Essay On Fahrenheit 451 Censorship
Censorship fears dissent. When someone challenges a book they are worried by the different, and new ideas that a book can cause to be created. When different ideas are formed, now opinions form as well, and so does dissent. It is the goal of censorship to eliminate this differentiation in thought. It was precisely this censorship that Ray Bradbury was looking at when he wrote Fahrenheit 451. He looked at what would happen if all books were banned, instead of just books that people found offensive. The result was a dark and oppressive society that was devoid of any free thought and new ideas besides those created by the presiding powers that controlled the media. Bradbury was writing about the future that he saw occurring based on the increasing
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Bradbury describes books as "revealing the pores in life... but people want only wax moon faces, pore less, hairless, expressionless" (Bradbury). Because of the way that society has developed, people no longer appreciate being different, in fact, they actively shy away from anything that does not meet their definition of perfect. Perfection has all that they have been exposed to, and naturally it is all that the masses desire. Books teach people to appreciate various differences that appear in their lives everyday. Books reveal how life is not perfect and that the differences between people are what allow exceptional individuals to succeed in life. Unfortunately, because of the conditioning that they have had, they fail to see how differences can lead to something positive. Today, pressure for men to conform to the standard forms of male masculinity have caused sever depression in men throughout various societies (Rice, et al.). Society today has been conditioned in a similar manner as the society within the novel. Today, people expect a certain type of image or personality, but not everyone is capable or willing to conform to this preset standard. These standards have been set by perceptions of the perfect person that are set by the media, similar to how the masses in Fahrenheit 451 were conditioned to expect nothing less than perfection. Through reading, however, people can be exposed to different types of characters that are less than perfect, but still natural and
Bradbury describes books as "revealing the pores in life... but people want only wax moon faces, pore less, hairless, expressionless" (Bradbury). Because of the way that society has developed, people no longer appreciate being different, in fact, they actively shy away from anything that does not meet their definition of perfect. Perfection has all that they have been exposed to, and naturally it is all that the masses desire. Books teach people to appreciate various differences that appear in their lives everyday. Books reveal how life is not perfect and that the differences between people are what allow exceptional individuals to succeed in life. Unfortunately, because of the conditioning that they have had, they fail to see how differences can lead to something positive. Today, pressure for men to conform to the standard forms of male masculinity have caused sever depression in men throughout various societies (Rice, et al.). Society today has been conditioned in a similar manner as the society within the novel. Today, people expect a certain type of image or personality, but not everyone is capable or willing to conform to this preset standard. These standards have been set by perceptions of the perfect person that are set by the media, similar to how the masses in Fahrenheit 451 were conditioned to expect nothing less than perfection. Through reading, however, people can be exposed to different types of characters that are less than perfect, but still natural and