Author's note: This is a piece I wrote about the cause and effect of Mrs. Blake being burned to death with her books. I would like feedback on my ability to show a cause and effect. Thanks!
Books are a sign of defiance, a sign of not wanting to back down and wash into the background. For Mrs. Blake, a secondary character in Fahrenheit 451, novels are her place of comfort, her escape from the terror that is her world. When the firefighters arrive, prepared to devour her collection, Mrs. Blake would not back down. She would rather be consumed by the flames than lose the only source of freedom. There are many underlying events that led up to this, ideas that don’t seem like they would matter, but they actually do. Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is a wonderfully written book that shows how a main event in a novel has underlying causes and effects.
In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, the primary person in this novel, Guy, enjoys his job as a fireman. Or book burner, depending on which way you like to look at it. Suddenly, Guy meets a sixteen year old girl named Clarisse. Clarisse questions the world she lives in, and the government that runs it. Discussing things with Clarisse changes the feelings Guy has about his job. He doesn’t really have a desire to burn novels anymore. Guy actually wants to discover them, to read them and absorb their information. On the night of Mrs. Blake’s home burning, the primary character in this novel doesn’t really want to participate. Seeing his coworkers devouring a woman’s home makes him see the horror of his situation, the horror of what his job does to people. Guy then flees the burning, running as quickly as he dares back to his home, attempting to be unnoticed. This action delivers a consequence of Guy not knowing what happened to Mrs. Blake, of not knowing whether her life was spared.
Though it seems like this event shouldn’t have affected Guy as a man, and that his life should have continued normally, Mrs. Blake’s murder showed him the horror of the occupation he held. A major event has consequences that not only affect the main characters involved, but other people as well. Ray Bradbury is able to easily convey that. Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is a great piece of writing that is able to create a world full of events that harms the lives of everyone in the novel, one way or another.
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