Montag is fortunate to meet Clarisse early in the book, as she opens up to him how numb his life has become. He might have a high status job, but his life has become one of routinized conformity. Listening to her talk about what she does, which shows she has freed herself to live on her own terms, Montag is struck with the realization of his own unhappiness and lack of freedom. She says to him:
I rarely watch the 'parlour walls' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.
Clarisse's words shows she lives freely, or as Beatty will later say, is a misfit who asks too many questions. All through the book, Beatty tries to frame freedom as a burden and a problem. Nevertheless, Montag's encounter with Clarisse radicalizes him, and he pursues his own path from then on, primarily the freedom to read and think.
Granger counsels Montag on freedom after he escapes the city and the Mechanical Hound. He says you can't force people to accept your ideas. It has to come from free choice:
But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them.
Granger also advises Montag to embrace a radical freedom. This is the opposite of the security Montag's old society offered him in exchange for his freedom to think, question, or forge his own path:
Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal.
After the atomic blast destroys his city, Montag thinks about how free he and the other men are who have memorized books. He is excited by the prospect of the life ahead, even if it will be harder than the life he is leaving behind:
We'll just start walking today and see the world and the way the world walks around and talks, the way it really looks. I want to see everything now.
In this classic novel by Ray Bradbury, the government censors books and prohibits intellectualism. The novel's antagonist, Captain Beatty, is a staunch proponent of censorship and conformity. During a conversation with Montag, Captain Beatty tells him,
A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?
Books, and everything they convey, represent intellectual freedom and personal expression, both of which threaten the government's authoritative reign. Beatty comparing a book to a loaded gun emphasizes the lack of freedom in Bradbury's dystopia.
During a conversation with Professor Faber, Montag is told,
Books can be beaten down with reason. But with all my knowledge and skepticism, I have never been able to argue with a one-hundred-piece symphony orchestra, full color, three dimensions, and I being in and part of those incredible parlors.
According to Faber, reading and exercising one's intellect is the epitome of personal freedom. While reading, individuals exercise their freedom of thought, which is something that cannot happen while watching the distracting, loud parlor walls. The parlor walls and mainstream media are the government's way of suppressing intellectualism and limiting personal freedoms.
Professor Faber also elaborates on the importance of independent thought by telling Montag,
But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.
Individuality is an extension and expression of personal freedom, which is oppressed by the authoritative regime. Faber encourages Montag to exercise his individuality by challenging the government and warns him about becoming a passive, thoughtless member of the majority. Fortunately, Montag takes Faber’s advice and ends up fleeing the dystopian nation to exercise his individuality among the traveling intellectuals.
In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, freedom is a theme that is explored and contrasted with the heavily oppressed lives that the characters of Fahrenheit 451 live.
On page 150, Granger passionately says to the novel's protagonist, Montag, “Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
Through this declaration, Granger speaks to the need for the human spirit to experience a freedom that cannot be constructed by a ruling state or corporation. He implores Montag to experience the freedom that exists in the hearts and minds of every person, should that person choose to unchain himself from the shackles of an oppressive society and truly experience the natural beauty of the world around him.
On page 52, Mildred implores Montag to leave her alone, and, in turn, Montag replies: “Let you alone! That’s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”
Montag is lamenting the lack of meaning in his controlled life. He speaks to the need for humans to be able to be affected by, and react to, their environments. In Montag's life, his ability to be impacted in meaningful ways by the world is stifled by an oppressive state. In order for an individual to be free, one must be able to experience true meaning in life.
On pages 84–85, Faber tells Montag that there are three things necessary to change the world. He asserts that "Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."
This quote is significant to the theme of freedom in the novel, as Faber speaks to the importance of the freedom to receive uncensored information, the freedom to consider this information, and the freedom to carry out actions in response to information.
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