Government Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 leads a story about a fireman, Guy Montag learning about the government’s censorship of his society. The story shows how the government uses the media, book burning, and canceling normal activities to gain control of their people. The government’s censorship leads people to never question society and the world around them. Some believed that Fahrenheit 451 would never be like our world, but our past has shown otherwise. Events from our world, such as the North Korean government and US Postal Service Censorship relate our world to theirs. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury suggests that the government controls society through censorship.

Censorship has been prevalent throughout history. It is shown through North Korea's

We see this by the government banning everyday activities, like sitting on a porch and relaxing. Montag remembered what Clarise said one afternoon, “No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn’t want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over.[...] that was the wrong kind of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches” (Bradbury 60). Based on this exchange, it can be inferred that opportunities such as relaxing freely were allowed. For example, there used to be porches for people to sit and talk on but the government thought it would lead to too many thoughts. This led the government to get rid of porches to limit the amount of relaxation time people have. The more relaxation time they have, the more time they have to think. In Fahrenheit 451, the government maintains control over their society in many ways but censorship is one of them. Porches were taken away by the government which has allowed them to limit the free thought their citizens have. Limiting the free thought of their citizens lets the government gain more control. Governments have now put censorship on our society to limit the obscene access our society

The Comstock Act was passed to outlaw the disruption of obscene materials. Anthony Comstock had shown Congress obscene illustrations and urged them to pass the Act in order to prevent crime and corruption in children. In a PBS article called, Anthony Comstock’s “Chastity” Laws, it said “Comstock was certain that the availability of contraceptives alone promoted lust and lewdness. In 1872 Comstock set off for Washington with an anti-obscenity bill, including a ban on contraceptives, that he had drafted himself. On March 3, 1873, Congress passed the new law as the Comstock Act. The statute defined contraceptives as obscene and illicit, making it a federal offense to disseminate birth control through the mail or across state lines.” (Anthony Comstock’s ‘Chastity’). During this time, Anthony wanted to censor the knowledge and access to obscene contraceptives and obscene writings. This was a “controversial law because it limited the reproductive right of women and violated every person’s right to privacy”(Seward). The censorship he put on women and society caused the government to gain more control over the people by limiting the information they knew. When they put the ban on mailing contraceptives it caused more censorship