Examples Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

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Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 showcases the ideas of censorship and the way society can be forced to conform. It tells the story of a society that has enforced censorship upon itself, beginning with the suppression of books. With this suppression, violence emerges within the society, particularly violence aimed at knowledge. Those found with the possession of books are treated as criminals, for possessing books is illegal. Society’s goal is to eliminate those who acquire more knowledge than the common members of its community. The censorship also extends from knowledge to relationships, and even life itself. Marriage becomes unimportant to many people, as relationships become bland and lifeless, and life itself becomes meaningless to many. …show more content…
Millions of Jews were killed because they had begun to rise to power, and in the society of Fahrenheit 451, educated people are being killed because common folk fear of their rise to power. The Nazis burned books because they felt as if books represented ideals that were opposing Nazi Ideology, and people burned books in the Fahrenheit 451 because people became offended by the content of books. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it… Let’s not quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.” (Bradbury 57) Both groups of people began to gain self-censorship through acts of violence. Censorship was created in these societies in order to guarantee that their citizens saw things the way the majority saw them, and they exterminated anyone who tried to see things differently. The Nazis had a specific method of using censorship to their advantage. “Censorship was enforced by a number of methods. First, the secret police or the ‘normal’ police ensured that the rules were kept to. Secondly, anyone who wanted to go outside of the desired party norm faced the most serious of consequences.” (Censorship) This is similar to methods used in the fictional society. Firemen are used to keep the community in order, hunting down and burning books, and jailing people who possessed books. They also inflict punishment (jailing people, sending them away, or even killing them) on the educated and “antisocial”. Bradbury, coming out of World War II, had a clear influence of where he thought society would go in the future. Based on what he had witnessed, he believed that society would soon be consumed by technology, and moral values such as education and meaningful conversations would soon be
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