Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury in 1953. The book describes what Ray Bradbury anticipates the world would be like in the future. He depicted a society in which values like appreciation of nature, independent thinking and meaningful conversations are not practiced but discouraged and replaced with excessive amounts of television viewing and listening to the radio. He envisioned a society where firmen do not put out fires but start them, particularly when it comes to the burning of books. Censorship is the altering or suppression of speech, public communication and other information that may be considered harmful determined by the government. Censorship is a recurring theme throughout Fahrenheit 451 that is represented by the major control the government has over the society specifically through the law that bans the producing, owning and reading of books. The use of censorship in publications is harmful to society as it motivates members of the society to rebel against the government as seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451 and in the real world as it causes citizens to make uninformed decisions both of which result in adverse repercussions.
In the dystopian society portrayed in Fahrenheit 451, the government has prevented the citizens from knowing anything about the past by making it illegal to own and read books. To ensure that no one discovers what is to be learnt from literature, the firemen are responsible for burning books whenever they are found. This practice backfires whenever a citizen uncovers the truth about what the government has been censoring which sparks rebellion amongst them. When a women is found in her house with her books and the firemen are about to burn them, she refuses to get out of the house and insists on burning with them.“‘I want to stay here,’ [...] ‘You can stop counting,’ she said. She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of the hand was a single slender object. An ordinary kitchen match.” (Bradbury 36) It is evident through the old woman’s will to burn with her books that she does not agree with the government and will refuse to comply to the laws that have been set out. Having known what there is to know from books, she has come to realize that life without literature and knowledge is not a life worth living. This turn of events is a pivotal moment for Montag. Upon witnessing the women burn with her books, Montag begins to question what he had been taught and told was right for his whole life. “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don 't stay for nothing.” (Bradbury 48) This incident is what transforms Montag from a man who does not question authority and participates in the enforcement of these rules to someone who begins to question them and eventually challenge them. Montag reaches out to Faber, a man whom he once caught with a book and forms an alliance with him to rebel against the government. As the story progresses, the level at which Montag rebels is exponential. “Beatty, he thought, you’re not a problem now. You always said, don’t face a problem, burn it. Well, now I’ve done both. Goodbye, Captain.” (Bradbury 115) Montag thinks this to himself after executing Beatty with the flamethrower. This illustrates that Montag reached a point of rebellion where he killed his immediate authority figure, Beatty, by burning him. Information can only be censored for so long before people start to seek out the truth. To conclude, it is evident that censorship is detrimental as discovering what has been suppressed will lead to rebellion against the government who has been concealing the information. The dangerous role of censorship in this dystopian fiction can also be seen in real life in our own world by analyzing events where censorship is prominent to reveal the truthful, costly effects that it has. When people in a society are not knowledgeable about all of the information about a certain event or situation, …show more content…
“Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read." (George Bernard
In the dystopian society portrayed in Fahrenheit 451, the government has prevented the citizens from knowing anything about the past by making it illegal to own and read books. To ensure that no one discovers what is to be learnt from literature, the firemen are responsible for burning books whenever they are found. This practice backfires whenever a citizen uncovers the truth about what the government has been censoring which sparks rebellion amongst them. When a women is found in her house with her books and the firemen are about to burn them, she refuses to get out of the house and insists on burning with them.“‘I want to stay here,’ [...] ‘You can stop counting,’ she said. She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of the hand was a single slender object. An ordinary kitchen match.” (Bradbury 36) It is evident through the old woman’s will to burn with her books that she does not agree with the government and will refuse to comply to the laws that have been set out. Having known what there is to know from books, she has come to realize that life without literature and knowledge is not a life worth living. This turn of events is a pivotal moment for Montag. Upon witnessing the women burn with her books, Montag begins to question what he had been taught and told was right for his whole life. “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don 't stay for nothing.” (Bradbury 48) This incident is what transforms Montag from a man who does not question authority and participates in the enforcement of these rules to someone who begins to question them and eventually challenge them. Montag reaches out to Faber, a man whom he once caught with a book and forms an alliance with him to rebel against the government. As the story progresses, the level at which Montag rebels is exponential. “Beatty, he thought, you’re not a problem now. You always said, don’t face a problem, burn it. Well, now I’ve done both. Goodbye, Captain.” (Bradbury 115) Montag thinks this to himself after executing Beatty with the flamethrower. This illustrates that Montag reached a point of rebellion where he killed his immediate authority figure, Beatty, by burning him. Information can only be censored for so long before people start to seek out the truth. To conclude, it is evident that censorship is detrimental as discovering what has been suppressed will lead to rebellion against the government who has been concealing the information. The dangerous role of censorship in this dystopian fiction can also be seen in real life in our own world by analyzing events where censorship is prominent to reveal the truthful, costly effects that it has. When people in a society are not knowledgeable about all of the information about a certain event or situation, …show more content…
“Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read." (George Bernard