Censorship: Overstepping Boundaries and Limiting Freedom

Censorship in today’s society has progressed in such a way that almost everything is censored from television shows, songs, letters, books, to basically everything. The way to block out these “inappropriate or harmful” comments from being publicly viewed has overtaken its purpose that it’s been over used. In Fahrenheit 451, it portrays a world that has censored itself from reading books that the government bans them as a way to intentionally control their citizens from living differently. The citizens live in an alienated world that their form of communication and reality is with their television. Today’s society, much of the world is austere to the rest of the world, having different forms of technology as their form of socialism. In today’s

These are ways for people to express their ideas on certain books that they feel are inappropriate, offensive, unsuited for a certain age group, unrealistic, etc. that they ban or challenge the books. If it is banned, it’s technically “forbidden” to read so they are taken off the shelves at libraries and schools. Challenging is just an attempt to restrict certain materials, but can be banned later on (“Top”). From 2000-2009, there have been reported 5,099 challenges (“Top”). 5,099 books that people felt were shameful and wanted them off the shelves at libraries and schools so students can’t read them. What some of these parents or teachers don’t know is that they are taking away student’s freedom of choice and the right to do what they want. Parents censor books student’s read for unnecessary reasons, so the student won’t get insight on different material and believe unrealistic situations. In Fahrenheit 451, the parents in our society are the government in theirs. They ban books and make it a crime so society can’t read them. Instead of offensive language or violence, the government in Fahrenheit 451 bans and burns them because it gives the citizens insight on a different world they are not living in. Montag wants to read the books to gain knowledge about the world and how things came about, but he would be going against the law and ultimately be punished by it. The government in Fahrenheit 451 and the parents in our society today restrict the freedoms of the citizens to do what they want. They ban and challenge for the simple purpose of not wanting society to be transfixed on something unrealistic or unacceptable in the real world. Parents in our society are our fireman because they remove books they don’t like for their children or other students to not