Preview

Censorship in Fahrenheit 451

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
569 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Censorship in Fahrenheit 451
Censorship in Fahrenheit 451

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the people live in a society full of censorship.

Montag, the main character of the story, is inspired by a young girl to question law

around him and begins to have doubts about what good they serve. In Fahrenheit 451,

censorship in the world consists of book burning, manipulative parlor families, and the

intolerance of those who attempt to be an individual.

Book burning in the story is done by firemen to supposedly prevent society

from unhappy emotions and unjust thoughts. Any person who was perceived or proved

to possess any sort of reading material was reported to firemen using alarms, which were

sent to the fire station. On duty firemen then immediately went to the home of the

lawbreaker and burnt the books discovered. Books would be covered in kerosene and

torched with a flame-thrower. Houses were made fireproof in order for the firemen to

burn the books inside the house without causing too much destruction. Immediately after

the books are burned, the offender is arrested and taken to prison. Although book burning

was the most abrupt and outlandish form of censorship, people experienced mind

censorship in their homes every day.

Parlor walls were walls in a room used for watching television and specially

designed "interactive" programs, designed to provide people with pleasure. Shows

written for the soul purpose to please people in their parlors were watched on the walls.

A script would be written with the home viewer's part included, but would be left out

during the actual recording of the program while the actors paused to give the viewer

time to recite the part at home. Before the show would air on television, copies of the

script would be sent to the people who requested them. Mildred, Montag's wife, along

with many other people, began to depend on these programs, as if they were addicted to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    At 6:25 PM, S/O Tom Kollar had notified Security Supervisor Steven Gibbs that he had received a report about a vehicle on fire in the B building parking lot, as well as notifications from Safety Representative Jolynn Heller in regards to the issue. The Fire department was called by Supervisor Gibbs at 6:26 pm, who in turn notified him that they were sending a unit immediately to the site and called LPS Jeffrey Matweecha in regards on escalation for the incident. He advised coordinate with Safety on the incident and that the notification of the GSCC was not necessary as it was an inside issue. Senior ops manager Thomas Gerlach was also notified of the issue and that the fire department was on route The onsite s/o Ruth Gonzalez had reported…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury’s book “Fahrenheit 451 accurately portrays censorship from throughout history. From today’s legislators and their efforts to censor the mass media, to the suppression of the past in foreign nations, the acts of the “Firemen” in Bradbury’s book “Fahrenheit 451” are alike in method. The book burnings committed by the “Firemen” to extinguish any knowledge and personal thought has been presented as a continuous cycle in both the novel, and throughout history. Examples of such censorship consist of outlawing literature, elimination of the offending works, and sometimes, violence and sometimes even execution of the authors of the forbidden works.…

    • 100 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes, it takes two people to show one’s weaknesses and the other’s strengths. Foil characters emphasize important traits of each character to convey the meaning of the work. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the characters Mildred, who only longs for the empty parlor walls, and Clarisse, who is filled with desire for knowledge, contrast each other in a way that shows the cold society and the comforting natural world.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses the life of a Guy named Montag, a fireman in a near future dystopia, to make an argument against mindless blissful ignorance. In Bradbury’s world, the firemen that Montag is a part of create fires to burn books instead of putting out fires. By burning books, the firemen eliminate anything that might make people want to be different or start any type of argument with anyone in the community. But this leads into people wanting to read the books so they keep them, like Montag but they end up being caught with the books. If you end up being caught you could possibly get killed or go to jail, but some people like Montag decide to run away from the community so they don’t get killed nor arrested.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He never even thought to mention or think about it until he met Clarisse. Most people in this time prefers to watch tv or have a good time. Clarisse is a very knowledgable 17 year old girl who is interested in other things beyond what the society around her is interested in, or being forced and limited to. She draws Montag into the life she has lived and became so interested in. Montag starts to genuinely become interested in the things that she are saying and starts to question and also wonder what is really going on around him. After the burning of a woman’s books, house, and also herself, he decides to see for himself. After realizing that everyone is on edge about him confiscating the book from the woman’s house, he then realizes that its not only the decreasing use of books in the society that is the issue but the content that they hold. A content that could possibly change lives band change how they…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I don’t think that it would ever end up where books are banned in America. If it did happen, this would go against the first amendment. Even though it said in the book that the books being banned were in the Constitution, we wouldn’t have books being banned in our’s because our country wasn’t founded on that principle.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Montag’s society, books are illegal and firemen start fires by burning books instead of putting fires out. Montag clearly states his belief in the law by stating that he would never read books because they are “against the law!” (5) Before he really knew Clarisse, he was very fond of the law, but after he started to understand her, he became a little rebellious. Regardless of meeting Clarisse, Montag always had books hidden away. However, after he started thinking for himself, he grew more familiar with books. Beatty discovered Montag’s books, and went to burn his books and took Montag with him. As they pulled up, Beatty tells Montag that he is “under arrest” for keeping his books a secret and reading them. This shows that people have no real freedom to read books or have any information. Unlike Montag’s society, books are encouraged to be read and available anywhere. For example, there are bookstores like Barnes and Noble and there are electronic devices, called Kindles, specially made for books and reading. Kindles and Barnes and Noble are an example of freedom of books, information, and knowledge. Another example of the freedom we have is an app where people everywhere read and write books. The app is called Wattpad and millions of people read and write books- some books even get published off of this app. This app…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the world of Fahrenheit 451, books are burned. Guy Montag is a fireman who starts fires rather than putting them out as fireman do in our society. People are not allowed to own books and Guy knows that “It’s against the law!" (Bradbury 8) The only books people are…

    • 1316 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fareheight 411

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Firemen was once known to save homes from fire but in this novel firemen strive to pour the kerosene and burn homes along with the knowledge of books. Fire-Captain Beatty’s job is to make sure no one in the world will open a book and believe what is written in the inside. The town simply believes “books are useless, and waste of time and lies”.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Possessing and perusing unauthorized material is considered felonious. If discovered, then identified personages are penalized. Their novels are eradicated by flames and their belongings are obliterated. The government is portrayed as an oppressive and authoritative regime that discourage pursuing and preserving knowledge of any distinction. Any enlightened individual who inquires or expresses themselves is viewed as an unlawful tyrant by the civilians. Thus, the appeal of censorship transforms itself into a visible theme in the story. Bradbury explains in depth that several factors contributed to this revelation. As personages became more consumed by the bustle and swiftness of their daily schedules, novels became condensed to spare the…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Lois Lowry, “ Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of The Giver: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.” (Lowrey)…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a reaction to the Nazi book burning, Helen Keller once wrote in a letter to the students of Germany saying, “History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas. Tyrants have tried to do that often before, and the ideas have risen up in their might and destroyed them.” Right before World War II students from universities across Germany gathered to burn books. Book burning is lighting of fire to books or other written material, in a public area. It is usually done from a cultural, religious, or political perspective. Book burning was an important event in World War II, literature was the first target, and the Americans had many different responses.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Without happiness, sadness cannot exist. In today’s society, happiness and sadness coexist and form an unbreakable bond. In Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, that bond does not exist. In this book, the main character, Guy Montag, desperately wants to be happy; but society tells him to stay neutral. Montag understands that he never genuinely happily married his wife when he meets a clever girl named Clarisse McClellan. Montag breaks free of society’s expectations with the help of Clarisse, by learning about the past, and through his own, more literal, battles to finally achieve true happiness.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Captain Beaty uses excerpts from books freely, without consequence. The firemen never question their Captain, and they think nothing of the things he says. He quotes books after they have completed a call, and during his fight with Montag. This gives him the “dirty cop” persona, which makes him a bad guy. In the non-literal sense, a couple of other things can be identified as the phoenix such as the government, the books themselves, and ideas.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Censorship in America

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Taylor, Charles. "Censorship is Not an Effective Way to Protect Children." n.d. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 April 2012.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics