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Critical Essay On Fahrenheit 451

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It is very hard to imagine a functional society without literature of any kind. Albert Camus stated this in his own words – “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” In other words, Camus is claiming that books and voiced opinions exist in order to save the world from defeating itself. This idea is explored in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which takes place in a dysfunctional and anti-intellectual society where all literature is banned and has to be burned on sight. Camus’s words are shown to be valid and clearly supported in this book; writing really is a necessary component to keeping a civilization intact. Fahrenheit 451’s themes further establish the validity of this quote, as Bradbury illustrates the dystopia that is a world with no literature, and the chaos and disarray that comes along with it. Fahrenheit 451 explores themes such as censorship and knowledge versus ignorance. The text is set in a society where books are illegal, meaning all literature was censored. …show more content…

The novel describes a thoughtless society in which neither books nor awareness are valued. The quote relates directly to this because at the end of the book, a city with the absence of writers and thinkers, vanishes as it is exhausted due to a war, most likely started by a man who was “awake” and aware of what is happening. In a brainless society, there will always be at least one person who is unlike others, and understands that something must be done in order to fix their world; and in this case, this person was Montag. Just like the quote says, the person won’t destroy the society themselves, but a person who manages to “wake up” will trigger the society to end up destroying itself due to people rejecting new ideas and the continuation of

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