Censorship: Is It Necessary?
A persuasive essay written by Mark Pierce
Censorship is often used by governments to hide certain things from the public; things that are offensive. These can include (but are not limited to) being insulting to religion, being racist, or being too violent. Despite these reasons, however, censorship doesn’t need to be mandatory to protect the people. In Fahrenheit 451, for instance, the omniscient and reclusive “government” has a strict mandate that, if any are found, books will be incinerated without question. But why do they do this? Why burn books? The answer is, as Faber would say, they “show the pores in the face of life.” It’s an unnecessary rule that strips away people's’ ability to think for themselves.
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” –Ray Bradbury. Our world compared to Fahrenheit 451 is such a stark contrast, In our world, books are cherished above all others. In 451 books are illegal. The Firemen start fires instead of putting them out. But the only similarity between our world and there's is that technology is everywhere, it is controlling and brainwashing.
The science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is about a futuristic dystopian society where everyone follows simple rules/norms: don't read books and spend time with their “families”. The families in the novel are also known as the TV’s. Whoever in the novel reads or owns books, gets put down by the hound. Montag, a protagonist in the novel, works as the fireman whom are very violent (like the rest of the society). No one in this society ever think, but when Montag (Protagonist) meets Clarisse McClellan, he becomes to question everything. Bradbury tries to portray that when people become emotionless, they don’t think about their actions which end up being violent. Bradbury’s hound (terrifying mechanical beast that kills who are unlawful) represents a type of police in the society that regulates everything and everyone. Thus Bradbury’s predictions are similar to today’s society in the police forces (which are controlled by the government).
The dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 written by author Ray Bradbury in 1953, shows what he speculates the fate of society to be. Fahrenheit 451 takes places in the corrupt United States when people no longer read books and are satisfied only by entertainment. In Fahrenheit 451, the fire has been perceived in many different ways by the main character Guy Montag, once a fireman. Fire in Fahrenheit 451 represents both rebirth and destruction. Mythological creatures, such as the salamander and Phoenix have influenced the change in the perception of fire.
In the book Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury describes a futuristic society in which it is normal for an average individual to shun and absolutely loathe books. The main character, Guy Montag, works as a fireman, and his job description consists of burning books instead of preventing fires. Television is a major topic in this book, and for the most part, is portrayed as an extremely obsessive and deleterious item. Today, in American society however, television is a much more positive thing, and has a lot to contribute to a healthy, connected, and well informed society.
Have you ever not wanted to read a book but have to read it for a class assignment well Fahrenheit 451 is a good example of what happens when you don't read. Fahrenheit 451 is a valuable piece of literature because it can tell you what happens when people don't read books like we don’t. It may be what the world will look like in 20 years. It can make people want to read more.
Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, differentiates from the cinematic form of the novel directed by François Truffaut in numerous ways. Bradbury states, “The movie was a mixed blessing. It didn’t follow the novel as completely as it should have. “It’s a good movie: it has a wonderful ending; it has a great score by Bernard Hermann. Oskar Werner is wonderful in the lead. But Truffaut made the mistake of putting Julie Christie in two roles in the same film, which was very confusing, and he eliminated some of the other characters: Clarisse McClellan and Faber the Philosopher and the Mechanical Hound. I mean, you can’t do without those!” Other than the characters in the story, including the score
Short of just 70 years ago, the United States was detached; segregated into communities of race and color. In the eyes of our modern society, this practice was cruel and inhumane, an example of just how much a culture’s perspective can change in time. Fahrenheit 451, a novel written and published by Ray Bradbury in 1953, focused on the consequences of change in a society through the eyes of Guy Montag. In the fictitious story, Guy serves as one of many firemen in the community; rather than removing the fires, they set them upon books, which had prohibited and illegalized. After a series of events that transpired in the novel, Montag would begin to recognize the intellectual censorship caused by the absence of books; beginning his crusade
The fear of missing out, otherwise known as the fomo disease, prevales in both Fahrenheit 451 and today’s society. Although written nearly 60 years ago, many ideas parallel current events. Some of the ways Fahrenheit mimics current events today include, but are not limited to; electronics taking the place of books, both communities stand heavily influenced by the media, and firemen and ISIS aren’t aware of the crimes they commit. For a big chunk of the world, electronics have become a necessity to life.
Imagine yourself 50 years from now, what will you be doing? What do you think the world would be like? In Fahrenheit 451 the future is full of strange things and ideas like burning books and keeping information from society. When I think of society 50 years from now, I imagine a world full of technology and information. When I think of architecture, I imagine immensely tall buildings made almost completely of glass.
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, we can see a lot of things wrong with the society, things that most people think could happen to us, but is it really that unrealistic? Ray Bradbury didn't think so when he wrote it because he was writing about his own time period, shortly after WWII, but the themes he wrote about are still present today. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury criticizes illusion of happiness, oppression, and loss of self, not only his fictitious society, but our society in real life, too.
The right to privacy acts as a common controversial topic in the world today. The American government is constantly battling between its limits as well as responsibilities to protect its citizens. Outside of America, however, privacy is a right that not all other countries grant their citizens. In the novels Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell, the right to privacy is a recurring theme provoked by the role of technology in relation to governmental restriction and responsibility, as well as the lack of personal freedoms in these worlds.
Fahrenheit 451 written by, Ray Bradbury was published in 1953 symbolizing the idea of a modern dystopia through the perspective of Guy Montag. Representing the totalitarian government in place, Montag's job is to dehumanize the world by burning books to ensure the cataclysmic decline in society. Eventually, Montag gains abstract emotions towards books and even social criticism towards his fellow peers: it places the world against him. Throughout the book, Bradbury's uses cautionary tones that come from the patterns of America's cultural shifts in the 1950s as more people develop a sense of armed resistance and opposition towards the government's suspicions. In many ways, Bradbury predicted behaviors that saturate much of modern American culture. Today, the abundance of and dependence on phone technologies are reaching a ubiquitous point in society; so much so, that these technologies are shaping people's thought processes, chipping away from the function of contemplation and concentration humans naturally possess.
Closing libraries in public schools is just like reading a book without absorbing the information, because both are pointless and do not make any absolute sense at all. Ray Bradbury’s masterpiece dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, represents the epitome of the literary world, in which its context, techniques, plot and themes are already enough to show why the closure of libraries is such a foolish and ludicrous decision. The protagonist, Guy Montag, lives in a society where books are outlawed, and his sole duty is to burn them. Out of curiosity, he steals The Bible, in which he comes to terms with how meaningless and dull his life is upon reading it. He leaves the city after becoming a fugitive and aims to rebuild the then war-torn metropolis, by using the knowledge he had acquired from books.
When Bradbury wrote, “fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over,” he meant that the fictional stories that authors write—the made up characters, plot, setting—will convey a theme, a message, that helps the reader realize the true things about their society or surroundings. Many times, a book may have unrealistic plots and settings, however it’ll still convey a theme that’s applicable to real life and to the reader, and help guide the reader to many revelations about real life—the ‘truth’ in our society and lives. I agree with this idea because although many books are written for entertainment purposes, and are composed of unrealistic plots and events, they often send a message to the reader, and teach them about life lessons.
Now at first glance anyone may look at the book and wonder what does Fahrenheit 451 mean? Well Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper catches on fire. This is our first glimpse into Ray Bradbury’s dystopian world in Fahrenheit 451. So, this book was originally published in 1953 during World War II and starting the Cold War, which plays a huge role in what this book symbolizes. The author of Fahrenheit 451 is Ray Bradbury.