Government Control In Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury once wrote; “Books are to remind us what asses and fools we are”. In Montag’s society, the government controls knowledge and memory. This control allows Montag’s government to do just about anything it wants. But in the end, this will negatively affect the government and its society. While there may be limited positives for some people in restricting knowledge and memory, Bradbury’s main warning was that doing this could have devastating results for everyone.

The government in Montag's society is trying to control the citizens' knowledge and memory. They are lying to the people about history and jailing people for wandering the streets. The leaders of Montag's nation control knowledge by feeding their citizens untrue facts about

They actually put out fires, which proves that this fact is incorrect, and that the government is lying. Another example of the government controlling knowledge is when they put people in jail who break unwritten laws, like when Clarisse said; ”My uncle was arrested another time … for being a pedestrian” (Bradbury 7). Arresting someone for being a pedestrian is an example of controlling knowledge because when people are sitting inside, and they see someone walking outside, they might want to go outside too. When they go outside, they are away from their parlor walls, away from everything. They might start making observations and questioning their leaders. The leaders put people in jail if they see them on the streets to prevent this from happening. Not only does the government restrict knowledge, but they also restrict memory by manipulating all of their citizens. One way that people in history have tried to control people is by burning books. The leaders of Montag's society decided that

Restricting knowledge and memory has had a great effect on people's feelings. Mainly, restricting memory has hurt these people. A prime example of this was when Montag asked how Mrs. Phelps’ children were, even though he knew she did not have any. She responded, “You know I haven’t any! No one in his right mind, the Good Lord knows, would have any children!” (Bradbury 92). But Mrs. Phelps did not remember that one of her friends sitting right next to her has two children. This shows a major lack of empathy because Mrs. Phelps indirectly called her friend crazy for having kids, with complete disregard for her friends feelings. This could be avoided by being able to remember, because she would have never said that if she knew that it would hurt her friends feelings, so therefore it is a result of having an impaired memory. (STEWE-2) In addition to this, it also ruins people's ability to have meaningful relationships. An example is when Montag could not remember where he and Millie met. He asked; “When did we meet? And where?” (Bradbury 40), but he could not remember the answer. This hurts people because many important relationships are formed through memories, and without these people don't form bonds as strong with each other and, combined with lack of empathy, this completely destroys anyone’s ability to love. In the end, these decisions not only hurt the citizens, but