Essay/Term paper: Fahrenheit 451

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Composition

In the book Fahrenheit 451 the theme is a society/world that revolves around being basically brain washed or programmed because of the lack of people not thinking for themselves concerning the loss of knowledge, and imagination from books that don't exist to them. In such stories as the Kurt Vonnegut's "You have insulted me letter" also involving censorship to better society from vulgarity and from certain aspects of life that could be seen as disruptive to day to day society which leads to censorship of language and books. Both stories deal with censorship and by that society is destructed in a certain way by the loss of knowledge from books.

Fahrenheit 451 involves such characters as Guy Montag, Mildred Montag, Captain Beatty, and Clarisse McClellan. Fahrenheit presents the firemen as the tools of censorship and illegal books. Since books rarely exist in their society they look not to things of intellectual worth, but to things with physical and non-thinking pleasure. As the people become zombies to television and the "four walls," which is a form of television in their society they become resistant to change. They like everything to happen neatly and predictably, just like the television shows. Mildred, Montag's wife, becomes totally dependent upon the "four walls" to not only bring her entertainment throughout the day, but to be a source of consistency. The programs on the television are extremely unintelligent and Montag's question why Mildred watches it so much but there is never a real answer to his question. He later meet up with Clarisse McCellan who questions his life, and his happiness, Montag later questions the society's values and pursues them to find out why books are banned and finds himself fascinated with them and learns the consequences of reading in his society.

In "You Have Insulted Me" a letter by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is another good example of censorship in our own society. That relates to Fahrenheit 451 concerning censorship but there is also a difference in Fahrenheit 451 compared to the "the letter" by Vonnegut. In Fahrenheit the idea of censorship are no books what so ever because of the lack of society reading, but in "the letter" books are denied to younger readers and the public because of content, such as vulgarity, and sexuality. They both lack knowledge that is given but never fully taken in and which makes them both a censored society/world.

Censorship is widely used in our society to prevent us from seeing or hearing things that could disrupt our surroundings. Is it right to censor or not, its tough question and that question appears in Fahrenheit 451, The Letter, and our own day to day life's. In Fahrenheit and The Letter they were censored to better the society without knowing the true aspects of the life. Also in both stories it seems as though censorship is fear, afraid of something that could be wonderful and even knowledgeable to society.

In Fahrenheit 451 the lack of books later turns the book in an avalanche effect of conformity leading to the destruction of Fahrenheit 451 society. Also in the story The Letter its leads to the banning of books to certain people mostly including school's young children. Both stories relate very closely because of content concerning censorship but they also have their difference types of censorship but both take on the same roles of holding back information to the public.