Government Censorship Limiting Free Thought Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut both portray futures in which the government has implemented heavy censorship. They censor everything that the people see, limiting their ability to think. The government is trying to keep people from thinking about what is happening around them and keep them from asking questions. The Pedestrian, Harrison Bergeron, and Fahrenheit 451 all present futures in which a the government has attempted to create a utopian society by using censorship to limit free thought. The Pedestrian, by Ray Bradbury, displays a future where all people are supposed to stay home every night to watch government provided television programs. All forms of written media have become obsolete: “Business or profession?” “I guess you’d call me a writer.” “No profession,” said the police car, as if talking to itself . . . “You might say that,” said Mr. Mead. He hadn’t written in years, magazines and books didn’t sell anymore. Everything went on in the tomblike houses now . . . The tombs, ill lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multicolored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them. (“The Pedestrian”)
The people in their houses are compared to the dead because they do …show more content…
This censorship is meant to control what people think and keep them happy “Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them full so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy,” (Bradbury 64). The government is trying to fill people with useless information so that they will not think about what is actually going on, in this case a war, and will not ask any questions, especially ones that would compromise the charade that the government has put
The people in their houses are compared to the dead because they do …show more content…
This censorship is meant to control what people think and keep them happy “Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them full so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy,” (Bradbury 64). The government is trying to fill people with useless information so that they will not think about what is actually going on, in this case a war, and will not ask any questions, especially ones that would compromise the charade that the government has put