Totalitarian Government In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

Books are often the embodiment of concepts expressed through writing that may be influential in the fields of culture, religion, and politics. Through the process of burning, books have been destroyed in order to expurgate heretical ideals in the past. Arguably the most infamous instances are the book burnings under the Nazi Party during the era of Nazi Germany. These burners of books are alluded to in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 as the firemen of the dystopian novel censor the material contained in books through the method of incineration. 1984 by George Orwell portrays the dangers of a totalitarian government including censorship as well. Under the Nazi regime, many literary works were burned for the purpose of achieving absolute authority

Adolf Hitler rose to power as chancellor of Germany in 1933 and eventually its leader in 1934 with the intension of establishing a state adhering to totalitarian ideas (“Germany: Establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship”). Book burnings were the precedent for “Hitler's attempts to control the minds of the German people” (Zebrowski). This quality is, in fact, a key attribute of a totalitarian state. To accomplish the formation of totalitarianism, “Germans were fed Nazi ideology” while various forms of media or means of communication to the masses were heavily censored ("Impact of Nazi Rule"). As a result, the government under the Nazi Party employed radio broadcasts and newspapers as means of dictating the opinions of the German society (“Book Burning”). The people were often manipulated by propaganda and false

After the Allies have defeated Hitler and the Soviets gained control over East Germany, they “continued to censor the press, radio, and films” (Zebrowski). In spite of a shift in power, the government inherits the control of media due to their realization of its potential to control. The idea of restricting the people’s freedom to literature endures even to this day. In Australia, “Popular and pulp fiction with lurid covers and titles such as Road Floozie, Mad for Murder, Stoned, and Crimes of Passion were often seized by customs officers without a second glance” (Murphy). This demonstrates that the Australian government fears the impact of books that may promote crimes such as murder and drug abuse on the Australian mind. Based on the National Archives of Australia, “customs’ censorship came down heaviest on working-class reading habits” (Murphy). The focusing of censorship of the working-class suggests that the government is targeting the majority of the population, the group with the most latent power to undertake radical action. The effects of books are applicable to societies regardless of the time period; hence, expunging literary works from societies is also a valid method of controlling these