Censorship Of Media In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

The fact that people can read this essay is despicable. The attempt to read should get anyone who tries arrested. Those statements are ridiculous. Everyone should be allowed the opportunity to gain the knowledge in written works. It is hard to imagine a future in which books and other media are illegal but, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, that is exactly the case. Attempting to censor media and, thereby, harming society, in which people crave knowledge, is one theme constantly shown through Bradbury’s characters, Montag and Beatty, and through the society’s elevated rates of attempted suicides. Society being harmed by the censorship of media is shown through the actions of Montag. Fahrenheit 451’s protagonist, Montag, is a fireman. In the dystopian setting of the story, fireman burn books, which have been banned in an attempt to make everyone equal. Montag, like any normal member of society, ponders the reasons that he does his job and questions what is wrong with the books. Montag’s curiosity and crave for knowledge is constantly getting the better of him, causing him to make rash decisions. The narrator excitingly blurted, “Montag’s hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest. The men above were hurling shovelfuls of magazines into the dusty air. They fell like slaughtered birds and the woman stood below, like a small girl, among the bodies. Montag had done nothing. His hand had done it all, his hand,