Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Allegory Of The Cave

Words: 2043
Pages: 9

Innocent fades as one grows up in exchange for knowledge. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury, talks about Guy Montag on his journey trying to understand the reality of his dystopian society where books are burned and outlawed. Montag meets many people on his journey and trying to understand why books are bad or good after listening to many different views and opinions. Similar to Fahrenheit 451, Allegory of the Cave from the book Republic written by Plato describes the prisoner going through a series of phase to learn the reality after witnessing the distorted truth in the dark cave. Guy Montag mirrors the prisoner’s journey after his interactions with people that represent the phrase that the prisoner goes through from illusion …show more content…
Montag learns the perspective of captain Beatty on why books are outlawed while the prisoner walks outside of the cave and sees the reflection of the real world from the water. Captain Beatty visits Montag after he feigns from wondering whether the firemen are doing the right thing and explains “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag” (Bradbury 57). Captain Beatty gives his perspective on the books by saying they are the root of problems in the society. Since books create knowledge and knowledge creates differences in opinion, which leads to conflict because people are not able to agree with one another. Beatty is very credible since he also reads books while showing vast literary knowledge against the presence of books in the society. He warns Montag to be careful about the books and preventing him from discovering more about his newly founded knowledge. Captain Beatty is the antagonist in the book because he is shutting down learning, discovery, wisdom and knowledge with his authoritarian nature. This shows that Montag learns a little more about the history of the books and firefighters thus symbolizing that Montag is progressing about his society. In Allegory of the …show more content…
Montag meets with Granger and the prisoner looking at the sun mark the stage that both achieve the enlightenment. When Montag runs away to escape the police, Montag meets Granger, the leader of the literacy group, while Granger explaining “All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need, intact and safe. We’re not out to incite or anger anyone yet. For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for good...We’ll pass the books on to our child, by words of mouth” (Bradbury 145-146). Granger accepts Montag and encourages him to memorize all the books he wants to read while offering him hope as Granger tries to build a new and better future. Granger can be symbolized as knowledge and hope since he is the bringer of knowledge with his intellectual group to rebuild an illiterate society from scratch. “We’re not out to incite or anger anyone yet” shows that the group is really peaceful and their only purpose is to save knowledge and pass it on to the future generation. This is when Montag reaches the enlightenment because, in order to change the society, he needs to memorize countless books and pass on that knowledge for the future uses. Similar to Montag, the prisoner in Allegory of the Cave achieves enlightenment when he is able to look at the sun. When the prisoner looks at the sun, he will contemplate his own proper place and believe that the sun is the truth, since it