In a world where all trace of books are destroyed, is  where Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, “Fahrenheit 451 ,” takes place. In this suburban city located in the US, firefighters turn books into ashes. Montag, an on duty firefighter is able to see through the corrupt society he is living in. But he and everyone else that thinks different is punished for this, even though they believe it is the right thing to do. This shows the reader one of the many lessons, just because everyone around you is doing something, that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

From the start of the novel, the author describes the setting showing the readers the corrupt society around the people. If you are smarter or in some way different from the rest, you are punished. In the beginning of the book it states that, “People are afraid of firemen,” This leads Montag to ponder about his actions of being an on duty firefighter. This makes him start to  change how he acts. But this also messes with his normal life. And yet he continues to do these things because Montag is able to see through the dark society that is portrayed throughout the entire story.

Towards the middle of the story, the author continues to provide detailed descriptions on how Montag feels. Through this we can tell that Montag is now almost certain that the government is wrong about books being so corrupt, and yet he is still confused. But he decides anyway to commit even more crimes. In the novel, Montag reads a poem out loud and he is the only one not scared by it. This shows the reader that maybe Montag is doing the right thing and that books are good for the future of the society.

Then finally at the end of the book, now Montag is assured that he is doing the right thing through lots of evidence. For example, Montag says, “One of them has to stop burning.” This means he strongly believes in this because throughout the novel he is constantly informed through actions and words about the society, and through his interpretation he determines that what he is doing is right.

This all makes sense, but there is another side to the story. The government could be right in banning books and controlling the people’s decisions that they make. In the beginning of the book it states, “Books were first burned to get rid of English influence on colonists.” So getting rid of books may help the people so they aren’t under a bad influence and have the people rise against them. Because then they would lose their power, so they have to inforce these rules. But if you looked at this from another angle, you would realize that in a democracy, the government shouldn’t have all the power. The power should be divided evenly throughout the people of that place. This is why I  think the a moral of the story is that you should always do what you think is right, not just follow the crowd.