Vidicus Walvert
Ms. Dowler
English 11 Cp
August 22 2012
Fahrenheit 451 In Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, America has become a utopian society in which books are banned and burned. In this society conformity is considered the absolute standard, and thinking different is a mental disorder. A place where the walls of the house are television sets, and where the characters are considered family. The main character Guy Montage is one of the few who managed to break away from society and to understand the meaning of books, although in doing this he has lost all he had before. Censorship, mass conformity, and constant stimulation warp knowledge and the ability to move forward in society. Throughout history censorship has been used to control and manipulate people, and if used today will be the downfall of people. . But this amount of Censorship has caused the country's people to suffer, physically and mentally by depriving them of basic knowledge. Censorship it does not belong in the modern everyday world. When censorship occurs it leaves people ignorant to things that they are not familiar with, thus causing panic, fear, and violence towards new ideas or beliefs. And when you censor one thing that someone is offended by, and then soon you’ll have to censor everything that could be deemed offensive. This idea was shown in the book when Captain Beatty said, “Colored people don’t like little black sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom's cabin. Burn it.” (59) If knowledge is withheld from the public, humanity is doomed to repeat the mistakes we have done in the past. Mass conformity is the social standard in Montags world, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then they're all happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.” (57) This can only hurt the people, when there is no one to judge themselves against there is no strive to go beyond, there's no want to better oneself. And people who do happen think differently are labeled outcasts, such as, the next door neighbor girl Clarisse who instead of watching the Television would rather go out into nature and think. The schools are made to pump out more athletes and workers instead of intellectuals. This is ironic due to the fact that the Intellectuals are the ones who further the development of the world, unlike the athletes who are just there for pleasure, and don't truly change anything. Mass conformity can only lead to as stop of intellectual thinking and forward movement for humanity. The utopian society that Montag lives in keeps the citizens in constant stimulation. The walls of the house are
