Censorship In Fahrenheit 451
Censorship in Fahrenheit 451
In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the people live in a society full of censorship.
Montag, the main character of the story, is inspired by a young girl to question law
around him and begins to have doubts about what good they serve. In Fahrenheit 451,
censorship in the world consists of book burning, manipulative parlor families, and the
intolerance of those who attempt to be an individual.
Book burning in the story is done by firemen to supposedly prevent society
from unhappy emotions and unjust thoughts. Any person who was perceived or proved
to possess any sort of reading material was reported to firemen using alarms, which were
sent to the fire station. On duty firemen then immediately went to the home of the
lawbreaker and burnt the books discovered. Books would be covered in kerosene and
torched with a flame-thrower. Houses were made fireproof in order for the firemen to
burn the books inside the house without causing too much destruction. Immediately after
the books are burned, the offender is arrested and taken to prison. Although book burning
was the most abrupt and outlandish form of censorship, people experienced mind
censorship in their homes every day.
Parlor walls were walls in a room used for watching television and specially
designed "interactive" programs, designed to provide people with pleasure. Shows
written for the soul purpose to please people in their parlors were watched on the walls.
A script would be written with the home viewer's part included, but would be left out
during the actual recording of the program while the actors paused to give the viewer
time to recite the...
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