Knowledge vs. Ignorance
What Mr. Ray Bradbury is trying to represent in an obvious theme throughout the whole entire book is the growing battle between knowledge vs. ignorance. He shows this in a number of ways, one of the biggest representations is the relationship between Montag and Clarisse. In the first section Clarisse shows Montag how ignorant he really is. Not by coming forward and saying "hey! you're ignorant!" or anything along those lines, but by asking all these questions that she assumed Montag would know since he was "older and wiser", but he actually had no clue. She also asked simpler questions too and the one that stuck with Montag through the rest of the first section is "Are you happy?". When Montag goes home he finds his wife had overdosed and then soon realizes there after, that he was indeed not happy. So then he puts Clarisse in his routine, he always makes sure that he finds her when he is walking home and talks to her, he realizes how ignorant he is and starts trying to get more information. I think that Ray Bradbury is trying to make it blunt by saying and showing how dangerous it really is to be ignorant. Montag realizes that he is being put in danger constantly and when he becomes more knowledgeable, he also becomes more of a "threat" to the governments plan to keep everyone in the dark. So the fireman set the mechanical hound after Montag. This is a representation of how being ignorant can kill. This is why Ray Bradbury wrote this book, so he could tell people never to get this way, being absolutely so ignorant that others can control you and what you do. Always educate yourself.
-Macy McBride
-Macy McBride