Part One of "Fahrenheit 451" is about a fireman who burns books in a future where anything that provokes thought or is unhappy is censored. In the beginning of Part One, the main character Montag is just like any other American and has fun burning books and hardly thinks anything about them at all. Then a girl named Clarisse starts to make him think about his life and about the books. By the end of Part One, he admits to his wife that he stole many books and starts to read them. The other important characters of Part One are Beatty, Clarisse, and Mildred. Beatty is Montag's boss, the fire captain. He is well educated and yet hates books and the people who read them. He is very clever and a good talker, and often persuades Montag to think what Beatty wants him to think. Clarisse is a high school girl that moves in next door to Montag. She's different than everyone else, she thinks about things and does things slowly. Mildred is the typical American of the America the book takes place in. She's always either watching "The Family" or listening to the seashells, and she thinks taking medicine is the best way to cure any problem or to help complete any common task, such as falling asleep. She takes everything for granted and believes that nothing bad (like disease) will ever happen to her, and the army will protect everyone from any conflicts. .
However, the typical American in Fahrenheit 451's America isn't too different than ours. Many Americans get no exercise and listen to music and watch television all day, and take some kind of pill or painkiller for any minor problem. Some people today take sleeping pills every night before they even get in bed, just in case they can't get to sleep, as in the book. This book reminds me of the book the "Alas, Babylon" in that they are both about distorted futures.
Important quotes from Section One include: "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.
