Fahrenheit 451: What universal themes does this book address? What does the author understand about human nature?

I really think that one of the themes this book explores is that it is better to know the truth and be unhappy than to live a lie and be “happy”.  If you live a lie and are happy, the truth is, you aren’t really happy at all. It is better to know the truth and know in your soul that you are living and not “living”. Guy Montag is the character that represents this theme, I think. At one point in the book, Montag compares himself to the Hound. After Beatty says, “It doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think.” Montag says, “That’s sad, because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that’s all it can ever know.” ( Bradbury pg 25) Montag unknowingly admits that he feels the same way, though he doesn’t  outrightly say it. He feels like he doesn’t know something, like something is missing in his life, like he’s not realy living like he wants to. Later Montag even says, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing,” (Bradbury  pg. 78). He then begins searching for the truth of his life, and he believes that he can find this truth in books. Faber encourages this and says that books have pores and says, “The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life…” (Bradbury pg. 79).

This book also explores the power of knowledge.  This theme is especially expressed between Beatty and Montag. Beatty uses his knowledge of books to prove to Montag that he has the upper hand. He describes this by telling Montag about his dream where he and Montag fought using lines from books they had read (Bradbury pg 103). This knowledge that Beatty has is enough to discourage Montag, which shows that knowledge can be a very powerful tool in the wrong hands. Beatty also demonstrates the “power of knowledge” when he describes why books are banned. People want sameness and knowledge makes people different. It’s powerful . People fear it. (Bradbury pg 51-59). Montag also uses the knowledge he gains from reading books and realize the truth.

One major thing that is revealed about human nature in this book is that we as humans want truth. “People want to be happy,” as Beatty says on page 59, but what we really need to be happy is the truth. We want to know whats really going on. We don’t want to live a lie and go through life completely unaware, like Montag did before he started reading and discovering that there was more to life than what he knew. Montag is a man who wants truth, and he GOES OUT to find it.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.