Theme Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

Words: 1077
Pages: 5

This science fiction dystopian novel is about Guy Montag, a fireman living in the future. In this society firemen do not put out fires but instead are tasked with the burning of books. This is just one of the ways that Ray Bradbury conveys the theme of censorship throughout the book. The people in this society do not think for themselves and have no interest in having meaningful conversations. People are constantly occupied with a virtual reality and virtual “relatives” so much that they neglect to take care of their real families and no one talks about anything other than the programs on television. All too close to our world are these examples of technology that take over our lives and fill it, not with thinking, but with mindless entertainment.This book may be more than sixty years old but some of the …show more content…
Though the technologies in the book are many decades ahead of ours, we are slowly becoming consumed by technologies like the citizens described in the book. With portable technology and social media becoming more and more available people are devoting less and less leisure time to the reading of books. Though our society is not addicted to television like the characters in the book are, it is not difficult to see that we are addicted to the internet. It is literally everywhere we go, always following us around in the form of smartphones, laptops or other computers. “Christ is one of the `family' now” (Bradbury 37) This quote is telling us that in the book, nothing escapes the transformation of technology, not even religion. Though our current technology is still far from reaching this level, many of the the things that we used to do are being replaced by machines. Google recently unveiled the completed prototypes for a driverless car that may eventually replace human drivers. Technology is everywhere in our world today and threatens to take over our