It Was a Pleasure to Burn

Guy Montag is a fireman who has always been happy and fulfilled in his job. He's never questioned the purpose of book burning. He only knows what he's been told - books are bad because they cause unhappiness. He enjoys the thrill of setting a fire and the beauty of the flames.

His wife spends all day plugged into seashell earpieces or watching her television "

. . .
The ban on books began when books were deemed offensive; being censored until eventually the intolerance of differing voices leads to the ban of all books. At first, he thinks she is just odd, but then realizes that he looks forward to their chance meetings.

Montag’s dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the seashells and walls. This results in a lack of any voices at all, only a vacuous society. They are only vaguely aware that the country is at war. Montag's boss, Chief Beatty, sums up the sentiment of the society saying, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs. " The people of Montag's world live under that principle, though they don't know it, and believe ignorance is bliss. He begins to read the books he once burned and, along with a retired college professor named Faber, concocts a plan to disrepute the tyranny of censorship.

When Clarisse suddenly dies and he witnesses the death of an old woman (burned in her home with her treasured books), Montag decides to make some changes. " At night, she takes sleeping pills. Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with.

Common topics in this essay:
Chief Beatty, Guy Montag, Ray Bradbury's, , ban books,

Approximate Word count = 459
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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