Question

What does beatty tell montag about how books disappeared? what is your reaction to his explanation?

Answer 1

In 'Fahrenheit 451', Beatty tells Montag that the decline of books started during the Civil War era. In that time, radio and television became a big thing, and books were less interesting to the general public. People started wanting to know quick news, celebrity gossip, and about the entertaining things that were going on. They became less interested in books. Books became of less quality, and education declined. He also went on to discuss how different authors disagreed with each other, especially on the war, and therefore, the solution was found to get rid of books. The reaction of his explanation is that people would rather have exciting information whether it was true or not than engage in learning through reading a book. They like to do the least amount of work possible in order to amuse themselves.