How To Conquer The World - Step 1: Get A Cape

Guy Montag is a fugitive, but it wasn't always like that. He used to be a fireman; he would burn books, and then he would burn the ashes. Now, he hides books; and runs away with them.

Guy is on the run, the government is persecuting him and they have got another Hound after Guy too. He luckily escapes from the city and manages to circumvent the televised chase. He ends up in the river and jumps inside, Guy just lets himself flow downstream. When Montag finally gets out of the river, he finds the old railroads and not much later, finds the walking camps. These are people that are also fugitives for hiding books, their leader is a man named Granger. He tells Guy that all of these people memorize a book so that they can pass the knowledge to other generations without getting caught. Watching the chase on T:V., Montag finds out that the government killed someone who looked like him in order to make citizens believe that crimes were not taken lightly. In the distance, the city Guy just escaped from ends up destructed from bombings. War had been declared days before and now, everybody was surely dead. Guy hoped that professor Faber had been able to leave the town before the bombing took place. Although the group of exiles were a bit shocked because of the bombing, they are not incapable of continuing their path. Granger tells the other exiles about how before Christ, existed a phoenix that every hundred years would burn itself up and would sprang up from the ashes right after. He compares the phoenix to mankind since men tend to start again over a failure. They continue their path to the poor excuse of what used to be a city so they can help rebuild society.

“ ´There was a silly bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up….But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the silly thing we just did. We know all the silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation.´ ” (163)

This movie is about how we should keep
moving forward even if it looks like we´ve
already lost.

 This quote is said by Granger to all of the exiles when they are about to go back to the city. I find it quite interesting how the author compares mankind to a mythological bird associated with rebirth. I agree with the author though, there have been countless of times when humanity had no other choice but to rebuild themselves due to past nonsense they had committed. For example, Germany had suffered heavy losses during World War II but were able to rebuild themselves as a country. About 7.5 million Germans had been killed and most of its cities were damaged due to bombing but Germans still managed to keep moving forward and, by 1991; Germany was allowed to become fully sovereign. This is why I think that, as a whole, humanity does resemble a phoenix and that its values have not perished totally.

“ ´He was a part of us when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I've never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands. He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.’ ” (156)

This quote is said by Granger to Guy just before the city is bombarded. Turns up that Granger´s grandfather died a long time ago but his actions still have an impact on Granger's life. I think that all of us should make an impact in the world or in someone. I think that we should all accomplish something in our lifetimes that we are proud of and can look back to. I also think that if you want to do something then you should do it right and hopefully be remembered for it. I hope that stuff that I do won´t be replaced in the future since the way I do things is unique and different from everybody else and I hope that what I do won't be forgotten forever.

So, I finished the book. First of all, I would like to say: WOW! I wasn't expecting the end, but truth is, I don't know what I was expecting. Fahrenheit 451 has taught me a lot of things but the main one is that our own willpower can do great things if it's strong enough. This novel taught me that even the people who look the happiest might be hiding something and that there will always be people who will see a brighter future while living a gloomy present. Also, I really, really hope that this book does not become reality because I would not like to see a reality where mankind has failed as a whole. Anyway, I don't know what to do now since the book is over, but I'll figure something out (I always do).