Hugh Roberts
Mr. Barclay
English 10H
2 March 2017
The Exiles
Imagine a society where the oppression of certain opinions and ideas is common. Imagine world world where Steve Jobs wasn't allowed to make the iPhone and the Wright Brothers were banned from flying planes. In the short story The Exiles by Ray Bradbury, this is the world the reader is introduced to. In The Exiles we are introduced to a society where supernaturalism is outlawed by society. This censorship on Earth forces authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and William Shakespeare to exile on Mars. There, the exiled authors coexist with their creations as they attempt to fight for an uncensored society and fail . In the The Exiles, Ray Bradbury uses the censorship and oppression of …show more content…
In the year of 2020, all supernaturalist books were outlawed leading the authors to run away to Mars with the hopes that one day their creations will be accepted again. The censorship of these authors’ works leads to most copies being destroyed.Only a few remain keeping the creator and his creations alive. Whilst Ambrose Bierce was discussing what would happen if the final copy of his books was burned he suddenly went up in flames and turned into a blue dust leading Ray Bradbury to write, “His last book gone. Someone on Earth must of just burned it.” (Bradbury, 103). This eloquent metaphor illustrates that with the disappearance of your own thoughts your true self disappears along side them. When the work of a person is censored and oppressed then the thoughts and ideas they have are oppressed as well. Bradbury wants the reader to be able to acknowledge that a person and the world he inhabits would be nothing without individual thoughts, opinions, ideas, and …show more content…
Once the crew lands on the “Red Planet” they immediately exit the ship and burn all of the books. As each book burns the crew hears screams in the distance. When the last book burns there is absolute silence. Suddenly, a member of the crew sees a green city in the distance splitting in half, slowly dying away. A crew member felt this scene looked familiar and said, “‘I remember. Yes, now I do. A long time back. When I was a child. A book I read. A story. Oz, I think it was. Yes, Oz. The Emerald City of Oz…’”(Bradbury, 105). Bradbury is illuminating to the readers the fact that now the final copy of Wizard of Oz has been burnt we see a society where they struggle to remember the past. Bradbury further shows this when he has the captain respond to the crewman by saying, “‘Oz? Never heard of it… Report for psychoanalysis tomorrow.’”(Bradbury, 105). Bradbury is further depicting elements of a society that he fears the most and is warning the reader. Once that final copy of the Wizard of Oz is burnt, the ideas and creativity poured into the story are buried in society just as the ashes of that final copy are buried on Mars red, sandy surface. Bradbury shows the reader that once we censor and oppress ideas we don’t find suitable to society then we are just constraining the mindsets of creativity within mankind. The captain thinks that his crewmember is insane for alluding to a story that he and the rest of
Mr. Barclay
English 10H
2 March 2017
The Exiles
Imagine a society where the oppression of certain opinions and ideas is common. Imagine world world where Steve Jobs wasn't allowed to make the iPhone and the Wright Brothers were banned from flying planes. In the short story The Exiles by Ray Bradbury, this is the world the reader is introduced to. In The Exiles we are introduced to a society where supernaturalism is outlawed by society. This censorship on Earth forces authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and William Shakespeare to exile on Mars. There, the exiled authors coexist with their creations as they attempt to fight for an uncensored society and fail . In the The Exiles, Ray Bradbury uses the censorship and oppression of …show more content…
In the year of 2020, all supernaturalist books were outlawed leading the authors to run away to Mars with the hopes that one day their creations will be accepted again. The censorship of these authors’ works leads to most copies being destroyed.Only a few remain keeping the creator and his creations alive. Whilst Ambrose Bierce was discussing what would happen if the final copy of his books was burned he suddenly went up in flames and turned into a blue dust leading Ray Bradbury to write, “His last book gone. Someone on Earth must of just burned it.” (Bradbury, 103). This eloquent metaphor illustrates that with the disappearance of your own thoughts your true self disappears along side them. When the work of a person is censored and oppressed then the thoughts and ideas they have are oppressed as well. Bradbury wants the reader to be able to acknowledge that a person and the world he inhabits would be nothing without individual thoughts, opinions, ideas, and …show more content…
Once the crew lands on the “Red Planet” they immediately exit the ship and burn all of the books. As each book burns the crew hears screams in the distance. When the last book burns there is absolute silence. Suddenly, a member of the crew sees a green city in the distance splitting in half, slowly dying away. A crew member felt this scene looked familiar and said, “‘I remember. Yes, now I do. A long time back. When I was a child. A book I read. A story. Oz, I think it was. Yes, Oz. The Emerald City of Oz…’”(Bradbury, 105). Bradbury is illuminating to the readers the fact that now the final copy of Wizard of Oz has been burnt we see a society where they struggle to remember the past. Bradbury further shows this when he has the captain respond to the crewman by saying, “‘Oz? Never heard of it… Report for psychoanalysis tomorrow.’”(Bradbury, 105). Bradbury is further depicting elements of a society that he fears the most and is warning the reader. Once that final copy of the Wizard of Oz is burnt, the ideas and creativity poured into the story are buried in society just as the ashes of that final copy are buried on Mars red, sandy surface. Bradbury shows the reader that once we censor and oppress ideas we don’t find suitable to society then we are just constraining the mindsets of creativity within mankind. The captain thinks that his crewmember is insane for alluding to a story that he and the rest of