Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Ju Hee Kim
Mrs. Maxwell
AP Literature
9 August 2015
Censorship? Technology? Or Both? In the scholarly article, Sam Weller: Ray Bradbury’s 180 on Fahrenheit 451, Sam Weller clarifies the controversial theme of censorship in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Sam Weller begins by introducing Ray Bradbury and his first prominent novel, Fahrenheit 451. Weller describes the book as “the story of the near-future society” and categorizes alongside other dystopian literature such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. The article sounded like any other analyses of the book, until the author made an unexpected statement: Sam Weller had personal relationship with Ray Bradbury. Here was Sam Weller, a man who worked for 12 years as Bradbury’s “authorized biographer”, sharing his thoughts about his subject and the novel. The main issue in this article is that Fahrenheit 451 has been widely praised as “one of the great works of anti-censorship”, until in

To support his claim, Weller adds that Bradbury’s article for The Nation in 1953 clearly shows that censorship was at the “forefront of his mind” when he wrote the novel. Thus, he successfully clarifies the controversial issue regarding the theme of censorship in Fahrenheit 451. A memorable saying I picked up from this article is, “Fahrenheit 451 is less about Big Brother and more about Little Sister” (Bradbury). By this, Weller explains that in Bradbury’s fictional universe, “Big Brother is less instrumental in the censorship of books than the citizens themselves who no longer care about the joy of reading.” Although Huxley’s Brave New World is similar to Fahrenheit 451, I prefer the latter, because it is simpler and easier to relate it to the world today. Overall, this article helped me reflect on the novel’s theme and gain understanding of the author’s