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Censorship Exposed In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

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Books, in and of themselves, are simply pages filled with words, a varying combination of 26 letters bound together to make a story. Yet in reality, books are so much more than simple words; they are carefully crafted artworks that hold precious life in between their seams, life given from its author. Ray Bradbury, science fiction author and screenwriter, gave life and vivacity to all of his written works, uniquely so to Fahrenheit 451, a novel ironically focused on themes of censorship and government suppression. During his life, Bradbury experienced times of great political and social turmoil that reached its apex during the 1950s. This decade was plagued by the nuclear arms race and regional wars, racial segregation, government censorship …show more content…

Mildred, the wife of Montag, directly represents both a victim and active participant in this form of conformity. Bradbury portrays Mildred through the perspective of Montag as she sleeps with “little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind” (Fahrenheit 451 10). The introduction of advanced technology alongside high risk pleasure sports and activities fill citizen’s free time as a way to mask the truth about the world they live in. People like Mildred lose any sense of social awareness, becoming blind to the truth, insensitive to the horrors of death and violence, and fearful of true interaction with other human beings. Bradbury illustrates Montag’s despair in realization to a disconnection with his wife, in a scene where Mildred is treated for a medicine overdose. At the possibility of Mildred dying Montag states, “It would be the dying of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, and it was suddenly so very wrong that he had begun to cry, not at death but at the thoughts of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty women, while the hungry snake made her still more empty” (Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 41). These powerful words are Bradbury’s warning of falling susceptible to the dangers of technology. The censorship of ideas and inundation of mass media cause relationships to crumble, and true love or happiness to disappear. Prescott comments on the futuristic society illustrated in Fahrenheit 451 saying, “It was eccentric to think, psychotic to enjoy the beauties of nature. Normal people doped themselves with synthetic entertainment” (217). The rules and values of the society Bradbury portrays seem ridiculous, perhaps only an extreme outcome of censorship, yet it is an outcome

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In society, some people have conflicts with things and people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Montag, has to burn books for a living. Montag’s life began to change when he has a decision to steal, hide, and read the books, or turn the books in and act like everyone else. Ray Bradbury shows Montag’s conflict with his wife, a friend, and technology in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury uses Mildred, Montag’s wife, to show how everyone there is like robots.

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The lessons that can be learned from them, the entertainment or immersions that can be had, and all that could be lost if censorship goes too far are all reasons to keep books around fiction and nonfiction alike. Fiction books, even at elementary school levels, teach lessons to their readers, sometimes more important lessons than nonfiction books. They can be as simple as learning the share, but also as complex as learning about the issues of keeping censorship from going too far. Fahrenheit 451 talks about censorship and how their society was affected by the censoring, removal, and burning of all books, which is best expressed on pages eighty one to eighty five. Bradbury’s purpose to this was to express that it is not the books that are special, it’s the knowledge and the lessons that are held within them that are important.

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Bradbury took these aspects to the extreme to convey his message using a dystopian world, and the character that most embraces and embodies the values of this society is Mildred. Mildred, as a typical citizen, is the opposite of the enlightened Clarisse. She is always watching television in the parlour, and when she is not doing that she is listening to her Seashells. When Montag brings books into their house, she is horrified and she ends up being the one who reports Montag to the firemen. By all accounts she appears to have fully bought into the lifestyle that her society promotes, and says that she is happy that way and “proud of it” (68).

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