Pomegranate Tree and Fahrenheit 451

While reading Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree I felt a connection to Edward Said’s theories with regard to Knowledge is power. I also felt a connection to the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Throughout Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree the character Umar who is an Islamic aristocrat is reminded of when the Catholics confiscated all of the Islamic books in the city of Granada and burned them. For Umar this moment is very traumatic to him because it is destroying the history of his people. Through Edward Said’s theory of Knowledge is power this is the exact moment that the Islamic people have lost to the Catholics. The Catholics literally destroyed the knowledge of the Islamic people thus destroying the only shred of power they had left.

While reading in the back of my mind Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was very prevalent. The imagery of the books burning and how that symbolized the destruction of knowledge was very relatable to the plot of Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic world where books become obsolete so the government decides to ban them. The banning of the books leads people to live simplistic, not thoughtful lives. This world almost makes the people slaves to the ignorance that is given to them. The main character of Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman, but not in the sense that he puts out fires, he actually starts fires. He starts fires on piles of books that were banned and need to be disposed of. This relates to Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree because in Fahrenheit 451’s society the books are being destroyed, and the knowledge is dying, therefore people’s power is non-existent. When they burn all of the Islamic books they are burning the power for an entire generation of Islamic people. Future Islamic people will be robbed completely of the knowledge of their ancestors, and they are ignorant to this robbery, just like the people in Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 is almost a prediction of what could possibly happen to the Islamic people if this suppression of Islamic work was expanded across the entire Islamic world. Again Edward Said states that Knowledge is power and the ability to controls someone’s knowledge is the ability to control someone completely. In both works Fahrenheit 451 and Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, the suppressors burn the works of literature therefore being able to hold power over them.