Examples Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

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“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” ~ Laurie H. Anderson. Laurie is an American book writer who believes not letting kids experience the truth, leads to being vulnerable adults. Parents fear what exposure the child can see. In turn, the child becomes ignorant of what’s to come. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, portrays a dystopian future where firemen start fires instead of preventing them. Books are censored to prevent offending minorities, not being fun, and breeding intelligent people. Guy Montag a fireman never questioned his destruction or life, but upon meeting a girl named Clarisse Mcclellan, he starts to wonder what lies within books. Censorship is everywhere controlling what to think and how to act. It limits …show more content…

Upon arriving at his house, Montag sees Mildred and her friends watching a show on the parlor walls. Upset by this he unplugs the cord for the tv, forcing them to conversate. They first talk about war and then the election. In The Sieve In The Sand, page 93, Mrs. Bowels states “What possessed the ‘outs’ to run him? You just don’t go running a little short man like that against a tall man. Besides- he mumbled. Half the time I couldn’t hear a word he said. And the words I did hear I didn’t understand.” What this evidence shows is people elect their president based on attractiveness instead of ideas and goals. This is vital because people don’t decide with their beliefs, but rather heavily influenced by society. As a result, people think superficially because they conform to believe this is the proper way to elect new leaders. Moreover, after Mildred rang the alarm on Montag, Beatty taunts Montag with literary quotes. In Burning Bright, page 111, Beatty states "It was pretty silly, quoting poetry around free and easy like that. It was the act of a silly damn snob. Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation. You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them. Look where they got you, in slime up to your lip. If I stir the slime with my little finger, you'll drown!" In other words that those who are given little knowledge over everybody else think they’re superior. This is essential because it shows how shallow this society is and when someone gains a little knowledge from books, they want to spread it to everybody else. Under those circumstances, by censoring books, people’s knowledge gets more and more close-minded until they judge things on simple attributes. Superficial thinking leads people down a rabbit hole which knowledge isn’t used within the