Perfection? Never.
By: Lillian Duncan
"The thing that he was about to do was open a diary... it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death" (Orwell 4).
What does a person do in a time of no answers forced on by one's government? Rebel.
A utopian society can exist until self expression becomes more powerful than their government.
When asked to be what the government wants, a person feels the need to rebel for the ability to express themselves.
In Fahrenheit 451, a young man and the citzens arund him are banned from any books, by the government. However when Montag took a book before thorching the pile, he went against his "fire men" duties. Once Montag got home he realized that he had not made a mistake at all, he had done smething he should had done a long time ago.
The following quote shows how Montag felt before the rebellion, "It was a pleasure to burn...spitting it's venomous kerosene upon the world...his hands were hands of some amazing conductor...burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history" (Bradbury 1).
Montag shows in the above quote that when he burns books he feels a since of pride. When he states, "bring down the tatteres and charcoal ruins of history" he shows that books are what ruined history and that ruining them is the only way to improve the future. However Montag soon realizes that the ruins of history are not the books, but the government ridding them from the world.
Once Montag realizes where the flaws in his government are, he then realizes what he must do.
"This afternoon I thought that if it turned out books were worth while, we might get a press and print some extra copies" (Bradbury 81).
When Montag realizes that books have meaning, he then rebels against the government because they took a peice of the world that allows people to express themselves.
Self expression comes in many different ways, including books. When that is taken away from a person, one feels the same as everyone around one's self. When people can not express themselves they can not put their insight of the world out and in the open, which in return will cause rebellion.