Have you ever wondered when is the right time to break the law?
In the book, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman. His job is to burn books, instead of putting out fires. “Fahrenheit 451” is in a dystopian setting in which the people living in this society are not happy. Some of the citizens of this society knew they had to make a change, but nobody did anything. Everything changes when Montag takes a chance.
“ ‘ You can’t ever have my books,’ she said. ‘You know the law,’ said Beatty.” (Bradbury 42) During the rising action, Montag’s view of this society changed. After seeing the woman burn with her books, he knew that they must be a reason why the woman would die with her books. “Let’s not quibble over individuals with memoriums. Forget them. Burn all, burn everything.” (63) Once he realized that Beatty was wrong about books and how books were important to our lives, he knew he need to make a change before it was too late. Another well-known novel called, “The Giver”, has a similar conflict with Montag. In “The Giver”, the main character, Jonas, lives in a dystopia society. The citizens see no color and feel no love for each other. Montag and Jonas both knew that the civilization they live in isn’t right and the only way to make a change was to break the law and risk their life.
In Jonas’s society, they believe that everyone should be equal, no color, no love, and no memories of the past. The only people who were allowed to know the memories were The Giver and Receiver-in-training. When Jonas was in training and received many joyful and frightening memories, he learned that the society they live in wasn’t fair. “He felt such love for Asher and for Fiona. But they could not feel it back, without the memories.” (Lowry 135) Jonas wanted everyone to feel love the same way he did for The Giver, his family, and friends. “I’m grateful to you, Jonas, because without you I would never have figured out a way to bring about the change. But your role now is to escape. And my role is to stay.” (162) However, He knew that the only way to make that change was to escape and make the change for the community. Jonas and Montag had the same conflict, trying to save their society, but they had to break the law. They had to make sure it was worth the risk or else they will be dead. Montag had Faber to guild him through his journey the same way The Giver did to Jonas. Faber gave Montag an earpiece so he would know what to say and what to do with Faber’s knowledge. Even though they were planning to break the law and Montag couldn’t tell his wife, Mildred, because it was too dangerous. Jonas had to lie to his family and friends to keep them safe. In the end, both Montag and Jonas decided to break the law and run away. A society that believes in burning books and a community that doesn’t have color or love, needs to be saved. Montag and Jonas live in two diverse stories but have identical conflict with their society.
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