Fahrenheit 451 Censorship Quotes

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Recommended: Implications of censorship in mass communication

The Hidden Truth

Censorship is the act of suppressing unacceptable media such as books, movies, and

magazines in society. Sometimes it can help maintain peace in one’s world while other times, in

extreme cases, it can create chaos. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the author conjures up a

story in where censorship has completely destroyed a society’s way of thinking. The book

teaches the reader that if we do not be wary of the censorship that goes on in one’s society, then

it will bring chaos into one’s world.

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury utilizes many examples and literary elements that

stirs up fear about the ideas of censorship. For example, Beatty explains to Montag, “Colored

people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about …show more content…

Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The

cigarette people are weeping? Bum the book. Serenity , Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight

outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them,

too. Five minutes after a person is dead he's on his way to the Big Flue, the Incinerators serviced

by helicopters all over the country. Ten minutes after a man's a speck of black dust. Let's not

quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn them all, burn everything. Fire is

bright and fire is clean." (59-60). The author’s use of vivid imagery helps the reader picture Nguyen 2

the horror and destruction of extreme censorship and it also helps the reader become alert to this

idea, the repetition helps fuel the anger and corruption of censorship. These words are

appropriate because these words help convince the reader that censorship is bad by implanting

fear, this fear persuades the reader of this idea by making the reader experiencing the horror of

censorship in the reader’s mind. Another example would be “ A great thunderstorm of

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