Government Power In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Power comes from the possession of authority. Possession, authority, and control, lead up to power. Many times these are used to oppress, and a majority of those times, it is a government that abuses these powers. Government abuse of power is present countless times throughout history and even currently. The fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury portrays government abuse of power and authority over people. Although this novel is fictitious and set in the distant future, the world in it resembles the world currently. In both the novel and the world , governments use their power to oppress citizens with censorships on literature, news media, entertainment, the internet and even communication. Governments in both the novel and real world

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 books are illegal. The government designs a whole branch of firemen to enforce this law. These firemen burn books to prevent the gain of knowledge, which is a threat to government power. This action of censorship on literature by a government to prevent knowledge is current in World War Il. The Nazi party burns books and censors literature to make ultimate control and power easier to obtain. Beaconforfreedom.org even states, “In order to cleanse the minds of people and society any book written by a Jewish author, communist or humanist, was fed to the flames.” Both the Nazi government and government in Fahrenheit 451 use this censor on literature to dull the minds of its citizens. This restricts their knowledge, which makes them simple minded and easy to control with the public completely

Within Fahrenheit 451 there are many examples where the reader can notice government interference with communication. The nation views social interaction as odd and even in a negative manner. Questions are not common and genuine conversation is abnormal. The government does this in an attempt to restrict citizens from knowledge collaboration, which keeps them empty minded and closes their minds off to new ideas. This is very similar to China’s ban on facebook. Kristina Zucchi explains that “The Chinese government controls Internet content and restricts, deletes, or bans content it deems is not in the interest of the state” (Investopedia.com). The Chinese Government suspects facebook to be the social network rioters and citizens use to organise and communicate. This then causes the spanish government to ban the use of Facebook. Both these governments use restrictions on communication to control and oppress their citizens. This ultimately keeps them away from other ideals and