Thematic Idea

It was a time of book-burning and close panic, which left Bradbury in disbelief that "[we] would go all out and destroy ourselves in this fashion'; (Moore 103). The writing of this novel was also an opportunity for Bradbury to speak out against the censorship of written literature that was taking place by showing the consequences of it. Bradbury believed that the censorship of books destroyed important ideas, knowledge, and opinions and restricted the world from learning about the problems of their culture. His writing came to show that without such knowledge, society could become very passive, which would make it vulnerable to the control and mind manipulating techniques of the government. Ironically enough, this book itself was subject to censorship on its initial release (Touponce 125). These political, social, and military tensions of the 50's lent to Bradbury's own tensions, calling him forth to alert the people of their own self-destructive behaviors.

The consequence of this behavior could send Montag to prison, which Montag does not care about. After reading several books Montag talks with his close friend, Faber, and says to him "We have everything to be happy, but we're not happy" .What Montag tells Faber at that moment is really an expression of how he started analyzing more after starting reading books. Although Montag's love life changes and his view of society are changed too, this is not the only change Montag must admit. In the start of the book Montag is delighted in the work of burning illegal books and the homes of where they are found. However, as the book progresses, Montag becomes increasingly disgruntled, as he realizes that he has an empty, unfulfilling life. A point that shows that Montag in the start of the book is happy about his job is when he hangs up his helmet and shines it; hangs up his jacket neatly; showers luxuriously, and then, whistling walks across the upper floor.

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,

Montag said, “For no reason at all in the world they would have killed me” (Bradbury 128). This shows that the group of teenagers tried to hit Montag with their car for enjoyment. Many other acts of violence occurred during the book, which explains how violence is normal in their society.

He finds an ex-professor named Faber, whom he met in the park one day. Faber is reluctant, but finally agrees to aid Montag against the firemen. Faber provides Montag with a two-way radio earpiece. That evening Montag loses his temper and breaks out by reading some banned poetry aloud to his wife’s friends. Which wasn’t such a bright decision. That night at the firehouse, Beatty pokes at Montag by quoting contradictory passages from the same books. Which he’s trying to prove that all literature is confusing and problematic. Then he takes Guy to a fire alarm. Which is very astonishing because it’s at Guy’s

Have you ever had the courage to stand up among the others? I have chosen two characters from two different books that have represented courage in a great way. The first character is Jonas. Jonas is from the book called The Giver. The Giver is about a twelve year-old having a bunch of pressure on his shoulders by holding all the unneeded and unwanted memories. The second book is known as Fahrenheit 451. This book is about how firefighters are basically in an alternate universe: They start fires instead of stopping them. They start fires but only to burn books. Montag (Main character) does his job with a passion. That is until he actually starts reading them. He then starts to think that he should bring them back into the world. These are the two characters I will be using in my example.

Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.

The literary allusions of Fahrenheit 451 underscore both the theme of anti-censorship and literature’s importance. Bradbury uses an allusion to a scene from the Island of Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels (Sisario 203). In this scene, thousands of people have been executed by the royal government for breaking their hard-boiled eggs on the “wrong end.” This strict governmental action is not

of nowadays censor anything they feel like and is in line with the media of Bradbury’s world and

This caused him to be wanted. The various conflicts he had enabled him to become liberated. Montag's first conflicts was that he couldn't read books freely, he would always be worrying if anyone is watching, where does he hide the books, and the consequences if someone finds out. Of course Montag was also wanted because he killed 3 firemen, including the chief (Beatty). Montag doesn't have to worry about his conflicts anymore because he escaped the city, to live with a group that has similar thoughts as Montag. “The river was mild and leisurely going away from the people that ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapor for supper. This river was very real, it held him comfortably and gave him the time at last, the leisure to consider this month, this year” (pg 133-134). In this passage Montag talks about the river as himself, as he says the river was going away from the people that ate shadows for breakfast. Additionally this is the point of the story where Montag starts breaking free from

Faber’s, is a step that leads to “rebirth” of going into the river. Montag wants to change and

What was Montag thinking, reading books? How could he read books when his his whole life involved burning books? Montag, the fireman was good at his job, not only was he good but he was outstanding. He never disobeyed his orders he just did what he was told, he was like every other fireman. Montag started reading, he told no one because it was against the law, why would he? It wasn't smart, he couldn't stop reading it was a habit he saw that there were people in those books with problems and he was intrigued by that. The thought of Montag got more open and read these books was dangerous but it was also against the law.

When Montag meets a young girl on the subway, he has a change of perspective. He goes from a book burning fireman to a books “collector.” While Montag is at a house finding all the books that need to be burned he find one in particular that interest him, he take it. This is a crime, he is not allowed to have books. Even though he has books no one sends in an alarm. He gets off scott free, for a little while at least. Later that evening the books begins to control him he gets sick, he can’t go to work, he practically goes crazy. Beatty comes to see, because Montag is sick. When Beatty comes he finds out that Montag has books. This is when everything gets

This censorship is also seen going against the firemen when we find out that the firemen think their job was to “keep peace” in society by burning books because that is what the government persuaded them they were doing, but in reality this book burning censors the citizens of information, keeping them naive and uninterested in thinking for themselves which keeps them from going against the society thus, keeping them content in this false utopia.

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