Self-imposed censorship is killing society. Specifically, Montag’s society. In the story Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character Guy Montag lives in a place where they burn books to prevent citizens from forming their own opinions, and keeping them ignorant and supposedly “happy.” So what is Bradbury attempting to teach the reader about self-imposed censorship? He is aiming to teach the reader the dangers of censorship and how it leads to limiting the options people have to choose between, so that they do not have to make their own choices and avoid any conflicts, and the negative effects that self-imposed censorship will have on mankind as a whole.

So, what is self-imposed censorship? It can be described as the act of censoring