Living Life Isn't Just Surviving

Author's Note: This is my final essay for Fahrenheit 451. I tried doing a more positive message this time.

An empty, hollow shell of what once was, mindlessly doing what is supposed to be done and not even thinking that this could be wrong. Montag is this perfect, mindless zombie until he meets Clarisse, the one who breathes life back into the dead and awakens him to the nightmare world his life has become in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Montag finds a visceral feeling what he must do. He must save the books that have been outlawed and memorize them for future generations. It's this ultimate quest for the true meaning of life that this novel really speaks to. Life has a greater value than any earthly material and is the most just cause mankind has ever imagined.

People used to value life so much that taking a life was blasphemy and the throwing away a life was the biggest of tragedies. Ray Bradbury twists this notion until it's completely unrecognizable. With people running over others with their cars and not caring whether that person lived or died, or purposely driving recklessly because they don't care if they live or die. In normal society these things are exceedingly rare but in Fahrenheit 451 these strange happenings are given almost no thought because they happen so often. These deaths really show how life is the theme of the novel. If everyone else is suicidal why does Montag choose a different path? He's trying to find the true meaning in life.

There is no other reason that Montag and the other scholars would sacrifice everything they have, other than for life in its purest form. They used to kill people just for owning books, which contained ideas. They thought this was all fine and dandy, until they got too curious and read the books. What they saw was ideas and it's these ideas that fuel life. They abandoned their old lives and memorized the books to carry on life and to awaken those they met who were dead to the world. Living with a dead mind isn't living at all.

Having a dead mind is sought after by the weak and they try to force it onto the rest of society because they fear the challenges that come with life. The standard fireman in Fahrenheit 451 is a perfect example of this weak mind. They do as told and fear the books that represent the truth in life. They react violently and burn the books and the ones that own them because they live a true life. Their twisted vision sees life as evil and death as good. They don't care what happens to them. It's why Montag ultimately sacrifices his own sanity for the cause of life. No earthly sensation or material can compare to life in its purest form.