The Power Of Power In Fahrenheit 451 And The Giver

Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable of manipulating. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, such a world is brought to the awareness of the reader through a description of the impacts of censorship and forced conformity on people living in a futuristic society. In this society, all works of literature have become a symbol of unnecessary controversy and are outlawed. Individuality and thought is outlawed. The human mind is

Imagine a world in which one is taught how and what to think. In this world no one is given the opportunity to form their own opinions. Books are illegal because they might generate ideas other than those which are taught. Knowledge is what allows a person to understand right from wrong, but if it is ingrained in a person to follow a set of rules without having an understanding for them, it’s most likely that the person will rebel. That is what occurs in Fahrenheit 451. Books are banned and, if found, are burned along with the house they are located in. This rule instilled fear and curiosity in the hearts of certain people within their society. Fear of getting their house burned and curiosity about the contents of these books people are sacrificing their houses and even some lives for. The answer is simple: knowledge. In Fahrenheit 451, the power and value of ideas allows one to see the world’s beauty clearly through their own eyes, comprehend and cognize the rules, and instigate conflict.

All humans crave one thing: Power. Power is directly defined as “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” This theme is shown throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. However, there are different forms of power. Different forms of power can be seen throughout the book, and even in many short stories and poems. These different forms of power can be either good or bad, depending on how the power is used. Power can come from fear, wealth, or leadership and trust.

In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 there are those who defend the cause of language; those who attempt to destroy the value of words and those who are victims of the abuse of power over language and thought, wielded by the government. The fireman, Montag, attempts to use language as weapon against the entrenched ignorance of his dystopian world. Conversely, the Fire Chief Beatty, uses the power of language as a weapon against those who would free humanity from the tyranny of ignorance. In the scene where Montag reads poetry to ‘the ladies’, their subconscious response to the poem ‘Dover Beach’ reveals the capacity of imagery to transform a listener. Mildred Montag and her “bunch” of ladies are

The society in Ray Bradbury's, Fahrenheit 451 is almost completely made up of the falsehood that everyone is “happy”. Up until the main character Montag, meets Clarisse, he believes that he is “happy.” Then he is asked a simple question…“Are you happy?” (Bradbury 10). This was the most significant turning point for Montag and is what caused him stop and think about what his life had really become. The propaganda throughout the book plays a substantial role in people's lives, but not in a positive way. The government brainwashes them to not think or read, and encourages them to have a hatred for whoever breaks the law. In Fahrenheit 451, propaganda plays a dangerous role in influencing the decisions made by the characters.

Juan Ramon Jimenez once said, “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way”. This quote shows the challenge of authority, like Montag and his society. Just like challenging the normal, or doing the opposite of what seems to be right by “writing the other way” on a lined piece of paper, Montag chooses to challenge authority by reading, remembering, and comprehending books, instead of burning them. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury takes place in a dystopian society in the twenty-fourth century and the main character is Guy Montag. He is a fireman whose job is to burn books and start fires instead of putting them out. Moreover, he lives in a society which just listens to government propaganda and follows whatever they are told; the citizens do not think deeply about aspects in life but rather focus on mind-numbing activities, that does not take any deep thought process. Books are banned but Montag takes the risk to start to read books, hoping they will bring him happiness in the dark world he lives in. In his journey he has three mentors who help him, Clarisse, Faber, and Granger. The protagonist, Guy Montag, changes as a result of the conflict within his dystopian society and this change connects to the novel’s theme of government censorship over its citizens.

A dystopia the darkest form of government, a utopia gone wrong, a craving for power, struggling for fewer rules. The dystopia is factual the worst possible form of a government. Its the struggle to be so perfect that it fails. There are typically two types of dystopias first a monarchy. A monarchy is a group of people controlled by a king or queen, and they make every last decision. What they want they get. A monarchy is typically born like this example from lord of the flies. “He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them"(Golding 58). This shows that a monarchy starts by one just taking over from the start rather than being a

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.

Book-burning is the first thing that is explained about this future based society of Fahrenheit 451. Burning books is the obliteration of the single thought on paper or in one word- censorship. Books are considered evil because they make people question and think. All intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge must be quelled for the good of the state — for the good of conformity. Without ideas, everyone conforms, and as a result, everyone should be happy. When books and new ideas are available to people, conflict and unhappiness occur. Some of the many different motifs in the novel Fahrenheit 451 are conveyed through the use of various sardonic lines and connotations planted throughout the book. On the matter of technology and modernization it explains how TV reigns supreme in the future because of the "happiness" it offers. People are content when they don’t have to think, or so the story goes. TV aside, technology is the government’s means of oppression, but also provides the renegade’s opportunity to subvert. Rules and order is another popular topic written into the book. It is stated that “All books can be beaten down with reason.” This was said by Captain Betty, a quote ironically coming from a book itself. Much of the restrictions on the general populous are self-enforced. The government has taken away the citizens’ ability to dissent and marred all dissatisfaction with a cheap version of "happiness," a.k.a. TV. This means

In the book Fahrenheit 451 the theme is a society/world that revolves around being basically brain washed or programmed because of the lack of people not thinking for themselves concerning the loss of knowledge, and imagination from books that don't exist to them. In such stories as the Kurt Vonnegut's "You have insulted me letter" also involving censorship to better society from vulgarity and from certain aspects of life that could be seen as disruptive to day to day society which leads to censorship of language and books. Both stories deal with censorship and by that society is destructed in a certain way by the loss of knowledge from books.

“Then, moaning, she ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator. He caught her, shrieking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him scratching,” (63). In the novel Fahrenheit 451 follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his interactions with society discouraging and encouraging his discovery of the illegal books. Along the way he understands who are the poisonous people in his dystopian world and who are not; changing his perspective to lose trust in his wife Mildred, from previous quote, and finding safety with Faber, a retired professor he came by one day in a park. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the author demonstrates the idea that when there is censorship in the world, ignorance will follow because when a subject is hidden from one anything they do regarding it is under the impression of their lack of knowledge surrounding the topic, this becomes more relevant when Ray Bradbury acknowledges the emotions of people who have read books and whom haven't and their general opinions of them.

In life, people go on a journey of self-discovery to find who they are which leads the creation of mistakes and struggle to find a place in society. The strive to find a distinctive role leads them to take specific actions to obtain their goal. A major obstacle in their journey is the authoritarian and powerful society who represses the people to conform to their rules. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the government censors controversial issues from the people to ensure that no uprising or rebellion will arise relating their boundaries and laws. Their primary goal of the dictatorial government is to cease the curiosity and creativity of society and force the people to observe their beliefs. To enforce their authority, the government closely observes the people and holds everyone liable to danger; life would pass by too quickly giving them little time to ponder about the world. Similarly to the oppression in Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, defies the rules of the strict Puritan community and is cast aside by the townspeople. Refusing to conform to the ideals of society, Hester was unable to regain her position and lives in isolation on the outskirts of Boston. These two characters, however, have some differences concerning their hero’s journey. In Fahrenheit, Montag uncovers his distinctiveness and uniqueness of others in the society while fighting against the government who tries to control independent thought. Hester, on the other hand,

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the author creates a picture of a society that resembles our present-day society in a variety of ways. Although a society in which government has total control over its citizens seems to be a little extreme, there are definitely clues that can be seen today that suggest that we are headed in the same direction. Some of the resemblances between the society in Fahrenheit 451 and our society today are the governments’ hypocrisy, the gullibility of the citizens who fully support the government, and the fact that books are becoming rather extinct due to advances in modern technology.

A dystopia is an imaginary, imperfect place where those who dwell are faced with terrible circumstances. The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley illustrates the concept of a dystopia. A utopia is an ideal place where everything is perfect, but in the novel, it becomes apparent that the author is trying to demonstrate the negative effects on a society when it attempts to become an unreachable utopian society. Brave New World is seen as a dystopia for many reasons, as citizens are deprived of freedom, programmed to be emotionless and under the control of a corrupt dictatorship. These points illustrate the irony of a society’s attempt to reach utopia by opposing ethics and morality; citizens are tragically distanced from paradise,

In George Orwell's 1984, a light is shining on the concept of a negative utopia, or "dystopia" caused by totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is, "a form of government in which political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life…" and any opposing political and/or cultural expressions are suppressed. Having lived in a time of totalitarianism regime, Orwell had a firsthand account of its horrific lengths and negative affects. Within 1984, Orwell derives aspects of the actual government of his time to create, "The Party", "Big Brother", and the "Thought Police". Using these fictional recreations of reality, Orwell's 1984