Role Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Modern day society has turned into an environment where people do not know much and other people streamline unimportant information to cover up breaking news. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury predicts these very issues, and others, of today’s society using his fictional world where books have been made illegal. Even though books have not been made illegal in today’s society, numerous similarities can be found within Fahrenheit 451 and America’s modern society, such as censorship of details and lack of reading. The lack of reading in Fahrenheit 451 relates to modern society in a horrifyingly similar way. While Montag recovers from a horrific event, Beatty visits him and illustrates for Montag:

Speed up the film, Montag, quick. Click,

Because of this, no one has time to read if they want to stay updated with current society. This applies to today’s society as well. Steve McEllistrem, an author of several books, has noted on his website that, yes, numerous readers do still exist, “But readers are slowly dying off, easing into extinction as newer and flashier means of grabbing our attention evolve” (McEllistrem). Steve acknowledges that many people still read, but continue to slowly decrease in size. This applies to the people in the book Fahrenheit 451, that few people read and slowly eradicated by the government and/or the firemen. As the media continues to evolve, readers will slowly dissipate into nothing and the media will become more

They did… Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said… Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. (Bradbury 55) Since the age of technology has dawned several years back, books have been preferred to be read electronically instead of paper books. Due to the criticism books get now people do not read books as often and instead get involved in social media, news stations, etc. Exploiters and propaganda can frequently be found in these media sources. Suzanne La Londe shares her information on the subject in her article that, “It seems that the mainstream media believes they should just report what they consider to be the “facts” and leave their readers to develop their own opinions from them” (La Londe 34+). Suzanne claims that the media gives out information that has not been confirmed yet. Media seems to do this either because they do not have enough evidence for a subject in high demand, or the media is censoring what they do know and choose not to share. As shown by Steve McEllistrem and Suzanne La Londe, the similarities of a lack of reading and censorship of information from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and modern society can be better understood. Today’s society has turned into a place where people care less about what is going on in the real world, and exploiters and propaganda streamline unimportant information to