Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language:  The “mild” swear words are used abundantly.  Many oaths sworn using the name of Diety.  A couple of other swear words used.

Violence:  America starts into a war.  There are military movements referenced.  Guy Montag’s city is destroyed by a bomb.  Montag is a book burner.  Homes containing books are destroyed.  Mechanical hounds chase Montag on a man-hunt through the city and countryside.

Adult Content:  This book deals with a government-influenced society where all personal thought is discouraged.  It is a crime to read and own books.  Censorship, book burning, and manipulation of thought are themes.

Synopsis

Guy Montag is a fireman in a futuristic American city.  But in this society, firemen do not put out fires, they start them.  The target object of the fireman’s flame is books.  For ten years, Montag hasn’t questioned his nightly duties, until a teenager, Clarisse, shares her world of thought, discovery and beauty with him, thus stirring an intellectual awakening within himself.  Montag steals a book from a burning home, reads it and further doubts his own life.  He comes in contact with Faber, an old man who loves  books, but has remained quiet to save himself.  Faber is supportive and helpful of Montag’s new goals.  Beatty, the fire chief, suspects Montag’s changing views and eagerly responds to the latest fire alarm—the one that takes them to Montag’s own home.  Montag kills Beatty and becomes a fugitive chased by a mechanical hound.  He is able to escape and finds a group of book lovers who are living in the countryside.

Fahrenheit 451 was written in 1953.  The futuristic American society described was thought to be hundreds of years away.  Interestingly enough, several ideas in the book have become common place in society today.  For example, huge televisions that hang on “parlor” walls and noisily televise programs 24 hours a day.  Small “seashell shaped” ear pieces that broadcast music and information remind me of iPODs.  Or people moving about at top speed who never pause to reflect, think for themselves, enjoy nature or have meaningful conversations.  I’ve been guilty of all of the above.  The author’s message of the importance of reading books is summed up in my favorite sentence, “There is more than one way to burn a book.”   Like leaving them on the shelf to gather dust! The degeneration of society starts with the erosion of each individual. I can see why my son’s 10^th grade honors English class read this book.