Today, most people are aware of real-life examples that use censorship, such as nations North Korea and the Soviet Union during the rule of Stalin that use censorship to control their nations and establish stability. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel that is a fictitious example of censorship, and it 's about a society that burns books. The main character, Guy Montag, believes he’s perfectly happy with a stable job of being a firefighter, owning a house, and having a family. However, as the story progresses Montag meets a young, curious girl named Clarisse who is aware of the truths of the world beyond the limits of censorship. She shows Montag what a real society can be like, not one that controls information and discovery via censorship. As Montag realizes this, he slowly discovers that his previous feelings of satisfaction with his typical, stable life mask an actual unhappiness as he tries to find a way to become aware of the real world through reading books and passing on this knowledge to others. Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury suggests the idea that even though censorship establishes peace and order, it keeps humans from striving to understand their world and think for themselves; this becomes clear to readers when the main …show more content…
Throughout the story, Montag learns that the peaceful society he lived in has kept him from being able to learn and be curious about his world. Seeing Montag’s struggles as he tries to find a way to reverse the censorship and learn for himself, the main question we can ask ourselves is this, “Would we give up our ability to freely obtain knowledge to establish nationwide