Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, society is consumed by the danger of censorship. The main character, Guy, explains how normal it is to start fires instead of extinguishing them which shows us how society has changed. All throughout the novel, the author explains how controlled society is by the government. Overtime, the government had brainwashed citizens in order to normalize the act of burning books. This is extremely dangerous because if there is too much censorship in society, the citizens would be restrained from their basic rights. Fahrenheit 451 conveys this topic all throughout the novel which eventually leads to disaster. Consequently, censorship has dramatically affected the dystopian society which created an unnatural way of thinking.

In the beginning of the book, Montag, one of the main characters, questioned Beatty, his captain, about burning books. He questioned “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work?”(Bradbury 38). He tried to ask them, but Clarisse McClellan, their new neighbor, interrupted with the question regarding firemen preventing fires (Bradbury 38). This shows how the government's decisions prevented the citizens from having access to books. Moreover, this shows how the government indoctrinated the people to think that burning

While on a mission to burn more books, Montag decided to keep a few in order to decide if they are as appalling as society labels them as. Montag was explaining to Faber how “We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality” (Bradbury 85-86). This gives an insight on why society is burning books because the government wants a more controlled and comfortable society. Because of that, society has conformed to the idea and act of burning