Fahrenheit 451: The Dangers Of Extreme Censorship

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Fahrenheit 451: The Dangers of Extreme Censorship
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a story of suspense and danger. It is about a fireman (Guy Montag) who burns books to help keep people from thinking and reading things that the government doesn 't want them to read. He ends up stealing a book from a house that he is supposed to burn, and starts to read. Guy is confused by what he ends up reading, so he ends looking for someone who can help him understand what he reads. This man is Faber, an english professor who is now out of a job because the government has banned books. Guy gets found out, and starts to run from the city because he is now a fugitive. He escapes across the river, and meets people who have memorized entire books to write back …show more content…

Governments need some sorts of censorships in place to keep things that are meant to be kept secret secret (Blankley). Certain government missions have been compromised because media sources have gotten wind of the mission(Panetta). Leon E. Panetta (director of the CIA from February 2009 to June 2011) said this about leaks of classified information “When information about our intelligence, our people, or our operations appears in the media, it does incredible damage to our nation’s security and our ability to do our job of protecting the nation. More importantly, it could jeopardize lives. For this reason, such leaks cannot be tolerated.”(cia.gov) Also, censorship helps protect people. During WWII, the government censored many different newspapers and news bulletins because they had appeals to the American people from Nazi leaders and Japanese leaders trying to manipulate the American people. The Government would restrict these news sources because they would decrease the American morale and make them want to end the war effort (Blankley). Censorship, in limited forms, is right and necessary
The thing is, the censorship that is mentioned in the paragraph above isn’t the type of censorship that is in Fahrenheit 451. The censorship in Fahrenheit 451 is a completely different type of censorship altogether. The type of censorship in the book is one that keeps people from seeing what is going on in the world around them, and what was going on in the past that could prevent what was going on. But, the catch is that, instead of the government introducing the censorship, the people wanted the