Just Do My Homework Book Review on Censorship in Fahrenheit 451

Why censorship?

At first glance, Bradbury’s book implies that the story being told is about control and fire and books are key subjects. The story follows a fireman whose job is to burn houses that have books. The reader is drawn to the intensity of pursuit for the destruction of books. This immediately creates an impression that the core goal of the key characters in the book is centered on censorship as a form of control.

Outline

Understanding what censorship is and the context in which it has been applied in Fahrenheit 451 is the main goal of this essay. This includes identifying the symbolism and effects that censorship had on the plot of the story. 

Introduction

Censorship is the act of controlling the information and ideas that are circulated in a society. Fahrenheit 451 is a book that is founded on censorship as a core theme. The imaginary world that Montag lives in is one where book worms are outlaws and firemen set fires rather than put them out in an effort to ensure that books are destroyed. The idea is to have a society where books do not exist and the firemen are allowed a great deal of leeway when dealing with people that have books. This includes burning down people’s property and even killing the book owners if the situation necessitates such extreme action.

Rather than have a society where people are allowed to have varying points of view as a result of being exposed to different forms of literature, in this world, the powers-that-be are determined to control the opinions and views of their citizens (Seed). A person cannot read books but can watch television. The television is a censorship tool because it allows the government to control the information that the people have access to.

Banning and burning of books

While the general view at first glance would appear that the book is centred on censorship, there are those that hold the position that the book is centred on how television has the power to destroy the interest in reading books (Zipes). This however begs the question why the Firemen seem to be conditioned to believe that books are the source of conflict and potential unrest. 

When Montag reads out loud the poem by Matthew Arnold to his wife and her friends, Mildred tried to pacify the situation by explaining that Montag’s action is a standard way of firemen to show how useless literature is. The fact that hearing a piece of literature read out loud makes the women uneasy implies that they are more concerned with protecting their own interests, which prompts them to file a complaint against Montag (Fox). 

If a reader is keen, they will notice that no explanation is given why books are banned in the future (Patai). Instead, suggestions are made about the different factors that led to this result. The factors are borne from reasons why society ended up losing interest in books and escalated to open hostility towards literature. These two factors are somehow interconnected as they both influence the decision by society to actively ban and burn literature.

From the author’s perspective, it would seem that the future world embraces other forms of entertainment like television. Such forms of communication tend to over stimulate the senses, resulting in people having shorter attention spans that make it much harder to grab a book or have a good read (Lukianoff). People therefore tend to gravitate towards condensed sources of information rather than reading a book. Moreover, by this time, the future world is filled with so many sources of literature that it becomes overwhelming to accommodate them all.

The other factor is the high dislike of books because they propagate different ideologies and perceptions which result in a fragmented society characterized by the need to exercise the liberty of being able to reason and hold a conflicting point of view (Firek). The novel implies that censorship of books is precipitated by the need to protect special interest groups from literature that undermines them. Rather than refer to ethic and racial minorities, Beatty is vocal about canine and feline lovers. The reader is left to infer which special interest groups are being referred to. Considering the state of the future world, academics and literary enthusiasts are classified as a special interest group that is in danger of being wiped out (Patai).

The Afterword of the book reveals the author’s strong belief in being able to express his own ideas as he vocalizes his dissent to suggestions that he changes how female and black characters are portrayed in the book. To Bradbury, such interventions are hostile and reflect the first step to a book burning society. Literature thrives on an author’s ability to share their thoughts in the context and words they prefer. It is an artistic form of expression that allows the author to share his story with his readers. While the readers may interpret the same piece of work differently, they are not entitled to the getting the author to change their story. 

Effects of censorship

Censorship results in a number of effects. Society can become more ignorant as certain pieces of information are withheld from them or they receive knowledge that makes them more enlightened about a topic they were previously unfamiliar with (Carr). When Montag interrupts the superficial discussion that the women are having at his house by reading a poem out loud, it makes them uneasy because they know the consequences of being caught in possession of books. They are not concerned with the knowledge being shared through the book but would rather restrict their knowledge to their understanding of the existing laws (LaBrie). Rather than appreciate the message in the poem Montag reads out, they are more concerned with maintain face in a society that is largely ignorant. Books were once regarded as a treasure trove of knowledge but in the future world they are considered to be a source of trouble.

As a fireman, Montag has a duty to promote ignorance by burning books. This is done in an effort to maintain the status quo where everyone has the same level of literacy (csun.edu). However, his encounter with the old woman, Faber and Clarisse ignite a curiosity in him that refuses to accept being ignorant without asking questions. Attempts by Beatty to discourage him from pursuing the curiosity that is growing in him reflect how deeply ignorance is ingrained in the society al thee way to the leaders themselves.

The society of the future world seems to be an unhappy one and yet it cannot even admit this. Montag’s wife, Mildred, seems unhappy from the moment the reader first encounters her. A woman that s suffers from depression, she has attempted to kill herself even though she is married to a man with an influential job and has friends. One night, Montag walked into the room and found his wife lying there like an island that may have rain yet it does not even know it because she neither feels it nor has a shadow (csun.edu). The author provides a very descriptive first attempt by Millie to kill herself using sleeping pills. On the floor where her body lay was an empty capsule which had earlier been full of pills. It would appear that Mildred may have been pretending to be happy. A reader may even infer from her initial actions that she was the byproduct of an unquenchable spirit that wanted more answers yet could not seek them out exhaustively because she did not want to go against the rule of society (Filler). 

Her attempt to defend her husband when he reads out loud the poem in front of her friends may be regarded as her indirect way of expressing her own opinion about the laws on banning and burning of books. It may also be interpreted as her way of enforcing censorship by trying to influence how the other women interpret Montag’s action. She attempts to control their opinion and at the same time cover for her husband but this proves futile. However, the fact that Montag later learns that she is the one that reported him to the firemen may imply otherwise. Millie represents a woman that is afraid to break the censorship laws yet she is troubled with multiple unanswered questions that have led her to a point in life where she can no longer find meaning in living. Her attempt to leave her world by killing herself may be her own silent rebellion against laws that stifle one’s ability to express themselves. maybe if she had been able to journal her thoughts,her situation would have been better. Her husband’s action turns her into a public outcast because she is not only known for her suicide attempt but also for selling out her own husband.

Other outcasts that the protagonist comes into contact with along his journey of self assertion are Faber, the retired professor and his young neighbour, Clarisse. The talk she shares with his neighbour convince him that the society in which he lives in is a miserable one (Patai). This takes him down a path of doubt where he begins to question how he leads his life, the laws he is meant to uphold as a fireman and the significance that his job plays in the fabric of society. This awakens a desire in him to read books and gradually transforms him to a man that no longer wants to be part of a society that does not allow the reading of books. The protagonist is transformed from an enforcer of society rules to a rebel that advocates for freedom of opinion (Filler).

Faber, the professor, represents a minority group in society that chooses to rebel against a system that wants to control the opinions of its people and the knowledge they have access to (Patai). He is part of the few that are willing to wage an underground resistance against the system in the hope that the rules will change to accommodate the academics and book worms.

A society that embraces censorship is one that encourages its people to be unable to think for themselves. It stifles creativity, objectivity and the ability to analyse and generate a conclusion based on one’s own reasoning (Snider). The people in Fahrenheit 451 have no control over their lives. The television controls how they think or what they believe and this makes them overly dependent on it. Mildred was deeply attached to her television family. They were her source of identity. This over dependency is one of the factors that cause Montag to tip over the edge to the point where he can no longer accommodate the mindless way that the group of women accept the rules of society and work their lives around them. One cannot help but wonder whether Montag would have subjected himself to reading out loud in front of his wife and her group of friends if he had not heard their conversation about the war that was about to be declared. Seeing how his wife was obsessed with television to the point that she had become mindless was one of the motivations that prompted his decision to plant books in the houses of other firemen (LaBrie). He knew that it would cause the firemen to burn their own houses and hopefully this would trigger in them a desire to protect their own property and interests and therefore go against the censorship rules on books.

A new turning point for Montag occurs when he sees his own house set on fire because his wife reported him. He transforms from being an enforcer of society rules to a fugitive hunted by the same people whose rules he once upheld (LaBrie). His decision to go on the run leads him to a new chapter in life where he meets other people that are also running from the law because they were found to own books. Montag observes that the band of misfits he is now a part of happen to own books in their minds rather than physically. They memorise books and share the contents of these books with one another as their way of keeping famous literary works alive. This brings him to a new point of realisation that books take on a new form that cannot be burned or banned (Fox). It also shows that society can choose to own books in a different kind of way that need not be in physical form. By memorising the contents of books, people are able to protect the knowledge imparted in a more secure way compared to hiding hard copies in their homes. 

Bradbury’s book is a reflection of the direction present the society is leasing towards (Fox). In an age where the internet and smart phones dictate the reading culture and televisions are preferred to hard cover books, it seems that society is becoming more mindless each day. Terrorist groups are able to recruit and carry out attacks using videos on the internet, people’s moods are influenced by programs they watch on television and some even believe that the characters in movies and other motion pictures are real and have a relationship with them (Weber). Many no longer see the value in owning, let alone reading, an actual book because they can get an audio visual version which saves them the hassle of reading and having their own opinion about the book. Though the books are not being burned and have not been banned, they no longer occupy an important position in the daily lives of the girl next door. Fans of television shows go to great lengths to remain updated on the latest episode to the point where they create a value system that is influenced by these programs (Snider). This is the power of television and the internet today. 

Conclusion

Censorship subsists in our current society even though the law declares that all American people have a right to freedom of expression and opinion. When a book is flagged as being inappropriate, it results in it being pulled from the shelves or even pulled from the school curriculum. A good example is Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn which was criticised as being racist because it referred to black people using a term that was regarded as racist (LaBrie). The public outcry led to the book being pulled from the school curriculum.

Even though the constitution accords all American citizens the right to free speech, this right is subject to restrictions which amount to censorship (Lukianoff). Words are removed from songs to make them more appropriate when being aired on television and the radio yet the same songs can be found in an uncensored form on the album. Media houses also remove content from a presentation or programme that they feel is inappropriate before airing it. Censorship is clearly a common theme in today’s society.

Author's Note

The article was published on/in/at the Homework Prospect