ESSAY By Magnus Kurbis Jacques Fahrenheit 451 is a fantastic book that displays the downfall of humanity and the burning of books. It is praised by many people around the world for being one of the first science fiction books that had mass readership, as well as being critically acclaimed. Many people do not think about the themes of the book as they are reading it. We will be exploring the many themes of Fahrenheit 451, more specifically the themes of negative effects technology, censorship and animal representation Technology is my first theme. In the book, the tech is very futuristic. TV screens are as big as room walls and the actors can speak directly to the person watching the show, talking with the viewers using their real name. Little seashell radios play noise in people's ears …show more content…
Loud cars, music, and massive advertisements like the gum commercials create an overstimulated society without room for distractions like books, self-reflection, or appreciation of nature and the suppression of thoughts. Bradbury gives the reader a brief history about why society started hating books, first condensing them into shorter bite sized pieces, then just writing titles, and forgetting about them all together in the end. He says he world is happier like this. The book also talks about the idea that different groups were offended by literature. In his chat with Montag, Beatty mentions dog lovers would be made mad by books about cats, and cat lovers the contrary. Finally, in the Afterword to the book, Bradbury expresses his own sensitivity to attempts to censor his writing. He feels "censored by letters suggesting he should give stronger roles to women or coloured men". Bradbury sees such tips and suggestions as a step towards censorship and book burning. Scary huh. I also assume that he took several examples from Hitler, because Hitler burned books as