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Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury Quote Essay Example

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Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury Quote Essay Example
Response to Ray Bradbury quote, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
If taken literally, this quote seems pretty black and white. What Bradbury has implied is a culture which stops reading books does not need the added push of censorship. In a free society, you cannot suppress what people think or do, therefore putting limits on what books can be read will not deter people in a free society from their curiosity to do so. In Fahrenheit 451, the character Montag was determined to be able to read. In fact, he had nothing to stand in his way as he managed to get his hands on a book by swiping it at one of the book burning sessions. In a society that is open to free thinking it is not out of the ordinary for people to seek out new ideas or point of views. This contrasts with the climate in Fahrenheit 451 where the freedom to choose a book was prevented by the society at large.
Part of what can affect a culture’s ability to read and their thirst for new ideas is controlling or suppressing how people are educated. This also relates to free thinking, in the story there are certain characters that act as robots which do as they are told, “no questions asked.” The main character, Montag comes across lots of people in this society that simply go with the flow. He also meets unique people like Faber and Clarisse who question authority and will speak up about what they think is not right. Clarisse had a curiosity to seek out answers to questions and Faber did as well but he seemed more controlled by a fear of expressing this.
The culture in Fahrenheit 451 is not unlike any current day society where censorship or a dictatorship can control what people are exposed to. A real life example is the how the U.S. is perceived by the Iraqis as a result of the war. Many of the peoplein Iraq have been raised to hate the U.S. and no matter what, should sacrifice everything, including their lives in the quest to defeat the U.S. In

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