Tove Ditlevsen, a Danish poet and author from the 20th century once said, “Memory, that library of the soul from which I will draw knowledge and experience for the rest of my life” (“Tove Ditlevsen”). Opposite to the quote, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, citizens are not able to think and remember. By controlling thoughtless people, the government gains all the power and control. People lose themselves because they lack memory and knowledge. As a result, those in power gain through people not having knowledge and memory, but the individual citizens lose something important.

In Montag’s society, memory and knowledge hold no real meaning. People have been trained to be thoughtless in Montag’s society. At schools kids have, “‘an hour of TV class. An hour of basketball or baseball or running...we …show more content…
He tries to read faster, as society has taught him, but it only makes things worse. Reading faster will make it harder for him to fully process and understand the information. People aren’t able to remember the small or big things in their lives. Like most people, Montag doesn't see the insignificant things, “‘There’s dew on the grass in the morning,’ He suddenly couldn't remember if he had known this or not and it made him quite irritable” (Bradbury 7) Montag clearly cannot observe his surroundings; he can't even see something so obvious. All the nature is there for people, but because they are always rushing, they don’t notice it. Everything to them, is a blur. People can’t even remember the very small, simple things in life. When Montag asks Millie where they met, both couldn’t remember where, “‘...how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband and wife” (Bradbury 40). Their relationship is obviously very weak and there is no love between them. Montag and his wife seem like two very different people. Millie is only interested in her ‘family’ while Montag is becoming more curious about books. They have