Fahrenheit 451

It is the future, and all books are banned. But after Guy Montag, the protagonist and a fire fighter whose job it is to burn books everywhere, meets Clarisse McLellan, his thoughts about books (and life) change forever. Although Montag is a man and Clarisse is only a teenager, the intimate details she shares about her family's life pique Montag's curiosity, interest in learning, and desire for authentic emotional connections. Viewed as outcasts in the oppressive  society in which the story occurs, Clarisse's family, all of them readers, spend their evenings sitting on the porch doing something others perceive as pointless, unthinkable, and even suspicious--talking and listening to one another.

While he and Clarisse do not reconnect much, Montag's initial meeting with her spurs him on to a series of subversive acts seen as culturally unacceptable. He hoards books, reads them, begins to sympathize with others, and after years of blind allegiance, thinks for himself. Before long, he finds himself in trouble with his boss and his wife, on the run from authorities, and in the middle of nowhere with a band of homeless renegades who happen to be former professors.

 This story has inspired me to be more curious about the lives of those around me--both people I already know well and people who, like Clarisse, are strangers and may be perceived as living at the fringes of society. It has also helped me to view the process of personal growth and discovery both through the eyes of an individual experiencing it and one who hopes to help him emerge from a life of unthinking conformance.