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Examples Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

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Censorship in the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 Whether it is parents or the government, the truth cannot be kept forever; curiosity will always overthrow people. The main theme throughout Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. The central way the book portrays censorship is through the disintegration of books with their hired firemen, in doing so the government is prohibiting this society’s minds to expand with literature. In this dystopian novel there is a character the main protagonist comes across and learns she questions how the system is run and almost despises how people live; this girl’s name is Clarisse who changes Montag, the main protagonist’s, look at life. In this dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 the novel portrays …show more content…

Some citizens are so passionate about their novels they would burn with their books as the firemen set the books on fire. Firemen in this crooked society will do anything to disallow people from books, even if it means burning them with the books, Captain Beatty tells Montag “...these fanatics always try suicide; the pattern’s familiar.” (Bradbury 39) Citizens who protect their books and die with their books as they burn, proves how important books are to people who have discovered there “powers” and how great they are for relaxing and such. The world is so ignorant about how much you can benefit from books, but throughout everyone’s life all they learn about is how books should be hated by all. People who do not take the time to explore book’s greatness believe (like the rest) that books are evil and should be burnt, so they think everyone who reads them is better than those who do not read, Montag is to be believed to be one of these “book loving freaks” when Beatty says “You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them.” (118) People in general no matter what society, dystopic or not, believe anything the government throws in their face. By burning books, the government is making citizens believe reading is terrible, expanding your mind with literature is disgustingly bad, and create people who read …show more content…

Throughout the world there are people who question the government’s authority. Clarisse asks Montag if he does not mind following society’s ways when she asks “Do you ever read any of the books you burn?” (8) Clarisse is one of few who despises how the government runs things and if maybe things should not be the way they are, she is curious if even the firemen get a little curious with books and maybe question their jobs. Once again Clarisse wants to expose the government to see if what they are doing is just to cancel society from attaining knowledge of the history of this dystopic world they live in now. Clarisse does not place confidence with the government and is certain they have covered up the civilisation’s history, so she asks Montag “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?” (8) Clarisse is smart, she knows something is up with this world, she knows the government is not being up front with people, there is something wrong, she thinks. In this dystopian world, there are few like Clarisse, who have faith that there is more to life than being hooked to television sets known as “parlour walls” in this novel, and not caring about spending time with the ones closest to

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