Fahrenheit 451-censorship vs. mankind
The power of censorship is used profoundly everyday, to conceal the world’s utmost problems. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury harshly attacks the censorship used by the government to make people ignorant to the issues surrounding ones life, and to show that censorship does more harm than good. The censorship depicted in Fahrenheit 451 is shown in many different forms. (1) Bradbury uses certain characters to represent certain parts of censorship, and shows how each is used in a negative connotation. These characters show the hardships and difficulties that one faces when living in a censored society. (2) Bradbury also uses objects, such as loud music and fast cars, to play the role as censorship. The objects used by Bradbury are elements that if one is not careful, they can get to caught up in them, and these elements will become their life. This in turn, is what the government wants to happen, so that one is oblivious to their surroundings. (3) Destruction of property and objects in nature are used to show censorship. The burning of literature at a high a temperature shows how the government is trying to rid the people of having a mind of their own. In nature there are many substances,
The intellectual thinking that arises from reading books can often be dangerous, and the government doesn’t want to put up with this danger. This philosophy, according to Bradbury, completely ignores the benefits of knowledge. Yes, knowledge can cause harm, but in many ways, knowledge of the past, which is recorded in books, can prevent man from making similar mistakes in the present and future. Fire represents purification as it is used to rid society of that which is unsought by the government. Books, and the places where they are hidden, are destroyed by the fire and are burned out of existence so that it doesn’t pollute society, just as dirt is washed from one's hands. Beatty mentions the standard practice of immediately cremating the dead so that one isn’t burdened with decaying bodies and memorials, and the grief associated with them. “Forget them. Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean”(Beatty 143). Fire also represents awareness. “Upon greeting the firemen, the old woman who would later burn with her books as a martyr for free thought quotes Bishop Hugh Latimer, who was burned for heresy in the 16th century, saying, “we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out” (Latimer 4). This quote rings true with Montag, who later laments, "you ever see a burnt house? It smolders for days. Well, this fire'll last me the rest of my life”(Gale 2). Fire is important for its transforming powers as well. The novel starts out referring to the pleasure Montag took in seeing things changed by fire. Montag is changing with each fire he sets. Fire profoundly shows, from the power of a an outside force, how one can change over time.
Some topics in this essay:
Guy Montag,
Hugh Latimer,
Parlor Family,
Professor Beatty,
Mechanical Hound,
Ray Bradbury,
,
Beatty Montag’s,
fahrenheit 451,
loud music,
government trying,
fast cars,
government people ignorant,
harshly attacks censorship,
1 bradbury,
mechanical hound,
starts fires,
bradbury harshly attacks,
damn silly,
attacks censorship government,
play role,
censorship government people,
role censorship,
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Approximate Word count = 2671
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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