Censorship In Fahrenheit 451
Censorship In Fahrenheit 451Censorship 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
them. Viewers went as far as calling the characters in these shows their �family�.
Broadcasters used these shows in attempt to control the thoughts of society, as well as
bring them joy and happiness. While striving to keep an audience satisfied, lawmakers
also did their best to keep people on one train of thought and strongly disapproved of
individuality.
Government in the book had very strict opinions on how a society should
function, and never tolerated a person who doubted, questioned or acted against their
authority. Law in this society was strongly enforced and all offenders were prosecuted
immediately. People who thought differently and had different views than others were
thought to be potentially dangerous to themselves or society. Clarisse, an intuitive young
girl who saw things in a whole new light than any other person Montag had ever met, was
soon mysteriously killed after she had spoken out to him. She had been labeled at her
school as �anti-social�, simply because the thought differently than the other students. In
one way or another, censorship surrounded and controlled the lives of people in the book.
The characters Fahrenheit 451 were faced with all types of censorship like
torching books, a manage of parlor shows and a consistent prejudice towards
indifference. Governments in this book used every bit of their power trying to censor
people�s lives from sadness. These laws the people dealt with caused them to assume
they were happy instead of convincing them.