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Commentary on Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel about a futuristic community that has lost the ability to socially interact with one another. Guy Montag is the average citizen. His profession is a fireman, except in this society firemen don’t prevent fires, they start them. His job, like many other firemen, is to illuminate books by burning them because books are illegal. Over the course of Fahrenheit 451, Montag realizes society and its faults. Bradbury uses Montag to depict technology and censorship as examples of warning signs, and how that society could one day become ours. Bradbury criticizes technology through the characters; Mildred, Mrs. Bowles, and Mrs. Phelps (society). Mildred is Montag’s wife. ‘Millie’ sits around …show more content…

Captain Beatty explains to Montag about how books came to be banned. “It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time.” (Page 57) The government used the disinterest in books as an advantage, to control the country. If they want someone who is running for office, they play up the person; if not then they play him or her down. It is brainwashing, the people have no clue what happens to their money when they pay taxes or anything else about the world. They don’t care to know, and why should they? Everyone is perfectly happy. Happy is boring. We need to know what goes on in the world, and to document it and to fix it. That way we don’t make the same mistakes. He uses the theme censorship to warn that we’d forget and make the same mistakes over and over again and to show how the government can make you think whatever they want you to think by not being knowledgeable.
Therefore, you need to think, to understand and to retain knowledge. Without it we live in a world of stupidity and violence. It is crucial that people read this book, to know that we could be exactly like this society. Bradbury criticizes censorship and technology because he doesn’t want our future headed this way, it is a warning for the sake of

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