Theme Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

750 Words3 Pages
Fahrenheit 451 is a book about Guy Montag; a fireman living with his wife in a dystopian future where books are illegal. Firemen are responsible for burning houses that have books in them and arresting people who have books. This all changes when Guy starts collecting books as well. This leads him to go on a perilous adventure that could get him killed. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses allegories, motifs, and symbols to show that censorship is a danger to society and it will lead us to our doom because it results in us being desensitized, depressed and violent. First , the author uses a symbol. Montag meets Clarisse and he doesn’t know how to approach her; she begins a conversation with the fireman. “Well, doesn’t this mean anything to you?” He tapped the numerals 451 stitched on his char-colored sleeve.” This quote symbolizes the degree at which paper will combust. This relates to the topic of censorship by tying to the book as a whole to burning which represents censorship. By burning books we are censoring our information and this leads to us becoming desensitized and possibly violent.Second he uses allegories. In this moment montag is attempting to memorize a book he has kept because he is going to turn it in to captain Beatty. “Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day, trying to fill a sieve with sand,because some cruel cousin had said, “Fill this sieve and you’ll get a dime!” And the faster he poured,