The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury connects well to my definition of American Literature. In the novel, protagonist Guy Montag finds himself highly conflicted. As a fireman, his job is to burn books found in people's houses. The books are illegal in the futuristic society, and rather than putting out fires, the firemen are the ones to start them. It is a society filled with destruction, in which cars drive over ninety miles per hour and run over people with out looking back, deaths are unmourned, knowledge is burned, and people believe that they are happy because they are ignorant. As the story progresses, Guy realizes that there is much to learn from books, and that his world has lost a great deal by banning them. Guy himself has a hidden stash, which his wife turns him in for. The betrayal sends him on the run, chased by helicopters and a mechanical Hound, but he makes it to the river and escapes.
Though it may not be obvious, even this futuristic novel includes elements of the American Dream. As a piece of the cannon of American Literature, it shares the common theme with the other pieces of literature. In Fahrenheit 451, the American Dream is embodied by Guy's sudden thirst for knowledge and his willingness to sacrifice for what he believes is important. The protagonist finds himself in challenges that few have faced, persecuted for his newfound need for knowledge and hunted by the technology that has done away with leather bindings and yellowing, inked covered paper. Guy's American Dream is to find knowledge, to learn what has been lost, and to escape the choking hold of his society. The book as a whole serves as Bradbury's warning to the American people: hold on to your knowledge, do not let it slip through the cracks, because it will be so hard, so so hard, to get it back. It is a message centered around the part of the American Dream that requires the betterment of oneself throughout the betterment of one's mind. Therefore, Fahrenheit 451 is a perfect example of the connecting theme in all of American Literature - the American Dream.
