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Totalitarian Government Fahrenheit 451

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The type of government presented in a nation or society can say a lot about how that particular place functions. Each variety of government has its own set of distinguishable traits. And of all the governments, totalitarianism is arguably the most recognizable. Although it may be difficult to distinguish the signs at first, they eventually become apparent; signs such as fear of the government, banning of key symbols or items, and decrease of knowledge with the common public. Both Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451 show these signs of a totalitarian government. The first sign, fear of the government, is largely shown in both novels. The first example comes from Lord of the Flies, where Piggy and Ralph are starting to realize what they could …show more content…

In Lord of the Flies, Golding shows that the savages became afraid of life outside of Castle Rock without Jack. He has installed a sort of fear in them about rebelling against him, and a fear of a stick sharpened at both ends. Although the savage fear Jack, he has made them fear the unknown more, thoughts of the beast or Ralph roaming the island. However, in Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shows three different types of knowledge that is shielded from society. First, the knowledge of history. Clarisse gives Montag the idea that firemen used to put out fires, not start them. Beatty informs Montag that he is wrong and gives him a little history lesson. "Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin" (Bradbury 34). Several rules follow this history lesson, and Montag has almost no reaction. The second knowledge being withheld from the people is the knowledge of the truth. The government lies several times in large-scale announcements to the society, once claiming that one million men were deployed for war, when in reality, ten million men were deployed. Another time they lied was when they caught and killed "Montag". They needed to lie to show the community that no one gets away with a crime. The last knowledge is that of common knowledge. Montag thinks that he realizes that he needs books to be happy, but Faber sets him straight. "Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all" (Bradbury 82). Faber tells Montag that he doesn’t need books to be happy, he needs the knowledge that the government has taken away. They made books illegal, shortened movies, documentaries, plays, and radio

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The two of them decided to come up with a plan to show people that books are not worthless. c. Montag and Faber are living in a world where everyone believes that books have no value to them and should just be burned. However, these two characters think differently about them. Montag has been stealing books, and Faber has been teaching him about them. He learns that books reveal the bad parts of life, which is why many people hate them and decide not to read.

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Marcelo Navarro Mr. duryea English 12 March 15, 2018 Inhumane The Book 1984 is a book based on a totalitarian government where the government has complete and total control over every aspect of someone's life. In 1984 you couldn't even have privacy in your own home, you would be under constant supervision and if you were caught doing something illegal the thought police would come and arrest you. In 1984 the government controlled its people through fear, the people of 1984 where always scared of being caught doing anything illegal and where also scared because the government would bomb itself saying that they were in a war. This book shows what could happen if people would let

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Faber then agrees to help him understand books, “‘…Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.” (Bradbury 85). Faber is one of the most influential people on Montag because of this information he conveys.

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As Harry Browne once said, “Since no one but you can know what 's best for you, government control can 't make your life better.” In Fahrenheit 451, a book by Ray Bradbury, he shows ways on how the government is controlling society with surveillance, technology, and censorship. The government gets to decide what is to be done and what comes in and out of that country. In the novel, it shows how the firefighter, Guy Montag, is different than the other people in that society. These aspects of government control are directly going towards Montag because the advance in technology put into the watchdogs that are in Bradbury’s novel is unbelievable.

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683 Words | 3 Pages

A. The word that describes the first third of Fahrenheit 451 is ‘fear’. The people in this society are afraid of the government, and the government is afraid of the people. In an attempt to stay in power, the government banned free thought – à la mode of Syria, Libya, the USSR and other countries. Because books bring intellectualism, books are thus banned and replaced with mass media.

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1498 Words | 6 Pages

Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag.” Fire, a dangerous tool the firemen use to control public activity, symbolizes peace to some, as it cleanses their society of what they’ve considered more dangerous than the act of destroying property and people. Montag burning Beatty to death being the most obvious example of fire being powerful within the book, yet “Fire is bright and fire is clean” (pp. 59) As Michel Foucault says, “Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.”

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249 Words | 1 Pages

In the paragraph, Beatty explains why they don’t allow people to read books. In the world Montag is living in the government doesn’t allow people to have their own thoughts or opinions. They are worried that if they read books they will have different opinions causing them to fight with one another or the government. The government is limiting their knowledge so everyone will be “happy”. However, no one is truly happy because they believe the same thing as everyone else.

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Ray Bradbury and William Golding have very similar themes in their books. All the way from human interaction and social conditioning. Lord of the Flies consists of a story due to the lack of social conditioning and Fahrenheit 451 portrays what it's like after too much too powerful social conditioning. Connecting the overlapping ideas of social conditioning, knowledge, identity, and truth in these two novels leads to a better understanding of human behavior.

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Wayne Dyer once said, “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don 't know anything about.” In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, ignorance is a common theme portrayed throughout the novel. It sets the impression of how all of the characters feel due to a society that has outlawed books. Guy Montag is a firefighter, whose job is to burn the books. Yet, he often steals them without the chief firefighter, or anyone else knowing.

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In both novels the stories take place in a dystopian society, shorty after a nuclear fallout/war. Quite the opposite of a utopia, this is a society based on the future that is frightening and unpleasant for the people living in it. The government has total control of the people, dictating what is allowed and what is not. There is total social control in both novels by the government controlling what is on the television by brainwashing and dumbing down their citizens.

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1517 Words | 7 Pages

Imagine this. There is a government in where the government causes death by purposely making their citizens sick, giving a life and death test to young, and not mature children, brainwashing their citizens by providing them with TV families, removing their books which is their main source of knowledge, and making sure that their people don’t gain any useful knowledge. These are all points that show how cruel, unfair, and negative government control can be. Government's impact their society in today’s day and age. The government may impact their citizens feelings, behavior, emotion, and even personal thoughts.

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862 Words | 4 Pages

The biggest rule that the government enforces is the burning of books. On the surface this may seem like a simple rule, but essentially, this is the government controlling the knowledge that is filtered through the citizens. “Each man the image of every other; then they are all happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against” (Bradbury

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502 Words | 3 Pages

In the Novel Fahrenheit 451, one way that the government controls their society is by outlawing owning and reading any type of literature. There are a couple reasons why the government does this. One reason they ban books is because they want everyone to be equal, so everyone is more comfortable with the way they are. There are no more labels, such as “Genius” or “Stupid” or “better”. As Beatty states in the book “We must all be alike.

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1784 Words | 8 Pages

Totalitarianism in 1984 and the Real World The concept of a totalitarian society is a major theme throughout the novel 1984. This theme of totalitarianism can also be applied to the world today. The definition of totalitarianism, a concept used by some political scientists, is a state which holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. Totalitarianism can be related between the novel 1984 and current events in the real world. George Orwell incorporated the theme of totalitarianism into his novel 1984 to display the ever changing world around him during the time it was written.

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Throughout the first movie of The Maze Runner series, which was released in September 2014, a group of scientists create a sickness known as the flare to reduce the population rate. Eventually they come to a realization that the flare is much worse than expected. The scientific experiments include a government group known as the World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department, or WCKD. This group introduces certain totalitarian ways within their methods. The Maze Runner series demonstrates the idea of totalitarianism throughout the everyday lives of these individuals by representing WCKD as a group that controls, restricts individuals’ rights, the understanding that such procedures being followed were just and vital for the greater good.

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