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Fahrenheit 451 connections to modern day
Fahrenheit 451 connections to modern day
Fahrenheit 451 connections to modern day
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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.
The government has a very strong influence on technology and society. Both Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a fiction book, and " 21 Century Censorship" by Philip Bennett and Moises Naim, a nonfiction article, have shown different examples of the government's influence. By looking at both the fiction and non-fiction texts, it is clear that if the government controls the information shared by technology, feeding out false information and controling citizens with censorship by withholding the information while exploiting writers in the process. In the book Fahrenheit 451, the summary talks about how futuristic firefighters burn books because the people of the society do not read and just enjoy nature.
Censorship serves as a parallel between our world and Ray Bradbury's dark vision in the book Fahrenheit 451. In today's world, the government in certain states are currently censoring and banning books to control and suppress people in today's society. “ It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed…and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history” Part 1 p. 7. This quotation relates to a parallel because it demonstrates how the government has controlled and suppressed information in order to control the populace, and people's ideals and beliefs which is happening today
Using Censorship as Control “‘A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon’” (Bradbury, 58). Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, depicts a controlling government that deprives society of knowledge and censors ideas that may cause rebellion.
The first chapter of Fahrenheit 451 is about the censorship of the people. They have a government that is different from our government because they banned books and highly restricted information. The government had firemen starting fires, instead of putting out fires. They use fire hoses to spray kerosene on books, lighting them on fire, so people could not learn. The only people who have the most intelligence in the story are Beatty, Clarisse, and Guy Montag, the main character.
This relates to the topic of censorship by tying to the book as a whole to burning which represents censorship. By burning books we are censoring our information and this leads to us becoming desensitized and possibly violent. Second he uses allegories. In this moment montag is attempting to memorize a book he has kept because he is going to turn it in to captain Beatty. “Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day, trying to fill a sieve with sand,because some cruel cousin had said, “Fill this sieve and you’ll get a dime!”
While I do believe that we as a people are becoming slaves to technology, we are not yet at the stage of censorship in the novel, Fahrenheit 451. On the other hand, it is possible to see that some in society are becoming less intelligent or less aware of certain events transpiring in the world. Unlike what Bradbury, stated in the video that, "Fahrenheit 451 is actually about the moronic influence of popular culture through local tv news. " That is a very bold statement, but it spans from a very innocent format such as the tv-show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians to a very detrimental piece of news broadcasting such as our very own President's Twitter account. Reality TV Shows, as the aforementioned show keeps the American public dumbed down,
In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury’s primary goal is to portray censorship. He tries to elicit the feeling that the government is controlling the people’s thoughts, what they see, and even what they do. One of the main antagonists - Beatty say’s, “ 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; Better yet, give him none”(Bradbury, 58). The Government does this to keep the people happy, or in a state of blissfulness, and satisfaction, and to keep them unaware of what is truly going on in the world.
Censorship in the Fahrenheit 451 is thought to help the different groups and minorities be shielded against books that are meant to offend them. The problem with this is that eventually everyone looks at books as an enemy to the equality the society is looking for; hence why they choose to burn all books. Along with censoring the reading materials the government has also been able to control the way of thought and restrict freedom of speech. Montag is only made aware of the restrictions when reading opens his eyes to the thoughts and creativity that has been banned in society. This is when character development happens for Montag because he is now able to choose what he wants to do and say regardless of the consequences: “The numbness will go away, he thought.
Back in my Day; An argument on Fahrenheit 451 and the morality of extreme censorship in our daily lives Is knowledge power? Is it such a problem that we need to censor our books and media? A good example of this ideology is a book named Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 is a book about censorship and the gatekeeping of knowledge, Bradbury develops a theme that knowledge shouldnt be kept from the people and should be accessible to all. Some might say that certain knowledge shouldnt be known by all and that some knowledge is dangerous, such as the creation of dangerous weapons or substances, and although certain knowledge can be dangerous or even lead to an imbalance of power, most knowledge should be spread and built upon so us as a species can learn from it and become better as a whole.
The Reality of Censorship All around the world there is knowledge that is restricted because governments censor learning materials. This is very harmful to society and in my opinion, governments shouldn’t be allowed to do this because it can spread more missimforation, lessen the education of children, and put all the power in the government. Censorship shouldn’t be all over the place because it’s important to understand reality as it is and learn from it. Knowledge is power and censoring that power is a step in the wrong direction.
Bradbury makes Montag grapple with censorship after his eyes are opened to how prevalent censorship is. As Montag becomes enlightened about censorship, he realizes how limited the citizen’s independence truly is. Thus, in ‘heit 451’, Ray Bradbury emphasizes the government’s
Fahrenheit 451 shows how people’s rights to free speech and media are essential to a free thinking society. Guy Montag, the main character, is a firefighter, which in his futuristic society means he burns books for the government because they are illegal due to the potentially controversial ideas they contain. Montag meets a girl named Clarisse, who helps him realize he’s not really content in how he’s living his life and in his relationships, which begins to change his viewpoint on the society’s standards. His wife Mildred, as well as the rest of society, are highly materialistic and shallow in their daily activities and interactions. Montag eventually steals a book during the fireman’s raid on a house, which leads him to seek out a man named Faber, who is an educated man, and helps encourage Montag to take steps to action.
However Montag soon starts to doubt the ethics of his profession and the morality of censorship. Written during the mid nineteen hundreds, a period of delusions, war and fear. The oppressive nature of Montag's world, a world where television, music, and most of all literary has been censored, may be a reflection of that era. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was able to illustrate censorship by fabricating a shielded society that is filled with inhabitants that are ignorant to the defected parts of mankind.
Imagine what the world would be like with nobody knowing anything! Censorship is something many Americans don’t think about often but in other countries, like North Korea or China think about it everyday. In Fahrenheit 451 we are shown that censorship will lead to society knowing nothing about the world, lies coming from the government, and without voice in society everyone will drown your opinions with their own and no one will ever credit your opinion. While some may say censorship is good when you are trying to protect someone from information they are too immature to know or they don’t even want to know the facts, the value of having a voice is very great because censorship hides what you should know about the government, schools and our peoples jobs.
