General Overview of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The government is banning everything that the society tells them to. When doing this it makes people unaware in their own society. Fahrenheit 451 is a novel that has a society in which the people has control of what the government censors. They will ban or burn books, or will remove anything that they dislike. In the novel. Ray Bradbury uses the setting and his characters to show how censorship can be so harmful. He also tells the reader that has knowledge will give you power.
Fahrenheit 451 uses the setting to give the reader a picture of what is going on. When Beatty is talking to Montag, he was saying what people dislike and what they will do with it. “‘Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too,’” (Bradbury 21). Beatty was telling the readers what the people in this society will do if something will make them unhappy or make them have a negative emotion. The people don’t want to feel any other emotion other than happiness, so they will take everything away if it will make them feel any other way. Montag and Clarisse were having a night stroll and she talks about her uncle in the past. ‘“He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days,’” (Bradbury 3). What Clarisse said to Montag, says a lot of what the government does. The government is willing to do anything to make everyone seem the same. Clarisse’s uncle was walking as a pedestrian, then people took him to jail, which might let the readers think that the people in this universe don’t like to see people. The setting helps visualize what censorship can do, but the characteristics of the people will show the outcome of it. Ray Bradbury uses character traits to show the effect when the people decide to ban books. One of the characters that does not seem to be affected from people banning books, is Clarisse McClellan. She went out of school and explains to Montag what the school thinks of her. ‘“I’m anti-social, they say. I don’t mix. It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it? Social to me means talking …,”’ (Bradbury 16). During the night, she is told to him that people are saying to her that she’s different than the rest because she talks too much. She also says what her thought of what is social. Beatty and Montag were having a conversation about how life is and Mildred was being uncomfortable and wanted to distract herself. “…reach down her hand and say, “What’s this?” and hold up the hidden book with touching innocence,” (Bradbury 27). Mildred was making a disturbance to Montag when they started talking about things that made her very uncomfortable. Ray Bradbury made Mildred like this to have readers know what would happen when she watches the parlor walls all the time and never know what is going on. The way Ray Bradbury uses setting let the readers know what a place might be if they have been indoors their whole life. Also, having characters show the effects of that situation. Being censored from the outside world is dangerous since no one really knows what is going on and will not care if something happened to them. Letting people know the reality will be more useful and will help keep them safe from dangers in the world. If everything were to be censored or banned that were considered to be normal, everyone’s mind will be clueless. People do not want to feel any negative emotion, they will just erase everything that will make them like that. Being censored will do more harm than good if it is out of control.
