Censorship Exposed In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the world is in a state of corruption and intellectual darkness. Bradbury portrays a dystopia in which censorship has evolved into its full potential. It is a world in which all literary mediums are outlawed. Firemen are used as police officers to burn all books, and its owners’ houses. The firemen’s occupation is beneficial to the totalitarian regime in rule because the burning of the books allows the people to become ignorant, which allow the government to have total control. Guy Montag, the main protagonist in the novel, is a fireman who enjoys his career. He has learned that books are dangerous and must be destroyed. After meeting young Clarisse McClellan, a young girl who is neighbors with

An example is the use of Benjamin Franklin in the story. According to Captain Beatty, Montag’s boss, “Established, 1790, to burn English influenced books in the colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin” (Bradbury 170). What’s ironic about this is that this statement alludes to a false Benjamin Franklin. It’s ironic because Benjamin Franklin established the first fire units in Philadelphia, but it was to stop fires, not start them. Beatty wants to use historical figures to make a false conclusion to justify the burning of books. Along with this false fact from Captain Beatty, he also misinterprets the American Constitution. Beatty says, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal” (Bradbury 289). Again, Beatty wants to justify the burning of books because people need to be made equal to be happy. Apparently, the ideas grasped from books make society as a whole unhappy since books can point out inequalities. This idea alludes to a false interpretation of the Constitution by saying that burning books is helpful to create equality in the world. These historical and political figure allusions is used to twist ideologies by either telling a false fact, or by misinterpreting an idea used to create a society in which the government has complete power. The purpose of these inferences is to show that those in higher ranks

The story takes an interesting route filled with ironic symbolisms and allusions to paint a dark world. Guy Montag learns that his own occupation of firemen is destroying what is left from history. Fire is symbolized as the annihilator of knowledge. But as the story unfolds fire, in candlelight form, is also the inspiration that allows Montag to take action against burning precious literature. The symbolisms in the novel are reinforced by the allusions illustrated in the tale. The purpose of the inferences is to further elucidate the wrongdoings of the totalitarian leadership portrayed in the story. It's also significant in the way the corrupt government will be done away with by some of the characters. This novel utilizes these elements to show how some governments abuse the power the people give them. The author does a fantastic job integrating the different symbols and allusions into the plot of the story. The novel allows the readers to feel what the characters go through, and reminds the readers the importance of the freedom most people take for granted. When people become distracted, deception can creep in and cloud the minds of those people. But when one brave soul decides to remove the confusion, knowledge can be restored. Because to be knowledgeable is to be free. That is the purpose of symbols and allusions in Fahrenheit