Media Censorship Affects The News You See

Government interferences commonly occur both in Fahrenheit 451 and the real world. The censorship is to keep the population unaware of the truth of what happens throughout the world, and corruption of the government. All the different ways to censor something happen to accomplish one goal, to keep the public away from the negative truths about themselves. Several events in history show that this is a fairly popular habit among different governments and nations. Although these events are real life situations, Ray Bradbury is able to broadcast these thoughts in Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury’s overall statement in the book shows the truth on how the government treats the public.

When the government burns the books so that no one can read them and realize how distressed society really is, is censorship. It is also the allusion to Guy Fawkes. The government is keeping information from the people. Beatty tells montag how in school no one learned anything useful and how it is shortened. “Philosophies, histories, languages dropped” (Bradbury 53). All that happens in school is the kids watch tv, so there is no more “real education”. The people now do not know if something that happens in the news is important or not, because the people do not know anything about the world, or the english language, or the past. That is censorship because, the government has cut off all important information about the world that are in the books and have transferred them into the television, where the government determines what to establish on tv. It is dangerous to do that because the people like Montag,

Ray Bradbury’s writings were influenced by the current and past events happening in a war stricken society. Bradbury draws direct correlation between Hitler’s acts in World War II (WWII) and the acts of the “firemen” in Fahrenheit 451. This leads to the discussion of the censorship of the public in Fahrenheit 451, how this compares to the censorship enforced by Hitler in WWII, and how censorship affects the public of any society. Ray Bradbury was successful in illustrating the theme of censorship within a society under a totalitarian government using repetition, symbolism, and bildungsroman in Fahrenheit 451.

In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, censorship plays a significant role in the dystopian society. The novel illustrates what it would be like if the government had full control of what society reads, watches, or communicates. According to Bradbury, this perpetuates ignorance because society blindly obeys the government. Most people in the novel are unaware of their unhappiness with society, including Mildred, Guy Montag’s wife, who almost commits suicide by mistakenly taking an entire bottle of sleeping pills. Censorship has a great effect on the personalities and knowledge of the people in the society. The society is essentially “trapped” in a toxic world filled with ignorance (Mogen 105). The government feels by controlling all forms of media, society should be cooperative and happy; however, once citizens become distracted by the consequences of owning and reading books, unhappiness and chaos occur. Reading books promotes knowledge, which encourages people to think, but because of censorship, the society has become ignorant.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “That government is best which governs least…”. In Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury, the government puts extreme laws in place to “protect” the people. Except, that these laws keep the citizens from knowing the truth. The good laws like speed limit aren’t enforced and the things that shouldn’t matter, like owning a book, are so strongly enforced, that if it is you that is found to own a book, your house will be burnt down. The government keeps everyone in check by censoring the citizens. During the 1950’s, the entire country was in fear of communism. There was a blacklist of authors, actors, and public figures. No one would hire them or buy their work. Bradbury wanted to warn the country of what could happen if it continued being ignorant , and by using pathos, rhetorical questions, and repetition, he effectively conveyed his purpose.

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.

Censorship is the practice of examining pieces of information and taking out the unacceptable parts. Governments use censorship to create perfect societies, but deep down, they cannot censor how people really think and feel. In reality, censorship is a form of destruction that ruins valuable information. In the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the movie Pleasantville by Gary Ross, and the article "Freedom To Read Is Still In Danger" by The Huffington Post, the authors share a similar theme of how governments use censorship. In Fahrenheit 451, the society uses censorship through burning books. The government in the movie Pleasantville does not want people to have feelings. Lastly, in the article, the United States has the idea that some

In the article “You are Guy Montag: Ray Bradbury's #1 Censorship Concern” the author Nancy Lambert explains that censorship in books sparks a lot of interests because of the literacy and themes. In Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 the overall theme of the book is book burning due to government regulations taken over society. In the article “You are Guy Montag: Ray Bradbury’s #1 Censorship Concern” Lambert claims, “Though book banning was a common theme in his work, in real life, it wasn’t big-brother top-down censorship that concerned him most, but the kind of insidious censorship that is brewed from the bottom up, from apathy, or distraction,...” (Lambert). Certain censorships are implemented with ridiculous rules because it is not caused by the government, but the people itself. Censorship is important because information that is leaked can possibly cause a lot of controversy and be misinterpreted. For example, in the article Lambert states, “However, the most egregious censorship of Fahrenheit 451 was actually by its publisher(more on that in a moment)” (Lampert). Going into writing and publishing the novel Bradbury had to tell the story how books really impacted the world and the consequences that can occur if books were eliminated. Bradbury got a lot of heat from this because his story seemed too real for the near future. This became the poster child for censorship because of all the

Throughout the book “Fahrenheit 451,” author Ray Bradbury discusses the many dangers of censorship and dangers of technology. Bradbury includes multiple scenarios of examples such as, the variety of issues and problems that follow these dangers to show its effect on society. Although Bradbury goes into detail about both conflicts, the predicament that seems to be the most accurate interpretation of “Fahrenheit 451” is the dangers of censorship. From the lack of societies knowledge, to the failing of social bonds, to even the daily behavior of the people, Bradbury describes these issues to a tee and uses the characters to display these issues.

Montag, the main character of the story, is inspired by a young girl to question law

Ray Bradbury has repeatedly said how his book, Fahrenheit 451, is not about government censorship but just plain censorship. This can be seen throughout the book in the sense that the government did not have much interference with the way the books were censored, more, it was the society around the books. The idea is predominantly present when the characters within the book refer to the actors on the tv as ‘family’ by their own free will. “Millie, does”—he licked his lips—”does your ‘family’ love you, love you very much, love you with all their heart and soul, Millie?” (Bradbury 73). Also in the book, it is mentioned that eventually people stopped reading as much by their own choosing as well, further solidifying Bradbury’s announcement that it was not about government censorship. When looking back on the novel, one is able to see how the impact of TV really brought the society to shambles. Rarely does it ever mention the government or order of how things are, just hints at there being some unspoken rules within the society. This is the message that Bradbury had hoped to achieve with Fahrenheit 451, but unfortunately the message had not been relayed to most. “He bristles when others tell him what his stories mean, and once walked out of a class at UCLA where students insisted his book was about government censorship” (Johnston 1). The author’s ultimate goal was to knock TV down a notch, not the government. Unfortunately, the original message of

Ray Bradbury comments the censorship in the future, even though this novel was written in the early 1950's by showing these same ideas in a dystopian novel called Fahrenheit 451. He shows the readers how terrible censorship really is by writing about it in his novel. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses "technological controls", such as television and seashells, to show the reader about how controlled the public is by the government and how their minds are being controlled by these certain technologies in the twenty-first century. Technology he uses are the Mechanical Hound and also TV’s, to show the genius the government has by feeding information into the minds of the citizens, in his novel. Fahrenheit 451 is a chilling example of censorship

A novelist, John Mortimer, once said “I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.” John Mortimer thinks that in most of the writer’s books, it shows a bit of too much truth and meaning that could cause people to express differently of the books and others. In addition to his words, the way the government works, and how society may take its toll on themselves or several people slowly of what they really feel about the situation. Just like in “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, the government chooses to forbid books and reading the contents of it, since they have a perspective of no fighting, no conflicts, and disagreements within the

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

When reading 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, you start to see a common element between these two novels, this element is censorship by the government. What is censorship? Censorship is the suppression of a publication of any media considered offensive or a threat to security. Both of these novels showed censorship elements in their passage by using technology and manipulation on their society to push their agenda. For instance, in 1984 their government was a totalitarian government that was run by the Inner party, which regulated the people of Oceania through language and monitoring their thoughts. In Fahrenheit 451 it has the same element of censorship by the government. The government censors the people of Fahrenheit 451 by using the firemen as an enforcement censorship by burning down homes that contain books. The common element of censorship between these two novels showed the controlling grip the government had on their societies by asserting their power of fear through censorship