In a world where firemen burn houses and knowledge is retained instead of shared, leads to a world that is starved of cognition and empathy. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the author utilizes the themes of rebellion and enlightenment to reveal his underlining messages to society. Bradbury utilizes the themes of Enlightenment and Rebellion to show the value and importance of the lack of education through a dystopian society. A society in which knowledge is withheld from one another is a society that forces oneself to rebel against societal norms.
A rebel without cause is someone who stands up for what they believe in because they believe it is a just and righteous cause. Rebellion forces us to stand up for …show more content…
This introduces the idea that Faber had an epiphany that he should have rebelled a long time ago. Faber had been emboldened and strengthened by Montag. Faber feels that by preserving the ideas in books, his action will matter significantly. A real life example of rebellion is the Warsaw Uprising. The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The Poles truly believed that it was time for them to stand up for themselves and become their own proud and independent nation. In addition, Rebellion makes us do things that we ordinarily would not do. “You always said, don’t face a problem, burn it. Well, now I’ve done both. Good bye Captain.” (Bradbury 115). This shows how Montag gets the last laugh when he turns to Beatty’s dead body and ironically replies with what Beatty has been telling him to do - to burn his problems; Montag literally …show more content…
Knowledge is power and those who have it, control it. This is shown when Faber says to Montag, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores.” (Bradbury 83). Here, Faber justifies why books are so important. Books contain the essential human experience of reality which the contemporary entertainment of parlour walls and radio seashells simulate in a false, distorted fashion. Humanity needs to have quality information, the time to digest it and the ability to act on what they have read. A real life example of enlightenment is an English computer scientist and mathematician, Alan Turing. Alan Turing was inspired to do something that had meaning to him, just like Montag had a passion for books and learning about them. Alan Turning had a passion for solving complex puzzles like crosswords, machines and codes. Turing pursued his interests and ultimately cracked the biggest code known to man – the Enigma. He developed a machine that broke the Enigma and helped Britain win the war. The Enigma was a device used by the German military command to encode strategic messages before and during World War II. Turing’s interests in breaking Enigma ultimately lead to the production of Colossus, the world’s first digital programmable computer. Turing followed his passions and as a