Censorship And Technology In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Censorship imposed on illegal books in Fahrenheit 451 is a symbol of the past and current America; the novel is a fiction representation of the state of the nation and how the government maneuvers itself through the social life of its citizens. Throughout history media contents including books, plays, songs, and other media have been routinely and legally banned or censored in America. In 1873, for instance, Comstock law was passed banning the circulation of materials deemed immoral or obscene ("Censorship in the United States"). In Fahrenheit 451, just like in real life, the ban is imposed on books deemed to cause public harm. When Captain Beatty is explaining to Montag about the background of burning books, he stated, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo.

These televised hearings gave the American public their first view of McCarthy in action, and his recklessness, indignant bluster, and bullying tactics quickly resulted in his fall from prominence,” (McCarthy Army Hearings). These hearings showed Americans how McCarthy really was in court, and he disgusted them. McCarthy even targeted President Truman himself at one point, when Truman made the decision to remove General Douglas MacArthur from power during the Korean War. Unlike the Salem Witch Trials, there were other judges with the same if not more power as him and when they saw through the facade of the trials to the his real motives, which were jealousy, arrogance, and selfishness, they

Again, our media has promoted incorrect stereotypes, and the politicians lied to us through it all. All of this is the reason that The New Jim Crow exists. The last theme of The New Jim Crow is history. History is seeming to repeat itself, and Alexander (2012) explains in her book that what is going on today, is exactly what happened during the Jim Crow age. To break this pattern, we must ask the questions that no one wants to.

First, the issue of censorship is brought to light by composing a dystopian where books are illegal and deep thoughts are disregarded. At the opening of the novel Montag is a passionate fireman, but his occupation comes with

The late 19th century, also known as the Gilded Age, was notorious for the immense amount of corruption within the American government, which led to the publishment of many political cartoons that portrayed this corruption. Some believe that these cartoons had little to no impact on exposing the corruption; however, due to the their coherence, political cartoons played a huge role in exposing the problems with government officials and with capitalism. Therefore, the publishment of political cartoons made a huge impact on how Americans became conscious of this corruption. During this era, political cartoonists, such as Thomas Nast, depicted political figures, such as Boss Tweed, as imperialistic.

The author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, has been recorded saying “We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for the thinking.” Although, it might at first look as though Bradbury is looking into the future, towards the end you are more clearly able to see that he is actually talking about present time. As this book was published in 1953, a lot of significant historical events had recently ended. The influence of new technology, the discrimination against many types of people, the banning of books, and just so many things happening at once overwhelms and gives the people a false sensation.

An Oppressive Government George Orwell talks about the dangers that can occur with an oppressive totalitarian government. He documents life under a controlling government party referenced to The Party and Big brother. He discusses the lack of privacy of the citizens and the result and consequences of committing crimes. During the time period of the late 40’s the government used telescreens in order to surveillance the people at all times. “ On coins, stamps, on the covers of books… everywhere.

They did… Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said… Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. (Bradbury 55) Since the age of technology has dawned several years back, books have been preferred to be read electronically instead of paper books. Due to the criticism books get now people do not read books as often and instead get involved in social media, news stations, etc. Exploiters and propaganda can frequently be found in these media sources.

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury explores the theme of the effects of censorship through his characters, and their thoughts and reactions on the matter. The thing that is being censored are books, with Fahrenheit 451 taking place in an American city sometime in the future, focusing on a fireman, Guy Montag, whose brigade goes out on calls to burn buildings possessing books. His society is used to more ‘digested’ content in entertainment, as books often contained information deemed too controversial by some groups, who would protest to the point of the ban of all books, as said by one of the characters. This theme of the effects of censorship is important to Fahrenheit 451 because Bradbury’s portrayal of a future American city is mere decades away if our society continues in the direction that it is going, as today, some topics are difficult to discuss without opposition, and the most basic answer to that is to simply ban the discussion of such things.

The government also makes everyone oblivious to the fact that they are living a horrible life by placing television screens everywhere, which is the only source of entertainment for the people, even though technology is not that much better than books and newspapers, and plus, it is a lot more harmful to the eyes. Because of how many hundreds of frames are put together to make a TV show, it is really addicting. On the other hand, books do not have many pictures in them, and even picture books only have one or two pictures per page. “The tree women fidgeted and looked nervously at the empty mud-colored walls” (Bradbury 91). This passage is stated right after Montag, annoyed that no one is listening to him and is only watching the television, pulls the plug out, turning off the TV.

Censorship of literature has always been a powerful means of manipulating society by limiting what the people are exposed to. This has been used as a way to suppress free thinking and new ideas, that could cause a shift in power in the society. The censorship of literature has been used by the powerful members of society forever, because of this societies fear the idea of their governments hiding information from the public. In Americus, a small town in Oklahoma is divided over a new teenager book series that some feel the series should be banned from the library. In contrast in Fahrenheit 451, a curious fireman indulges in a banded book, which enlightens him to a new outlook on life.

Muckrakers played an important role in reforming and creating massive change during the nineteenth century. Extreme tabloid journalism was the norm during the nineteenth century. Facts seemed lost and reporters wrote sensational articles in order to sell newspapers. One reporter however broke the norms, Ida.

With all presidents there comes the good and the bad, as for the bad George failed to deal with the many of the problems at home in the country instead focused mostly on the problems of other countries. This could have been because he was very familiar in dealing with foreign affairs causing him to ignore the domestic problems. An example of his failure to focus on America was he failed to create a new plan for the international environment and to place any responsibility on the United States. Even though he was able to decrease drug use in the middle class in the lower class drug use increased.

When Carter became President the House and Senate had Democratic majorities, so many people thought it would be easy for Jimmy to get laws passed, but it was not that easy. Congress blocked Jimmy’s proposals for welfare reform and for a long-range energy program. Carter was not getting the changes made that he had told the people he would and this

Vonnegut wanted to “try to write my war story, whether it was interesting or not, and try to make something out of it.” Vonnegut wanted to make a significant point across about the horrors of the war stating several times he is currently writing an anti war novel(******). The main character Billy is broken from the war, which is clearly stated in (*******). Showing what Vonnegut went through through Billy described the Dresden bombing as the worst bombing and experience that any prisoner of war had