The Impact Of Ignorance On Human Morality

Beatty is the fire chief and everyone is feared by him. Beatty tries to stop Montag on going down the road of believing books are not a bad thing, he himself has gone down that road and does not believe it is one worth traveling. Shortly after Montag kills Beatty he realizes that he wanted to die, all this time he wanted to be a character of his own book and after he died he finally was. Beatty had wished he could forget his past life and be happy like everyone else. Captain Beatty did not feel that books provided him with enough information about life he felt as if all the pages in the book were blank. He believes that books only lead to confusion and thought, which should be avoided at all

Ignorance vs. knowledge is a very apparent theme in the Book “Fahrenheit 451". It is

Bradbury also serves to warn us of the danger of ignorance in this futuristic dystopia. This again is reflective of the Nazi book burnings and the idea of people leaving behind knowledge and becoming ‘blissfully’ ignorant of the past. In Fahrenheit 451 the fireman's responsibility is to destroy knowledge and promote ignorance in order to ensure equality. Ignorance, however, promotes suicide, poor decisions, and empty lives. When Beatty discovers Montag's hidden collection of books, he explains that all firemen become curious of books, and may have time to explore them for a short time before disposing of them. He then tells Montag about the state of the world: people are made

Towards the end of the passage, Montag threatens Beatty with a fire hose, prompting a lengthy dialogue from Beatty. Beatty responds to Montag’s threats with an allusion to Shakespeare, saying, “‘There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm’d so strong in honesty that they pass by me as an idle wind, which I respect not!’ How’s that?” Beatty’s ease and familiarity with Shakespeare confirm that Beatty has definitely read books, and that he is an intelligent man has some notion of what books have held deep within their pages. In this way, Beatty is similar to Montag, he is another book burner that is knowledgeable about literature. What separates the two is that Beatty is simply unable to diverge from societal norms, and his stubbornness takes over and refuses to admit the worth of books. This differs greatly from Montag, who is finally starting to rebel against society. In this same scene, Beatty also taunts Montag when the fire hose is pointed at him, urging Montag to, “Go ahead now, you second-hand litterateur, pull the trigger.” While this may have just been Beatty egging Montag on, later on Beatty’s lack of resistance seems to suggest that Beatty really didn’t care whether or not he died. Moments before his death, Beatty simply says, “‘Hand it over, Guy,” and then proceeds to smile as he knows he is about to be burnt. Through dialogue, Bradbury is able to reveal information about Beatty’s background and knowledge of books, as well as his

Captain Beatty is a very persuading man, and is down right serious to most people, But he has a soft side. He shows compassion towards people though he can be serious and sometimes mean. Beatty says, “What traitors books can be! You think they’re backing you up, and then they turn on you. Others can use them, too, and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor, in a great welter of nouns and verbs and adjectives (Bradbury 238)”. Beatty shows compassion and mood towards the audience; He says what books truly are. This is showing a better understanding of how Captain Beatty feels towards books, and how “nouns, verbs, and adjectives” affect people and

Beatty uses his knowledge to attack Montag after the fireman has made the decision to join the radicals and to oppose the burning of books. Montag returns to the fire station in order to surrender a book, creating the illusion of conforming to Beatty’s expectations. Before Montag has an opportunity to speak Beatty begins to confound him with contradictory statements from

The people of the world of Fahrenheit 451 didn’t understand the deeper meanings of books, and feared the ideas they could put into people’s minds, so they burned them and put people owning them on trial. Mainly people of authority, like Captain Beatty of the firemen, thought people would be more manageable and better to each other if they didn’t have conflict. Books posed conflicts and made people think about how they could better their flaws, which gave people opinions, which can only lead to fighting, according to this world’s government. "Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this

In this society, it is important to read a book for own knowledge. However, in novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, people are not allowed to read any book nor have any desires to read. They do not know the importance of the book. However, in this novel, three people influence Montag that human should read books and allows him to realize how important it is to do so.

In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, censorship plays a significant role in the dystopian society. The novel illustrates what it would be like if the government had full control of what society reads, watches, or communicates. According to Bradbury, this perpetuates ignorance because society blindly obeys the government. Most people in the novel are unaware of their unhappiness with society, including Mildred, Guy Montag’s wife, who almost commits suicide by mistakenly taking an entire bottle of sleeping pills. Censorship has a great effect on the personalities and knowledge of the people in the society. The society is essentially “trapped” in a toxic world filled with ignorance (Mogen 105). The government feels by controlling all forms of media, society should be cooperative and happy; however, once citizens become distracted by the consequences of owning and reading books, unhappiness and chaos occur. Reading books promotes knowledge, which encourages people to think, but because of censorship, the society has become ignorant.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 presents readers with multiple themes. In the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, books are banned and firemen create fires instead of putting them out. Bradbury portrays the society as dystopian. Bradbury crafted the novel to be interpreted intellectually. The characters claim to be happy. However, the reader can conclude otherwise. Bradbury creates a question for the reader to answer: Is ignorance bliss or does the ability to think for oneself create happiness? Bradbury shows the importance of self-reflection, happiness and the ability to think for oneself as well as isolation due to technology, and the importance of nature and animals. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury conveys the stories’ themes through characterization and symbols.

Would you rather have awareness of the world around you or just be completely oblivious? In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, you clearly don't have a choice. Bradbury uses figurative language, symbolism, and biblical references in the book to express Bradbury’s concern about how powerful governments manipulate citizens.

The last way Ray Bradbury proved in that it is better to know the truth about your life than live in ignorance in Fahrenheit 451 is how after Montag got a purpose in his live it opened his eyes to a different world and showed him his old life was a lie. He actually started to be happy opposed to just thinking he was happy while living in ignorance. The first time you realize that Montag started off living in ignorance is after he is asked if he is happy he laughs and says “Happy! Of all the nonsense, He stopped laughing. (10)” This quote shows that Montag had thought he was happy but actually shows that he was just happy in ignorance. After Montag learns the truth about his life it opens his eyes to a new world of literature. Montag’s lack of knowledge about books is demonstrated when he is talking to Faber on page 85 and says “Are things like that in books? But it came off the top of my mind.” This is significant because it shows that Montag is

“Then, moaning, she ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator. He caught her, shrieking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him scratching,” (63). In the novel Fahrenheit 451 follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his interactions with society discouraging and encouraging his discovery of the illegal books. Along the way he understands who are the poisonous people in his dystopian world and who are not; changing his perspective to lose trust in his wife Mildred, from previous quote, and finding safety with Faber, a retired professor he came by one day in a park. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the author demonstrates the idea that when there is censorship in the world, ignorance will follow because when a subject is hidden from one anything they do regarding it is under the impression of their lack of knowledge surrounding the topic, this becomes more relevant when Ray Bradbury acknowledges the emotions of people who have read books and whom haven't and their general opinions of them.

We as humans tend to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We look for knowledge about everybody and everything that surrounds us from our day-to-day life. Sadly though, we must accept that in the grand scheme of life we (as a society) tend to put pleasure above our quest for knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge tends to take time and energy, two things we call invaluable, and it also shows us things that might depress us. Contrastingly, ignorance takes no time and energy. Also, (as the common saying goes) ignorance is bliss. It keeps ugly truths away from us. But that is no reason to forsake knowledge for ignorance. In the early 1900’s, two books were published that would eventually be referred to the pinnacle of classical literature. The Great Gatsby and Fahrenheit 451 both stand out as stunning literary works. But their success is not the only thing they share. Though they are very dissimilar in setting as well as genre, the two books have the same theme. The theme is the universal message the book is trying to inform the readers about. Fitzgerald and Bradbury both convey the theme of the pursuit of knowledge versus the pleasure of ignorance in The Great Gatsby and Fahrenheit 451.

In an effort to gain control of people and create a sterile environment, independent thought is censored and people are brain-fed what they are supposed to think so that there are no clashing opinions. The social phenomenon of marginalizing accords lesser importance to a group of people, which in turn results in the rest of society looking down upon that group of people and becoming intolerant. From this, both an intolerant and ignorant society is created because people become oblivious of their surroundings after being told how to think and behave, and intolerant to those that chose to live their life apart from the societal norms. When Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, describes the oblivious, almost dead-like state of the book’s futuristic society, he implies that people have been forced to become ignorant to their environment because they have been compelled to their devices, to be away from things that may constitute controversial opinions. Bradbury emphasizes the ignorance of that society through the character of Clarisse McClellan, a girl curiously enticed by her surroundings, who criticizes the lack of livingness of people in that society when she argues that, “I sometimes think drivers don’t know what the colour of grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly.” (pg.6) Clarisse is emphasizing how suppressing the ideas of people that try to be different, pushes them to conform to the traditional manners of society, which is ignorance. Evidence of intolerance and ignorance in society can be recognized in the article Please offend me – and let me offend you by University Professor Pablo Martin de Holan, when he contends that suppressing the thoughts of individuals in society causes intolerance and ignorance. In his article, Holan laments that, “Offensive (by the listener’s standards) speech is less and less accepted, as we become more