Examples Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

Montag’s World Can Become Ours

It is possible that our future global society will turn out like Guy Montag’s; fully mind controlled by a dystopian government. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, demonstrates that censorship decreases individual thought and creates a false sense of happiness through Firemen, and media.

The first way Ray Bradbury demonstrates censorship is through Firemen. As Guy Montag rushes out of the fire he grabs a book when no know is looking, he then “plunged the book back under his arm, pressed it tight to sweating armpit, rushed out empty with a magician flourish” (41). As Montag enters the house, he notices that the old woman who owns the building won’t leave her books. She wants to be responsible for the burning

Beatty tries to convince Montag to continue being a fireman as they “ stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.”(65) showing that they are superior to the unaware society. Beatty enters Montag's house unannounced and proceeds to speak to him about the struggles of society which they have overcome. He continues to say that as the censorship has increased so has the happiness of the world, but what he fails to mention is that the society is not happy, they are simply unaware of what is happening around them. Their conscious and subconscious selves have drifted so far apart due to the lack of information and censorship that they no longer have the mindsets of humans. As Beatty continues to talk to Montag, Clarisse is brought into the conversation. Montag explains who this girl is and how she used to live next door. He also mentions to Beatty how she was killed not too long ago. Beatty starts to explain how, “ If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none” (64). When Beatty hears about how this girl died and how she was different from everyone he put the two pieces together. Beatty is explaining, through dialogue, how a dystopian society does not want anyone to

As Montag was running from the police he didn’t know where to run until he remembered that Faber’s house was nearby. He ran inside his house explaining to Faber what happened. Montag noticed that the TV was on. It was the news. the TV was explaining how a person named Guy Montag was on the loose. The news reporter was reassuring to everyone watching that the, “Mechanical hound never fails” (135). The newscaster starts to explain to everyone how this mechanical hound has never failed its job. However, society doesn’t know that the mechanical hound has failed several times. The news just hides this factor through the camera. This creates a false sense of happiness for everyone that is watching the chase. Once the hound has completely lost its target the hound finds an imposter to take the place of its target. This pleases everyone by making the viewers think the chase has come to a stop. Once Montag leaves Faber’s house he starts to run to the railroad tracks outside the city. Once he gets to the camps he notices on the TV that the hound has found its imposter replacing Montag. The hound was seen on TV when all of a sudden, “Its needle shot out. It was suspended for a moment in their gaze as if to give the vast audience time to appreciate everything, the raw look on the victim's face, the empty street, the steel animal a bullet nosing the target” (151). Montag starts to believe that the