There is a book named Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This classic drama describes a world where creativity is shunned, emotions useless, and knowledge unknown. This leads to the censorship, then banning, of books and other written works. However, to keep the human spirit from becoming an empty shell, these written works are needed in our everyday lives.

One purpose of a novel is to evoke strong feelings of anger, sadness, surprise, and joy. A good writer could use words to invoke any emotion they want into a person. In Fahrenheit 451, this angers a woman named Mrs. Bowles. “You see? I knew it, that’s what I wanted to prove! I knew it would happen! I’ve always said poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness; all that mush!” However, this is actually beneficial. A good word can brighten someone’s day, or a strong statement from a novel causing anger can make people act. Even feelings of grief can cause some to step back and take a look at their life. In some cases, they even teach us how to feel.

One thing viewers lack from watching a movie is the ability to be creative with what is going on. On the other hand, books and poems give you a sense of control because you picture the events, not a screen. Unfortunately, some people today don’t want to e creative. They want something that’s the same for everyone. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred mocks poetry because it makes no sense to her, when in reality, it’s using a form of symbolism, something she doesn’t understand. “Here! Read this one. No, I take it back, here’s that real funny one you read out loud today. Ladies, you won’t understand a word. It goes umpty-tumpty-ump. Go ahead, Guy, that page, dear.”

Another thing that books give us is knowledge, and not knowledge like this is how this works and this is how that works. When we read an adventure novel, we learn courage and bravery. When we read a tragedy, we could learn that life is more special than we think. Books teach us. Not just how the world works, but why. A teacher can tell you how a bird flies, but a book can give you the eyes of an eagle. Professors can tell you how gladiators fought, but a good novel can take you straight into the fight, swinging a sword, heart racing and adrenaline pumping. “I don’t talk things, sir… I talk the meaning of things.”

The point is, books give us imagination, bring out your emotions, and give us knowledge, things the world is slowly losing by its own will. If mankind wants to simply move on with life, going wherever they want whenever they want for the simple reason that they want to, then by all means, books are meaningless. But if we want to start looking out for others and actually see the world around us and not just speed it by, then we need books. Or, more particularly, we need the things books give and teach us. “No, no, it’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books.” Sadly, if we stay on this course of self-destruction, we won’t find these things anywhere, even in books.