Government Censorship Destroying Burning Books Essay

Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games both fall under the Dystopian genre. This means that in both of the books, the setting takes in an imaginary place made up by the author. Most dystopian books also have a strong theme. The theme could be about something that’s contraband but people do it anyway, or just inhumane situations such as killing for pleasure and entertainment. Most dystopian books also have

The typical utopian world that people dream of consists of freedom, equality and political order. Dystopian fiction, however, is only the illusion of a perfect world. In reality, a dystopia is the complete opposite of a utopian society. It is commonly written to warn the reader of what might come if a certain way of life continues. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury predicted many issues that plague society today. The larger societal and individual issues Bradbury warns against are the consequences from the lack of social interactions, the spread and focus on technology, and the rise in violence.

A dystopian novel is a story relating to or denoting an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. 1984 by George Orwell, is indeed a dystopian novel as it describes a nightmare vision of future society which is opposite to a perfect world. George Orwell creates this image using a few different techniques including, the language or style, the setting, characterization, and oppression.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel published in 1950. The novel takes place in the futuristic American society where technology dominates in people’s lives. This is an era of prosperous technological advances, but people’s life quality is bad. The people live their life without knowledge, wisdom, and self-awareness. People are not critical because all books are banned, and illegal. The people think the same thing and they look alike also. The government uses propaganda to manipulate the people. Fear is the effective method the government uses to control them.

With the government and society placing a ban on the reading of books, they have for all intents and purposes become a censored society which has led to a new world filled with violence. This becomes clear while reading the story and you notice that the government only focuses on pursuing the crime of possessing and reading books or any similar forms of communication that expresses free thought. The government does not pursue and or does not punish its citizens for any of the other crimes they commit because they are not considered crimes anymore. The television programs they watch, shown on the large parlor walls, constantly broadcast violence non-stop throughout the day and night. The viewers just seem to watch and laugh because there are

Throughout the decades, certain restrictions have been shown in various forms from newspapers to television to social media. In America today, it serves as a positive outcome due to it protecting children from watching certain shows that they are too young to see. However, there are negative effects of censorship still prevalent in some parts of the world today. Censorship can block new and varied beliefs and ideas, which hides information from the public. Consequently, this is seen in the book Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury. In the dystopian society, many of the citizens daily routine consists of the act of burning books, watching manipulative “parlor families” on television, and not being accepted for doing things out of the norm. The residents in the story are limited to only juvenile thinking and actions which makes the society less diverse and knowledgeable. Even though restrictions can be effective at times, the author expresses the sense of censorship and how it is a bad influence by revealing certain characters that are affected by the restrictive society.

Although the Holocaust was a perfect example of a dystopia, it wasn't long lived like the one in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 can easily be compared to the Holocaust In a dystopian sense. I believe that Fahrenheit 451 and the Holocaust are similar because there's a creation being wiped out in both cases for no right reason. They both have an evil leader for an evil army. It even goes as far as the books and the Jewish being destroyed the same way. There was an ongoing war during both of these scenarios as well. When it comes down to the point both scenarios are achieving societal control and portraying an illusion of a perfect society.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is set in the dystopian future of the 24th Century in relation to the government influence on society. The main purpose of this book according to the Author was to prevent the possible future with the new technologies of 1953. Another purpose in this book was to warn people about what technology can do to you. This book was more based on the thoughts and beliefs of anti-Transcendentalism with a negative purpose portrayed.

Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

Censorship is one of the many manifestations used by the Nazi’s throughout the most notorious genocide in history. Censorship is essentially “the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” Book Burnings are a method of censorship that the government uses to diminish a group of people’s interpretations, very often in a time of annihilation. Heinrich Heine once said, "Wherever they burn books, in the end will also burn human beings." Book Burning, the public act of turning books to ash, ultimately resorts to the act of turning humans to ash. Books represent the rights of freedom of speech and freedom to express your beliefs, and when those rights are taken away, dehumanization is the outcome. The May 10, 1933 Nazi book burning, was the first major act of censorship against the Jews. Symbolically, the extermination of 25,000 books ultimately led to the murder of six million Jews. The act of book burning prohibits the spread of information through literary works, contrary to the ultimate goal of authors and publishers who wish to share their opinions.

In 1953, an author by the name of Ray Bradbury wrote the book “Fahrenheit 451”. This dystopian novel touches base on many of the author’s fears such as numbness to emotions, no individuality, high suicide rates, and overpopulation. To strengthen his warnings, he used figurative language and symbolism.

Dystopian literature is a genre which fashions a hypothetical universe, which is oppressive of humanity by societal control. It subjugates society through corporate, technological, moral or totalitarian control; which is concealed by a Utopian façade; often reflecting the anxieties and fears of the prevailing culture.

The use of censorship to examine and eliminate elements in media that are found to be unorthodox or radical has been prevalent in society for centuries. Through censorship, ideas found to be objectionable or offensive are repressed. In his prophetic novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury denotes the common practice of government censorship of books as a suppressive and marginalizing concept for humans because it strips them of the realities, truths, and meaning behind books and deprives them the freedom to deliberate and act on them. The protagonist, Guy Montag lives in a futuristic, American society and is a ‘firemen’; a group of men that deflect the old conventional purpose of stopping fires, to creating

“He saw the silver needle extend upon the air an inch, pull back, extend, pull back. The growl simmered in the beast and it looked at him”(page 23), Fahrenheit 451 is an excellent example of a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury. In this book the story revolves around the main character, Guy Montag. Guy is a government worker who burns books and sometimes people who have a difference in opinion than the bureaucratic government he serves. Guy slowly realizes his wrong doings and tries to help destroy the oppressive laws he helped enforce. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an example of dystopian fiction because it has a oppressive bureaucratic government, people that conform to uniform expectations, and a world that is constantly at war.

To experience emotions when reading a book is important. It challenges us to expand our worldview beyond that which is familiar to us.  Therefore, it is the belief among many that the concept of censorship, feasible banning of books, as well as the possible atrocious act of book burning is a concept best forgotten if not completely eradicated.