Indiviualism in Fahrenheit 451 :: Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451

A lot of the things we have today that are manmade came from people who dared to think outside of the box. There are not so good ideas that we learn from and there are also really great ideas from which we learn and benefit from. Ask yourself this how is society to grow, change, and develop if we only listen to how one person wants it to be. Individualism is belief in the primary importance of the individual and personal independence, it makes everyone unique. If there was not individuality high school life would be boring. You wouldn’t walk around seeing thousands of students wearing clothes that express who they are but instead you would see everyone wearing boring dull colors like our school colors for example. Need I say more. Part of the high school experience is everybody being their own individual self. “ All fords are a like but no two people are the same!” (Henry Ford). He saw himself in her eyes, suspended in in two shining drops of bright water, himself dark and tiny, in fine detail the lines about his mouth, everything there, as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact. (Bradbury 7) This quote is important because it shows what the government is doing and wants and also what Guy wants. The first part of the quote represents how Guy wants the society to let everyone be an individual. You ask yourself what does all of this have to do with Fahrenheit 451. If you said that the theme is individualism then I would say that you are close but no cigar. The theme of the book is what the author Ray Bradbury says about individuality. Bradbury shows how he fells about this through the character Guy Montag. Fahrenheit 451 has many examples. One is when Guy is running away from the mechanical hounds the community all open their doors: “at the count of ten now! One! Two! He felt the city rise. Three! He felt the city turn to its thousands of doors. Faster leg up, leg down! Four! The people sleep walking in their hallways. Five! He felt their hands on the door knobs! The smell of the river was cool and like solid rain. His throat burnt rust and his eyes were wept dry with running. He yelled as if this yell would jet him on, fling him the last hundred yards.