Fahrenheit 451 Censorship Essay
Censorship of media is a subject that has been hit heavily throughout history. The idea of censorship seems to give people a negative view of how society would turn out with complete censorship of media. Many authors see it as their responsibility to try to warn people of the dangers of complete control of media, as authors have a voice to a wide range of people. Ray Bradbury’s Novel Fahrenheit 451 uses the theme of censorship to describe how controlled media can affect a society’s ability to think individually.
Bradbury’s thoughts on censorship can be compared to Plato’s ideas on censorship and his Cave Theory. Plato’s Cave theory starts with slaves chained in a cave since they were young. Their masters have a large fire lit behind them where …show more content…
This can be seen in George Orwell’s novel 1984 as well. Throughout the novel, the slogan of Airstrip One—the city in which the protagonist lives— is repeated as “War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength”( Orwell 6). This slogan represents perfectly how censorship affects the novel. In the novel, the main character Winston Smith works in the Ministry of truth, where they control certain aspects of the media so that the public only sees what the government wants them to see. Doing this as a job, Winston gets a first row seat to see how censorship can affect the public’s eye (George Orwell Find Page Numbers where this is located). The government’s control of the censorship of media not only makes people trust their government more, but it causes them to seem more efficient than they actually are. The false sense of security given by the government when they give themselves the appearance of “perfection” through media means that their people will follow them blindly no matter what. Bradbury was very concerned that this would happen and everyone would become ignorant to the actions of the government, as were Orwell and many other dystopian novelists of the time.
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, censorship is a reoccurring theme which can be seen as destructive to individual thought in society. The thought of censorship and control of media being destructive
Bradbury’s thoughts on censorship can be compared to Plato’s ideas on censorship and his Cave Theory. Plato’s Cave theory starts with slaves chained in a cave since they were young. Their masters have a large fire lit behind them where …show more content…
This can be seen in George Orwell’s novel 1984 as well. Throughout the novel, the slogan of Airstrip One—the city in which the protagonist lives— is repeated as “War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength”( Orwell 6). This slogan represents perfectly how censorship affects the novel. In the novel, the main character Winston Smith works in the Ministry of truth, where they control certain aspects of the media so that the public only sees what the government wants them to see. Doing this as a job, Winston gets a first row seat to see how censorship can affect the public’s eye (George Orwell Find Page Numbers where this is located). The government’s control of the censorship of media not only makes people trust their government more, but it causes them to seem more efficient than they actually are. The false sense of security given by the government when they give themselves the appearance of “perfection” through media means that their people will follow them blindly no matter what. Bradbury was very concerned that this would happen and everyone would become ignorant to the actions of the government, as were Orwell and many other dystopian novelists of the time.
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, censorship is a reoccurring theme which can be seen as destructive to individual thought in society. The thought of censorship and control of media being destructive