Fahrenheit 451 Government Paper

All books have one thing in common: Theme. In Fahrenheit 451, books are burned and against the law. Guy Montag, a curious fireman who burns books, is taught some important things about life by a mysterious girl named Clarisse. When she disappears, Montag is forced to take the matter into his own hands. In the novel, Ray Bradbury discusses many themes. The three main themes were: Conformity vs. Individuality, Freedom of Speech and the Consequences of Losing It, and The Importance of Remembering and Understanding History. Governments receive their power from the people, and conformity is a source of power. In Fahrenheit 451, there is much more conformity than individuality. The story’s government tries to control society through mindless entertainment. This leaves people in a state of ignorance and they do not realize the government's control and brainwashing. If the society had books and education, the government would lose control. There are only a few people, such as Montag and Faber, who haven’t been brainwashed by society. Those few individualists have the potential to overthrow the government. Clarisse, for example, does not enjoy brainlessly watching television. Instead, Clarisse prefers to, "Smell things and look at things and sometimes, stay up all night, walking, and watch the sunrise," (pg 7). People like Clarisse, who have individuality, are considered threats to the government. Montag lives in a world that represses freedom of speech. Any new ideas or philosophy though reading is illegal. Free speech means tolerating dissent, and dissent can cause revolution and rebellion. No one in society knew the importance of history. All they cared about was television and radio. Firemen burned books, but they weren’t told a specific reason why. But the real question was this: “Why were books banned in the first place?” Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t provide a single explanation why books were banned. I think books were banned because of government. They tried to control society by brainwashing of entertainment, but they also tried to control society by removing anything that could potentially cause discontent among the population, so they banned books. For example, "You can't build a house without nails and wood. If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood," (pg 60-61).
There were also two more themes I came across in Fahrenheit 451: Death and Entertainment.

Many people die in this novel. The old woman burns herself to death, Clarisse is killed by a speeding car, Montag kills Beatty with the flamethrower, and the Mechanical Hound kills an innocent man. Also, suicide is very common. One suicide and one suicide attempt occurred in the story. A woman, who cherishes her books, refuses to leave her house during a burning and is burned alive along with the books. Mildred attempts suicide by taking a whole bottle of sleeping pills. After Montag calls for help, the medical technician says, “We get these cases nine or ten a night.” I think suicide happens so frequently in the society because people have no purpose to life besides watching television and listening to the radio.
Entertainment can be harmful and negative if it's used the wrong way, and in the book, it was used in a very wrong way. Everyone was brainwashed by television and radio. For example, when Montag was running from the city, "He felt the city rise . . . he felt the city turn to it's thousands of doorknobs . . . the people sleepwalking in their hallways . . . he felt their hands on the doorknobs! . . . the doorknobs turned on five thousand doors . . ." (pg 138-139). In this case, the radio and television is used to hypnotize the people; to control them and make them bend to the government's will.
The people of society had very destructive and hateful ways of finding entertainment. The kids found entertainment in “breaking windowpanes in the Window Smasher place, or wrecking cars in the Car Wrecker place.” Also, in order to release stress and relax, the people of Montag's town feel that when “you get the beetle up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful . . . you hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle,” (pg 64). This shows that people take out their stress, anger, and fear out on innocent animals, or even people. In conclusion, this form of entertainment is destructive and harmful to the society, and it is used in the wrong way.
Without a theme, a book is dull and boring. The many themes existing in Fahrenheit 451 help make it the exciting classic it is today. Out of all the themes, Conformity vs. Individuality, Freedom of Speech and the Consequences of Losing It, and The Importance of Remembering and Understanding History are the most important. But one thing I wondered was: What was Bradbury trying to say? This isn't just a book, it's an opinion of the world: if we let technology rule our world, it’ll end up just like Montag’s.