Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

Over the years, technology, censorship, and conformity have all had negative effects on society, but censorship has the biggest negative impact. Censorship may be useful to block inappropriate concerns, but it can cause the spread of misinformation while also denying the full truth. Censorship has led to the downfall of human connection, especially in Ray Bradbury’s society in Fahrenheit 451, where everybody is being shown and agrees on the same information. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, censorship has the greatest negative impact on society causing similarities within the society and having people believe in their own biases.

The form of censorship in Fahrenheit 451 is book removal because books are a source of knowledge and

This is shown when Captain Beatty describes, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book” (Bradbury 58). This quote highlights the government’s power and control over the people and how they use censorship to keep it. The people of this society are left ignorant and unable to think critically, which slows or stops their intellectual growth. Censorship in Fahrenheit 451 leads to the loss of important historical and cultural knowledge, such as Shakespeare’s plays, which are burned along with other books. This results in a society that does not have any meaningful culture or history. This is evident when Faber emphasizes, “You can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them” (Bradbury 83). This highlights how the lack of access to books leads to a society that is uninformed and unable to learn from history. Censorship can even eventually lead to a society where individualism is discouraged, and

Technology is used to distract people and keep them passive, while conformity is enforced through social pressure and the threat of punishment for those who deviate from the norm. For instance, in one scene, Guy Montag laments, "Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say" (Bradbury, 49). Here, Montag mourns the dehumanizing effects of technology, which have made human connection and communication nearly impossible. Similarly, the society in the novel has become so focused on conformity that "everyone must be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal...A book is a loaded gun in the house next door" (Bradbury, 58). This obsession with sameness and suppression of individuality is far more detrimental than censorship, as it leads to a society that fundamentally contradicts democracy and human flourishing. Despite the negative impact of technology and conformity on society in the novel, censorship remains the most significant problem. Censorship is the primary tool used by the government to control the population and prevent the spread of dissenting ideas. It limits people's ability to gain knowledge and think critically, which in turn, hinders their ability to challenge the status quo and