Censorship In William Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Censorship in today’s society have 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 publically viewed has overtaken its purpose that it’s being 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

In Fahrenheit 451, Captain Beatty tells Montag the history of how their jobs of burning books came about. He says people started to get along because of photography (Bradbury pg.51). It was something no one has ever seen before so everyone was talking about it and it got people to communicate. He then goes on to motion pictures, radios, television, films, and even magazines and how books “leveled down to a sort of paste pudding norm” (Bradbury pg.51). Stories were no long to the mind, they became a reality and for everyone to see it. In today’s society, everyone is so fixated on technology that it’s in their everyday life. We have censored our self away from books not because they are bad, but because technology made it possible to not need them. Every day we watch TV, listen to the radio, watch movies, and read magazines because it’s what we’re used to. Instead of going to the library and checking out books, there are tablets that have the books on them. The internet, kindle, smartphones, all of this and even more make it easier to get knowledge and information on anything, something books used to do. The problem is both in Fahrenheit 451 and in today’s society, information and what is projected on TV is being censored from what the government doesn’t want citizens to see. It’s a distraction from everything else going on around the world, but we enjoy it. This is our

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 (ALA). From 2000-2009, there have been reported 5,099 challenges (ALA). 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 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 on 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