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Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

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Fahrenheit 451 Essay Imagine, living in an emotionless society. Under constant censorship by the government, but taught that it’s completely okay and normal to not have feelings or know how to express them. This is a society without literature to influence them. No knowledge, morals, feelings, and many more things not taught all from the censorship of reading. This is the world that Guy Montag lives in, in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The book has given us a perfect example of a dystopian future. Behind all of it, Ray Bradbury gave a meaning and understanding within the book. With censorship in the society Montag lived in, many problems came into place that people viewed as normal or what they did for “fun”. Nobody has morals. Murdering your friends at the Fun Park was a “fun activity” with no consequences. Clarisse even mentions that a few of her friends were killed and she was going to a psychiatrist for it. Suicide was such a common thing that medical professionals seemed to have little concern. As quoted from the book when Montag asks the operator of the machines why they didn’t send a M.D., the operator responds with, “we get these cases nine or ten times a night.”. Everyone was depressed and taking medication/drugs to gain artificial happiness. …show more content…

But in the book, Montag’s society lacks individuality. Everyone has the same mind-set. No one has their own opinion, and without their own opinion everyone lacks free thinking. Everyone is the same. They follow through with what society tells them is acceptable because they haven't been taught different. They are all taught that books are bad and meaningless. Beatty says “None of those books agree with each other.” and “The people in those books never lived.” This makes the people believe that books are nonsense. They use the excuse that books are nonsense, and just a bunch of words that make no sense. But in all honesty, they just haven't been taught to

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Would anyone conform to their societies wishes if they were in Montag’s place, or would they still be their own individual as Montag did throughout Fahrenheit 451? Montag was told, on multiple occasion, to conform to the society and that it would be easier; however he denies society and forms his own individual personality due to the influences of his friends. Although Montag’s society told him to be indifferent and conform to what the society wanted, many other societies would have told him to be unique, not the doll that his society and government had made and told him to be. Montag was told to be what society wanted him to do; however, he lived by being an individual against the grain of society in the book. Montag had been told to conform to society and the government and even by his boss, yet he still rebelled against everything that had to do with conformity.

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