Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Let’s begin with censorship. Many books are challenged and banned in the United States. Fortunately, censorship has not gotten to the point of banning all books, as in Fahrenheit 451. In Fahrenheit 451, the burning of books started because they offended too many people-- “‘Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t

The quote “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” (Bradbury) has a very good lesson to learn from it about books. What the quote is saying is that reading books can keep your imagination and your culture alive. This quote is trying to show you that books are so much more than just words slapped between two covers.

(MIP) This meme shows one of the most well-known laws of the society in Fahrenheit 451, which also plays a key role in the novel. (SIP-A) The society within the novel bans and burns books, helping to create the country of mindless citizens they now have. (STEWE-1) Beatty, a fire captain who burns books for a living, explains to Montag the government’s logic behind why books are burned. He reveals that as people lives sped up books lost content as they got shorter and shorter (52). In addition to this he says “‘Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag’” (57). All controversial books were burned, and the rest chose safe, bland topics. With books

Most people, without influence of other people, stay the way they already are. Guy, before he was influenced by Clarisse, acted as everyone else did in his futuristic society. “It was a pleasure to burn.” (Bradbury 3) Bradbury here states that burning books was an occupation of this society. The people obviously don’t want to do anything with the books or read them, so they burn them instead. This shows that people like

The burning of books is limiting free speech by removing a medium to express ideas and opinions. The government’s main vision is that by burning books, people will become happy. This theory is debatable, but it clearly defies the freedom of speech. Censorship of this degree violates free speech by suppressing ideas, as shown when Beatty claims “‘Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it.”(59). By removing books with conflicting ideas like this, the government is systematically destroying the idea of free speech. When people cannot express their ideas freely, free speech is being vehemently defied.Equally consequential is the effect that burning books has on people’s political knowledge. Considering that the government’s goal is to keep people content with their political views, Beatty explains that “‘If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him. . . . give him none.’”(61). The government’s method of censoring political information is burning books, and therefore, free speech is

Finally, throughout the novel Bradbury presents a conflict between ignorance and understanding. The general society is being numbed into believing that knowledge makes people disagree with each other and unhappy. To prevent people from reading and gaining knowledge, the firemen burn all books. By committing these actions, they are promoting sameness and ignorance, to supposedly maintain happiness among society. Captain Beatty explains the history of firemen to Montag, speaking of their society’s view of equality. “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” (Bradbury, page 58) Captain Beatty is hinting that books encourage people to question authority and think about why things are done the way they are

Book burning is defined as “the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials. Usually carried out in a public context, the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in

Ban books or burn them? Ray Bradbury wrote his famous novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 fantasizing about a world in which books were banned, and when a book was found it was burnt and destroyed. Little did he know that his thought of books being banned could actually happen and that it would be one of his own. Today Fahrenheit 451 is being banned and challenged in schools all across America. How ironic that a book about books being banned is now being banned around the country. A prize winning book by a prize winning author is now being questioned as to whether it is a good book to teach in an English class. Though Fahrenheit 451 may contain controversial elements such as language, discussion of

In Fahrenheit 451, instead of putting out fires,the firemen start the fires to destroy books. The reason they destroy the books is to keep the people from reading them, to keep the people from learning what the books have to say. People who disobey the law end up being punished, but some just want to sacrifice everything they have for the knowledge of what the books gave them. One woman was caught with books in her home and was set on fire because she refused to leave, she wanted to stay with the books because she loved them that much that she was willing to give up her life. Even with a woman being set on fire with her books, the firemen still had to do their job and burn them, even if it means murder.

Clarisse is a curious girl about her environment, how the earth has evolved, and the past. She rubs off on Montag, which could lead to a dramatic change in his life.

In this society, books are banned, they are not to be read or owned. Anyone who is caught with a book or accused of having books is punished by firemen. Firemen do not put out fire instead, they start it; their job is to burn books and anyone who owns them, “burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official slogan” (Bradbury 3). The government justifies their reaction towards books arguing that they are protecting people’s happiness. According to their argument, the knowledge that people gain from books could lead to controversy. Consequently, by destroying books, people are relieved from thinking or arguing, “We stand against …those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought” (Bradbury 30). In order to remain in control, they have to brainwash people on a daily basis, masking their true intentions in the name of people’s happiness. Gabriela Wolk argues that “Fahrenheit 451, pointing towards the true power of the written word” (Wolk 11). Basically, books are considered “a loaded gun” (Bradbury 28) that would threaten the government power and for that, they must be

“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings” is a famous quote said by Heinrich Heine, which relates to the concept of book burning, seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury uses his unique literary style to write the novel Fahrenheit 451; where he brings his readers to a future American Society which consists of censorship, book burning, and completely oblivious families. The novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is one of the many firemen who takes pride in starting fires rather than putting them out, until he encounters a seventeen-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan. As the novel progresses, the reader is able to notice what Clarisse’s values are in the novel, how her innocence and

Inference: Society brainwashed themselves into thinking that they are happy and must burn books to remain happy after ignorance is bliss.

There is a strong likelihood that many people could get hurt if this book burning turns into rioting or something of that demeanor. Rioting is more common around the world these days, which as most people have seen it gets rapidly out of hand and cause people to lose their lives, even businesses are lost. If people who believe in this religion feel threatened or angry due to this public book burning things could turn bad very quickly. Even people who don’t practice the religion but still don’t agree with the whole situation could become angry and the situation itself could escalate quickly into something life threatening.

"Don't join the book burners... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book." said Dwight Eisenhower. This quote means that you should not burn a book just because it contains some innapropriate language or graphical content. In the article “Book bannings on the rise in US schols, says anti-censorship group”, by David Barnett, the non-fiction article talked about an anti-censorship group banning and burning books just because of the graphical content that parents were concerned about. In the other non-fiction article, “Dear Mr.Mccarthy”, by Kurt Vonnegut, it talks about Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote a letter to the Drake Public School Board, and he was agitated about it and he replied that the Drake Public School Board was uncivilized