Once the government decided to put a censorship on books, everything changed. People lost their education, how to think for themselves, and most importantly, their freedom.
In the year 2052, the government has decided to not only ban books completely, but to even go as far as to outright burn them. This affected every person and even how the world functioned. Since people were no longer receiving their education, they were never learning anything new.reading this now, it is obvious how negatively this affects the average person. On the other hand, it is easy to see how the government benefited from the lack of education. Since people were not very smart and could not think for themselves they never had the idea to question the decisions and authority of the government. This meant that they could go and do whatever they wanted without opposition. Since all the books were being destroyed, some people took it upon themselves to save the knowledge. They began to memorize the books before they burned them so that they could write them all down later if book were allowed again.
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Later in the book, Montag meets a young woman named Clarisse McClellan. As soon as they meet, he notices that she is very different than the average person; she is smart and knows more than everyone else. The more times that they meet, the more curious Guy becomes. Clarisse is always making subtle hints about Montag and his wife Mildred’s relationship. She explains that there is a lack of love and commitment and also that they are not very good for each other. Clarisse also indirectly forces Guy Montag to examine his life and what he was really trying to accomplish. After only knowing Clarisse for a short amount of time, she is run over by a car. Montag is unsure at first if it is true, but later he accepts it and reflects on all the kerosene that he has used in the past few
Clarisse would always talk to Montag on his way home. One day she wasn't there to ask montag questions which got him wondering about all the things she asked him. Montag realised that he was not happy being a firemen or with his life at all. His contact with Clarisse got Montag wondering
Books and Censorship Have you ever wondered what life would be like with only technology and without books. In Ray Bradbury novel it gives his perspective on life would be without books. Life in the novel is very different from the one today. Books are made illegal and firemen don’t put out fires but start fires to burn books. Eventually a fireman named Montag gets curious on why they burn the books.
Montag’s character changed greatly throughout the book. The walks with Clarisse got him thinking that maybe that he is not thinking at all. Clarisse has been a thinker all of her life because of her family reading the books and all of the knowledge her parents have of the older days. Throughout the book Montag starts to get smarter because Clarisse gets him to start thinking for himself. Clarisse lives with her Mother, Father, and Uncle in the same neighborhood as Montag.
Censorship, a threat to society, was greatly practiced in the 1950s, which can be seen in the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 shows how all the power stays only in the government and how the government does not want the people in the society to have the ability to think for themselves. To entertain their society, the way they wanted to, the government censored television in a way that solely entertained the watcher without making them think about anything. Censoring television accompanied by burning books, were strategies that the government came up with to keep total control of society, so people would not be able to know how to have an opinion about anything going on. Although Fahrenheit 451 was written in the 1950’s, it relates to today’s world because of issues of censorship and governmental control.
The scene with Clarisse sets up the rest of the story and leads to Montag’s realization that he wants to change
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel that displays extreme ills of society. The novel follows the antagonist Guy Montag as he learns to reject the common way of thinking, or rather not thinking. Basically, the main focus of the book is the effects of media. While some might argue the novel is more focused on censorship, this is incorrect because it shows how the time spent on technology is the issue, not so much what the media contains. It also contains shunned characters, who don’t revolve around technology and displays Montag’s wife, Mildred, who is destroyed through the media.
Imagine waking up one morning and not even remembering how you met your wife who you’ve been married to for ten years. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury a fireman named Guy Montag lives in a futuristic dystopian society where firefighters ignite flames instead of extinguish them. The vast majority of people living in this society have been completely censored from the history of their society and what has truly happened in the past. The people in this society do not think independently, enjoy nature, or even have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast cars, are constantly listening to the radio with devices called Seashell Radios as well as are consumed by television screens the entire day.
For many people, books are a source of entertainment, information, and can provide an insight into life. However, some books are banned or censored due to information others may believe to be harmful or offensive (“First Amendment and Censorship”). Without books providing various, educational, and even controversial ideas, people would live in a world full of ignorance. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury should not be banned or censored. “Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons — individuals, groups, or government officials — find objectionable or dangerous” (“First Amendment and Censorship”).
Just as Montag and Clarisse were getting closer, she suddenly passes away which comes as a complete shock to him. “He had chills and fever in the morning,” Montag felt physically ill after hearing about the news of Clarisse’s death. He hears about her death from Mildred who supposedly forgot to tell him. He is taken aback by this and continues to question her as he can not seem to process this. This motivates him as he does not want to live a meaningless life where he will just die.
However, attempting to ban all books is not a positive way to deal with the problems. On the contrary, the banning of the books might have made the problems worse, since now the people who try to learn information are now considered criminals and are subjected to their house burning into ashes. Instead of attempting to fix the dilemma, they decide to ban all books, which is not an adequate solution to the problem, again showing that censorship is awful, and leads to a declining society. If people are not not able to learn and grow, they are not able to positively impact the world, leaving it to slowly spiral
Ray Bradbury points out many things, some of these jump right out at you and others not so much. Bradbury encourages readers to keep and open made and look at the other side of the story. Bradbury wrote a short story titled “Fireman” for galaxy science fiction in 1950, which later became the novel Fahrenheit 451 published in 1953. Fahrenheit 451 whose society of censorship in a fantastic world in which books are burned and everybody rich, causes few to realize what is actually going on.
For as long as writers have written books, people have been wanting to ban them. Before the printing press, only a few handwritten copies of each book existed. If leaders deemed a book ‘inappropriate’ or ‘undesirable’, they burned the few copies that existed, ensuring people would no longer read the knowledge
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 depicts the changes of censorship through limiting the citizens access to knowledge, removing Constitutional Rights, and establishing a realistic allegory similar to today. Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distorted picture of the ideas, values, and problems of their culture. Writers may often be the spokesmen of their culture. Yet, partly because of censorship or the fear of censorship, many are represented in anthologies not by their best work but by their safest or least offensive work. Because the government has censored so much in its society, the citizens in Fahrenheit 451 have no idea about what is truly happening in their world.
She is the first person who challenges Montag and gets him to truly think. She triggers Montag’s questioning of life, what he is doing, and his relationship with his wife Mildred. Upon their first encounter Clarisse begins asking Montag questions, questions about a time when firefighters put out flames not started them, a time when life was a bit slower. She asks, “Are you happy?” once Clarisse is home Montag responds, “Of course I’m happy.
In the novel, Clarisse is a seventeen year old girl who influenced Montag with her “ideas.” Her role would eventually end in the book when she was killed half way through it. Montag would find out what happened to her when he said, "There was a girl next door," he said, slowly. "She's gone now, I think, dead. I can't even remember her face.