Optimism In Fahrenheit 451

Even though the events in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 were mainly pessimistic, such as the nonexistent individualism and self-hate of the wife and other members of society that leads to suicide attempts, or the fact that firefighters must burn and destroy any houses where books are found, the last pages of the novel bring optimism and hope to an otherwise extraordinarily pessimistic storyline. Regardless of his final intent for the novel, the author does have many negative thoughts about the future. An example of this is when the wife of the main character, Mildred, overdoses on sleeping pills in an attempt at suicide. The medics are robotic and are designed to save her, indicating that overdosing is a fairly common …show more content…
Written in the very last pages of the text, when Montag finally escapes his tyrannical city, he finds a band of wanderers who have memorized literature in attempt to save knowledge and lessons from the past. The group tells Montag that "That's the wonderful thing about man. He never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well that it is important and worth the doing (Bradbury 72)." The author is inspired by historical events of the past, which emphasizes his point that history repeats itself. He compares his fictional society with the Dark Ages, which inflicted Europe hundreds of years ago. With literacy being almost extinct, the arts of medicine and politics had very little structure or reason. Bradbury's city parallels this time in history. With the ending of the Middle Ages' vicious Hundred Year's War, the Renaissance brought art, literature, and enlightenment to Europe. If Bradbury intends to mimic the Medieval era, he is also implying that when the bombs eliminate the city and end the conflict, it might plunge this futuristic world into yet another age of rebirth. Man's ability to move on and discover will always prevail through the greatest of difficulties, because he knows it is vital to

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