The Dangers Of Censorship That Burn A Society Imagine a world where reading a simple book would result in firemen at the door, ready to set the house ablaze. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is one of these firemen and the protagonist, who begins questioning his life after meeting Clarrise McClellan. Their government heavily censors what people consume from the media. They have firefighters burning books and have people like Mildred glued to the parlor wall screens that act like walk-in televisions. If people are discontent and step out of line, the firefighters have the mechanical hound track them down. After a series of traumatic events, like seeing a woman burn with her books, he starts to get curious about books. …show more content…
With the outlawing of books, people have turned to other forms of entertainment. One example would be the white clown show that Mildred and her friends watch. The white clown show depicts clowns cutting off each other's limbs while laughter plays in the background. The women are shown to be unfazed and even laugh at the gore displayed on the parlor walls. They smoke and drink as they converse about war nonchalantly; the women don't seem to understand the cruelty of war and death. Mildred is no different from the housewives. When Montag returns home after the burning woman from the work incident prior, Mildred reveals Clarisse had been run over and her family had moved away. Montag gets mad that he didn't tell him when she found out about her death. Mildred didn't seem to care and allowed the news to slip her mind. The novel shows us how selfish, shallow, and empty. She shows how dehumanized people have become, not comprehending the violence and the seriousness of their neighbors' deaths. As much as the government in the novel has attempted to keep its citizens ignorant by banning books, there are bound to be those who revolt against this lifestyle. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Montag is seen to progressively break