Fahrenheit 451 and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

Henry David Thoreau and Guy Montag are both stubborn and rebellious.  Throeau didn't pay his taxes and he wasn't about to pay them even if it meant getting out of jail and he wasn't leaving because someone paid them off for him.  Montag hid books and he wasn't ever persuaded to stop with the books even when his boss caught on to him.  He stayed with Faber and ran away-- he deserted everything he knew to follow what he felt was right.  

Also Thoreau and Montag were both kind when they didn't have to be.  When the black man showed up at Thoreau's cabin, he was offered food and called sir and was helped out, when really most people wouldn't have been nearly as kind.  Montag talked with Faber once and a year later remembered him and talked to him and when he found out about Faber's books Montag didn't do what was expected of him and his job as a firefighter and he listened and talked with Faber and befriended him.  He planned with him and he helped him cover his tracks when he ran away.  

Officer Beatty and Deacon Ball are both not the nicest folks but they differ in how they act.  While Ball is upfront, loud, pompous and authoritative, Beatty is sneaky yet intimidating and he is smart.  He thinks about what he says and his words are meant to make one slip up.  Ball, hen scolding Thoreau, is sticking to what was accepted as what is right to do according to popular vote and those are the same issues Beatty deals with-- he is for the burning of books-- but he uses books to his advantage.  Instead of just telling Montag to do something he will quote a book and famous authors and ask complex questions to get what he wants from whomever he's talking to.  

In the end both Thoreau and Montag are free.  Henry is out of jail and Guy is safely hidden between towns with a group of men ho memorize books.  While they are escaped from their prison- both figuratively and literally- they aren't happy about it really. Thoreau still doesn't want to pay his taxes and he is still firm in his opinions and Montag is in this whole new way of life-- no wife no Faber no job and its a bit discomforting.  Both the books leave off right when they get free though and don't go into what happens later, which lets the reader guess.

Fahrenheit 451 and Billy Budd

        Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 has connections to Herman Melville's Billy Budd in plot structure and general ideas on beliefs and how one can stray from them and the consequences of doing that.  Bradbury's novel and Melville's both have their main character depart from the society or place that they were used to and felt comfortable with and changed their surroundings and actions and met new people and ended up facing consequences for their shift.  Budd's old life caught back up to him when he was hanged-- he departed from Rational beliefs to Romantic ones and he ended up killing a man and the judges weighed in on this rationally and so he couldn't escape his past.  Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451 rebelled against social norms and laws in his community when he brought home many books and paired up with Faber to take down the firemen.  His acts got him in trouble and he almost died which ended up with him killing the man who was accusing him, just as when Budd killed his accuser.
        When Montag decided to be upfront about his having books and he showed his wife and her friends he was met with trouble when his wife turned him in and when her friends freaked out and didn't know what to do.  Being in a society that dictates everything for you without you knowing anything made the knowledge of really anything unusual-- books, literature, not up to date facts-- made people stand out and get in trouble.    After killing his boss, Montag was yet again faced with a decision-- he could run away or be found out.  By choosing to run away Montag was making the decision to distance himself completely from his past society and when he met the men in the woods it was like a new start.  Budd got a new start when he left his first ship and he got another one when he died.
        Both Montag and Budd escaped everything that was holding them back in their society and in their endeavors through leaving-- by death and by foot.  That meant that they had new problems to face but none as bad as before and nothing they weren't ready to handle-- Montag would rather fight for books and knowledge is he had to rather than being stuck burning them and hiding them and keeping its secret.  Budd  no longer has to be accused of mutiny and he doesn't have to deal with anyone doubting him or changing up where and how he lives.

Fahrenheit 451 and Puritanism

         In Fahrenheit 451 there is a connection to Puritanism in many ways.  One big one is the gap between the government/authority and the people which is similar to the gap between God and the people.  The people in the community in the book don'r have any idea about the government or what it does and its like this overarching power that has all these rules and set ways and it plays God in the society.  In Puritan times they didn't know what God was they just believed in Him and trusted that He was responsible for everything and that all that He did they deserved.  People in this book feel the same way about their authority.

         Another connection is that Puritan  society and ways were set to help people understand the society better.  The simple jingles that play in the earpieces and around town and the soap operas that play on the televisions, the fast cars and no books or thinking for oneself all happen under the idea that a simple society in which if the people know less they are better off is all the government's way of making the citizens understand everything better.  If something happens its because someone broke the law- they had a book or they asked too many questions, which the government and firemen don't like.  Then there's the level of access-- everyone can get a television or ear buds and if not they hear the jingles in public places and there's a fix for everything, like when Guy's wife overdosed men came over and fixed her and she was none the wiser.  This idea of people understanding what was going on as they chose to understand it and how the government wants them to understand it is similar to Puritanism and then the easy access to at least some influence of the ideas-- Puritans could just believe and thank God for what he did and that was enough and in Fahrenheit 451 all a citizen has to do is follow the crowd.  

           Just as Puritans feared and revered God, citizens in Montag's world fear and revere the authorities.  The firemen and the men who come if you do something bad-- they don't want to get in trouble and if a firemen showed up at their door they'd freak out just as Puritans would freak out when someone would say that God wasn't real or something along those lines because they would get scared of what He would do-- same goes for how the citizens would be if someone they knew announced they had books, as Guy did to his wife and her friends.   This book also connects to the idea of a city on a hill in that everything is seemingly perfect and it's all to make everyone's life easier and it all coheres with the beliefs most have about books and the societal rules.  The idea that if one gets bored they can go speed race or be a part of a "family" or just call men over to fix the problem completely strives to put the image of a perfect society in the reader's mind if there were no downsides to it, such as are hardly seen by Puritans unless they look hard, in which case they are punished, like in Montag's society.  One can get the problem fixes no problem no questions asked.  

         The last way in which Fahrenheit 451 and Puritanism connect is the idea of limited atonement.  The only difference is that the ratios of those who were in good standing are switched- more are better off in Montag's society than in Puritanism.  If one doesn't think for themselves and don't read or ask too many questions they are better off and wont get a second glance whereas one wrong question or a book in your hands will warrant trouble and punishment.  In Puritan times the atoned were only around ten percent of the population and they were in good standing mostly because of predestination but they were still in good standing, as the citizens in Montag's society were for the most part.