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 he 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 were burned, the offender would be 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 used for watching television and there were 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. The government in the book had very strict opinions on how a society should function and they never tolerated a person who doubted, questioned or acted against their authority. Law in this society was strongly enforced and all offenders were prosecuted harshly.

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 in Fahrenheit 451 were faced with all types of censorship such as the torching of books, the parlor shows and the consistent prejudice towards

indifference. Governments in this book used every bit of their power trying to censor people's lives from sadness. The people in the story assumed they were happy even though they were not and this was a direct result of the use of censorship by the authorities.

By Sanchi Turki

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 he 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