In Howsam’s text, she portrays the i-Generation as willing to work with primary texts to draw their own conclusions. I do not agree with her premise because it only portrays a portion of the generation.
Americans during my grandparent’s generation faced a climate of global instability and fear of internal collapse experienced by other nations. After witnessing the collapse of governments and how anarchy bred tyrannies in countries such as Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, Americans did not want to lose the freedoms and glory they had. Changes in government came about due to unrest in the populace. Americans wanted to avoid unrest out of fear of becoming a fascist or socialist nation. Fears of the unknown provided a need for stability and played a part in the susceptibility of Americans to the witch hunts during McCarthy’s campaign against American Communists. Americans in my grandparent’s generation would not want to interpret a text differently than the majority and risk being branded as a traitor. Conformity was mislabeled as harmony and “standard editions” of texts were seen as sig...
Few books exemplify the consequences of misconceptions more than Farenheit 451. The book speaks of a world in which in citizens think they are living in a utopia, when in fact their world is constantly devoloving into a place where no human could ever flourish. This delusion along with the misconception that books are thing to be feared is the precise reason that the general populace is so easily controlled. The reason behind the propaganda campaign against books is so the people do not realize that their lives are unsatisfying and dull. In other words, this, misconception propagated by the governing force, fuels the illusion of a perfect world. The myth that the world...
The government in the book is very keen on censorship. Everyone just follows the government and believes that if books are banned nothing good could possibly come from them, but some people, like Montag, begin to ask themselves what is so bad about books? What is funny to me is that in the book Bradbury conveys that people really don’t have many beliefs or value anything other than technology, but there are a select few like Montag that want to challenge that. Beatty says to Montag, “The important thing for you to remember, Montag, is we’re the Happiness Boys, the Dixie Duo, you and I and the others. We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.” (BradBury 62). From the quote one can tell that Beatty is happy with everybody being alike. He thinks that he is actually doing good by saving the people who want to be different, which will cause rebellion in the long run The government thinks that those who have “conflicting” theories are making everybody unhappy. Another way the government limits the people is by limiting the idea and belief of knowledge. At the time Montag doubts why books are immoral material Beatty explains to him that the knowledge contained in books is considered a weapon. Beatty says, “The word intellectual of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar.” (Bradbury 58). To have intellect and to challenge ideas is ignored and said to be unfamiliar, and these people are trained to “dread” the unfamiliar. By ignoring the ability to be knowledgeable society is being ruined. Some might say that by dreading the unfamiliar can lead to less confusion, but confusion is a good thing because it means you are trying to understand the problem. Evidently one can see that by ignoring people’s beliefs and ideas society will destroy
Americans are hypocritical, American civilization is not Anglo-Saxon nor nationalistic, and finally American social life lacks emotion. Stearns chose his writers very carefully. He wanted each of them to be blunt and straight to the point in their essays, especially when writing on these three themes. In his preface, Stearns himself states:
In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the author creates a picture of a society that resembles our present-day society in a variety of ways. Although a society in which government has total control over its citizens seems to be a little extreme, there are definitely clues that can be seen today that suggest that we are headed in the same direction. Some of the resemblances between the society in Fahrenheit 451 and our society today are the governments’ hypocrisy, the gullibility of the citizens who fully support the government, and the fact that books are becoming rather extinct due to advances in modern technology.
Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable of manipulating. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, such a world is brought to the awareness of the reader through a description of the impacts of censorship and forced conformity on people living in a futuristic society. In this society, all works of literature have become a symbol of unnecessary controversy and are outlawed. Individuality and thought is outlawed. The human mind is outlawed. All that is left is a senseless society, unaware of their path to self-destruction, knowing only what the government wants them to know. By telling a tale of a world parallel to our own, Bradbury warns us of a future we are on a path to -- a future of mind manipulation, misused technology, ignorance, and hatred. He challenges the reader to remain open-minded by promoting individualism, the appreciation of literature, the defiance of censorship and conformity, and most importantly, change.
Imagine a world of uniformity. All people look the same, act the same, and love the same things. There are no original thoughts and no opposing viewpoints. This sort of world is not far from reality. Uniformity in modern day society is caused by the banning of books. The novel "Fahrenheit 451" illustrates a future in which the banning of books has risen to the extent that no books are allowed. The novel follows the social and moral implications of an over censored society. Even though the plot may seem far-fetched, themes from this book are still relevant today. Although some people believe that banning a book is necessary to defend their religion, the negative effects caused by censorship and the redaction of individual thought are reasons why books such as "Fahrenheit 451" should not be banned.
How could a rectangular, bound set of papers with printed words threaten a nation? Fahrenheit 451 can still be used as a warning to people in America today. This book warns society that a government can change anything at any given time if a nation does not speak up because of their authority.
“...The library, being a component part of the Soviet system for the education of the people is a political weapon. It therefore cannot be allowed to develop accordingly to its own laws. It must always be held tightly in the hands of the party.” (Counts Pg. 651) The Soviet 's system was taught the government’s rules solely. Any outside information would run into a major problem with what was declared by the government, and could overthrow leaders. In Fahrenheit 451, everything taught by the television, media, and books are and excluded from society for their harmfulness. Television, books, and media encourage human curiosity which they did not want. “Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts ' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant ' with information. Then they will feel they are thinking, they will get a sense of motion without moving. And they will be happy, because facts of that sort do not change. Do not give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.” (Bradbury Pg. 63) The opportunity for subjects to be disputed or debated is what the government feared. The collaboration could result from a vocal gathering and people decide they want to change the government and majority in
Anthony Comstock was the most prominent American advocate of censorship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Connecticut in 1844, Comstock fought with the Union in the Civil War and upon release became an influential member of the Young Men’s Christian Association. His personal quest to rid America of indecent and immoral literature made his name synonymous with the epithet “Comstockery” or the excessive pursuit of moralistic censorship.
In the novella Anthem, Equality demonstrates a desire to learn, and although his teachers reprimand this action, he declares, “We wish to know...We asked so many questions that the Teachers forbade it” (Rand 23). Furthermore, Equality wonders, “what— even if we have to burn for it…what is the Unspeakable Word?”, epitomizing his determination to unveil society’s secret regardless of the consequences (Rand 51). His statements establish conflict within himself as he yearns for clandestine knowledge, but recognizes that society forbids his ardor. Similarly, in Fahrenheit 451, Montag begins to doubt the government’s views on literature, proved when he states, “There must be something in those books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house” (Bradbury 51). Montag’s proclamations introduce a battle within himself because he must now decide whether to conform to society’s ban on literary works or transgress by exploring a book’s contents. Because the government in both Anthem and Fahrenheit 451 restrict certain knowledge from its citizens, Equality and Montag face the internal conflicts of deciding whether to comply with society’s dictums or to contravene laws in order to find this
Hatch tells the reader that the religious communication changed in only two ways in the years following the American Revolution. The first way in which religious communication was that “clergy men lost their unrivaled position as authoritative sources of information (Hatch 125).” The second way in which the religious communication changed “was an explosion of popular printed material (Hatch 125).” This explosion of printed word changed Protestant Christianity. Exploiting of the press many pamphlets, tracts, books, songs and newspapers were published in order to extend the reach of Christianity and to battle other religions and naysayers. But even men of proper learning and character found it difficult to infuse elitist communication and gospel for the common man (Hatch 128). Elias Smith contented, “and all Christians have a right to propagate it, I do also declare, that every Christian has a r...
There is a plague that has been in circulation for the hundreds of years, sweeping across the nation, seizing control of citizen’s minds. The plague is called anti-intellectualism. Taken right from Random House Dictionary, an anti-intellectual is someone who is ignorant or hostile to artistic and cultural values, against modern academic, artistic, social, religious, and the other theories associated with them. Richard Hofstadter, who wrote Anti-intellectualism in American Life, defines anti-intellectualism as a “resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson commented in 1837, "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury creates a society where an escapist attitude, or the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment, results in the decline of thought and the rise of mass conformity (Schramer 2008). The similarities that exist between Fahrenheit 451 and American society are a cause for alarm (Schramer 2008). Susan Jacoby has even claimed, “Americans are in serious intellectual trouble.” Fortunately, there are a few things that we can do to combat this issue that will be touched upon later in this essay.
During the 1950s, America was facing the competitions with Soviet Union. Cold War, fear of atomic warfare, and communism influences intensified the society’s instability. What’s more, many social problems attracted people’s focus: many writers “concerns about censorship and conformity during a period when free expression of ideas could lead to social and economic ostracization” (Telgen 138). Many essays and novels reflected this social background. However, one author, Ray Bradbury, became a preeminent writer in that era. His work not only pointed out that the people are becoming more and more apathy as well as the censorship problem, but also showed people’s fear about war.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was written as a social criticism of 1950s America which was effectively constructed through Guy and Mildred Montag, and Captain Beatty, representing censorship, conformity and alienation. This American classic warns against the dangers of suppressing thought of becoming a totalitarian society, conveying the dangers of censorship and government control is as relevant as today as it was first written. ‘Oppressive government, left unchecked, can do irreparable damage to society by limiting the creativity and freedom of its
Portraying the characters rejection to conformity, American literature illustrates the distinctive following of one's own standards. From what has been analyzed previously, the authors are trying to display a message of change through the characters words and actions. Many times it is apparent that the characters are in there times of most comfort when they are acting in such that makes them their own being, stepping aside from the standards of the rest of society. Writers try to express the importance of stepping outside of that comfort zone in order to grow and develop as a human being. How will one ever know who they are if they conform to be what everyone is told to be? The biggest advocate of rejecting the norms of America is Chris McCandless.