Examples Of Propaganda In Fahrenheit 451

Free will, some people will tell you, is nothing but an illusion, a social construct built to keep the masses in check. In dystopian novels, such as Anthem (Ayn Rand) and Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), and in other forms of entertainment such as Animal Farm, another novel written by George Orwell, and Urinetown, a musical set in a fictitious town where no one can pee. Many forces are used to control society, to keep the government in total control. But government control is just a made up ideal used by writers to create their own worlds, it’s an actual construct used in places such as North Korea and the former Soviet Union. Forces used to control individuals include, education, or lack thereof, propaganda, and the most common, fear. A common

Propaganda is information of biased or misleading nature. Used several times throughout history, and in Russia today, Propaganda is a cheap, easy way to change the public’s mind about almost anything. An example is the Bandwagon Appeal. “Everybody’s doing it!” is propaganda to touch human’s nature of wanting to be accepted. There are many other types of propaganda used throughout novels and history to control society as a whole. The government in Fahrenheit 451 tells the public Montag is dead, after chasing him because he killed Chief Beatty, even though Montag got away, “They're faking. You threw them off at the river. They can't admit it. They know they can hold their audience only so long. The show's got to have a snap ending, quick... So they're sniffing for a scape-goat to end things with a bang.” Because people have been only just sitting at their TV’s for so long, they have such short attention spans. The government needs a quick, easy way to spread the truth, and this is a fast, simple, snap-of-the-fingers- way to make sure people only see what the government wants them too. They can’t hold the attention long, and that’s why they just say Montag is dead. Because if they didn’t, how can they control many people if they can’t even control one? An even worst, less human form of propaganda shows in Anthem. As the people of that society are one, they repeat to themselves every day “We are one in all and all in

This is repetition propaganda. Everyone has heard the phrase “if you hear something enough, it becomes true.” This is exactly what this pledge does: It slowly brainwashes the kids of the society, as they say this every day, so they have nothing else to believe. They can be controlled as long as what they are doing Is “for the greater good,” (Rand, Foreword) Propaganda also affects real life. How else would people have been okay with the mass genocide of people that World War Two brought? People in Nazi Germany were so eager to allow Germany to be great again after the First World War, they believed anything Hitler told them. Nazi Germany used all types of entertainment, from books to films to plays, to push their agenda. “Films in particular played an important role in disseminating racial anti-Semitism, the superiority of German military power, and the intrinsic evil of the enemies as defined by Nazi ideology.” The people of Nazi Germany just listened, and didn’t question what their government was telling them, which allowed the government to control and kill millions of people, which proved the “power” Nazi Germany had, and how others were inferior to the “mighty” Nazi Germany. Propaganda can control entire countries and continents, whether it be in made up worlds, or real life, terrible,