomplice in this so-called
             The message of this novel is to appreciate books and the knowledge and imagination they give us. Do not take knowledge and freedom for granted. We have to fight to keep both and if we are indifferent we may loose them. This is seen during the book when Montag reads a part of a poem to four old ladies he knows. After he has finished, one of them starts to cry. The others become angry with Montag, "I knew it would happen! I've always said poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness; all that mush! Now I've had it proved to me
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