Excessive Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

The book also critiques modernization. During the writing of the book, colored TV began broadcasting (“1950s Inventions”) and slowly TV began to overtake literature. TV and literature have always been against each other since the television was invented. This war between mediums of entertainment is prevalent in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury was even quoted as saying “The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.” Needless to say, he is against television. His feelings are personified in the book as Mildred. Mildred is borderline addicted to her 4 flat screen televisions. Even calling some

They believe it is because television doesn’t require much movement or activity and focus so the brain becomes stagnant. (“Can Television Have an Impact on Memory”)

Another prevalent theme in Fahrenheit 451 is theme of excessive censorship being a detriment to society. As previously stated locking off certain books for their ideas can lead to a loss in the moral lessons they reveal. In Bradbury’s novel, he demonstrates the effect by the use of both Mildred and her friends, even Montag at some points. Mildred is addicted to her television and the television shows are clearly heavily censored. For example, when Montag finally attempts to escape society after killing Captain Beatty, the news displays a story that says Montag was captured even though he clearly wasn’t. This form of censorship is going in full damage control. They don’t want the public to become unrest by knowing that a criminal is at large. This is why they may have begun burning books to begin with. The government and the population want to remain happy and in order to do that, no other sides of an argument can be taken. This could be the reason why Clarisse was kicked out of school. Not for being “antisocial” but for asking why and not mindlessly doing she is

In the 1950s, there were efforts to ban not only classics, but comic books and educational ones as well. But why? Part of the reason comic books were banned was because they were believed to have created “a corrupting force on the minds of young people” (Hammond) and for the other forms of literature, they were censored because of McCarthyism. Somewhat ironically, Fahrenheit 451 was among these banned books because of its depiction of a Bible burning. Unfortunately, this kind of censorship is still prevalent today, not due to McCarthyism anymore. Today’s censorship is more geared towards avoiding offensive literature, which is exactly the reason why Beatty said burning books was for the good. In Hugh Mercer Curtler’s essay named “Political Correctness and The Attack on Great Literature,” he describes a recent example of this