Power And Knowledge Struggle In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 Theme Analysis Sir Francis Bacon once said, “ipsa scientia potestas est” or “knowledge is power” and we often say this to encourage education amongst others. However, the power and knowledge struggle in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a prevalent theme in the book. For example, books and other forms of entertainment of similar substance are banned and even burned regularly because of this. Also, many people (because they don’t know) are unwilling to learn and even go as deep as to fear them. The public fears knowledge of this capacity because the government makes them afraid, but the government is no different- they also fear an educated public that have opinions and to a large extent, free will.

Two reoccurring characters

In Fahrenheit 451 Montag and the rest of his society have to live in a government that nearly controls everything. One character in the beginning, Clarisse, points out many flaws about their government and how controlling it is, which can also be applied to the book and power struggle throughout the novel. When talking to Montag when around the time they first met, she says, "Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It 's like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time-did I tell you?-for being a pedestrian. Oh, we 're most peculiar." (7) What Bradbury is subtlely trying to hint at is that the government can control anybody who doesn’t have time to think or are a bit mindless in this case with boring and insipid entertainment whereas taking it slow and thinking about things is much harder to control and books can inspire that kind of thought. Another example of how the government controls people is through other forms of media, like the wall televisions and radio. Of course, there are examples of books being used as propaganda in the real world but since books are banned and don’t have a chance to be used in that way, so the wall television is used as a way of hypnotizing the public as stated, "The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning." (10) The 'she ' the quote refers to is Montag 's wife, Mildred, and she is

Thus, Fahrenheit 451 is a very immersive and deep novel that has many revolving themes about it. Namely censorship, government power and the one explored here, the power of knowledge. In this book, it 's not the books themselves where the fear originates but rather what they contain and what they can influence on others, which is quite frightening to Montag 's government. Also the people choose to be ignorant because the government made them feel such a way that it results in this vicious cycle which only a few have broken from, such as Montag, Clarisse and her family, Professor Faber and the group of people Montag