When I think of fire fighters, I think of brave men with bulging muscles and facial hair. I think of men who risk their own lives to save others. Some people may think of them as heroes or protectors. Yet, the book Fahrenheit 451 begins with the quote, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” (Page 1) This personally put a twist on what I thought about the book, right from the start. As far as I know, firefighters don’t start fires just so they can put them out, or enjoy watching things burn to a crisp.

      The book started off a lot slower than I thought it was going to, especially because of the first line. I expected it to be a very upbeat book with action of fires and books. At first, it was shocking how they would burn houses and even keep the people in them, but then I connected it to today’s world. The society tries to conform us all into groups, such as Christians, gays, black or white, and that’s somewhat like their society. The book then took a turn and slowed the pace, which made it hard to stay focused for me. It also was confusing for the first 30 pages or so and that was rough to try and read. After it began to explain Clarisse and why she was so important to this book, it began to make more sense. The quote, “One two three four five six seven days. And as many times he came out of the house and Clarisse was there somewhere in the world. Once he saw her shaking a walnut tree, once he saw her sitting on the lawn knitting a blue sweater, three or four times he found a bouquet of late flowers on his porch, or a handful of chestnuts in a little sick, or some autumn leaves neatly pinned to a sheet of white paper and thumb tacked to his door,” (Page 25) and it really opened my eyes as to why she was featured in this book. She changed Montag’s whole thought process. She showed him that you don’t have to conform to the world, just to try and fit in. You should express yourself and be who you are.

      As for the characters, Clarisse and Montag were the most important characters in my perspective. Clarisse had a large impact on Montag’s life and she is the main reason as to why he had changed. It’s interesting to see him go from someone who was conformed to the society to someone who stored books and went against what was considered to be right and normal.

      I wasn’t exactly pleased with how the book had ended, leaving me surprised that the city had just suddenly gotten no bed. There wasn’t much talk about the war though the book, and then suddenly the whole city had gotten bombed. It was quite a surprise, but maybe that was the way that it was intended to be. Yet, I did enjoy this quote at the end of the book, “Each man had a book he wanted to remember, and I did.” (Page 146) I thought this was significant because he wasn’t afraid to hide the fact that he loved books anymore.

      Overall, I didn’t think the book was too bad, especially because of some other ones that I have had to read on school before. There were a few things I probably would’ve changed, but I really enjoyed reading it overall. It wasn’t too bad of a book!