Censorship Laws In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451, by American author Ray Bradbury, centers around a time in the future where books are evil, and firemen start fires, instead of putting them out. Bradbury’s novel reflects many government’s exertion of power through censorship, experienced around the world today. The whole premise of this book is that books are evil, so all of the citizen’s books are removed, and you are punished if any are found in your possession. Through these fictitious events the realities of punishment from China’s government for those who fail to comply with the censorship laws set forth. In April of 2010, China’s government revised a previously existing amendment to increase their control of information flows. This law deals with the endangerment of

A specific example of this is seen in the firemen’s rulebook “RULE 1. Answer the alarm swiftly. 2. Start the fire swiftly. 3. Burn everything. 4. Report back to firehouse immediately. 5. Stand alert for other alarms.” (Bradbury 30). As one can see there is immediate reprimand for anyone who disobeys the book law in Fahrenheit 451, just as their is for anyone who oversteps the strict censorship boundaries in

This component of the story is reflected in the censorship and fabrication of media in the Middle East. In 2011, activists in the Middle East were using the internet as ways to make connections and spark change, that eventually overthrew some of the oppressive governments, but in the countries that were not overthrown like Pakistan the censorship became intense. After a profane video of the prophet Muhammed was posted on Youtube, the Pakistani government ordered the website to be blocked throughout the entirety of the country. This is an extreme step of censorship, and an attempt to keep the people only seeing things the government wanted them to see. The fabrication comes in with the proposed localized version of the website, and the filtration of all internet searches in