Fahrenheit 451: Censorship in Ray Bradbury's Novel

Introduction

Fahrenheit 451 was written by Ray Bradbury in 1953. In the text, their society wants to burn books to make life simpler and less complicated. In the novel, they burned books using firemen. Bradbury uses an interesting way of showing how twisted their society is because for a reader a fireman normally puts out fires, but because their society is so flawed a fireman’s job is to actually start the fires. The main character in the novel, Montag, is a fireman who followed his societies protocol by burning books. As the story develops the reader learns that Montag found a desire to read books after questioning the society he was living in. Later in the text, Montag begins trying to find a way to allow books to be legal again because he believes that books are an important characteristic of society. The theme in the novel is that they use censorship to avoid controversy in society. This theme relates to the novel because their society believed that life would be simpler and easier if they were to get rid of controversial things such as books. Throughout the text, Bradbury writes about the theme of self-censorship and the effects it has on society. This Fahrenheit 451 essay censorship exemplifies the detrimental effects of suppressing controversial ideas and the importance of intellectual freedom in a well-functioning society. In the novel, Bradbury uses Montag and other rhetorical devices, like tension and imagery to further develop this theme.

Fahrenheit 451: essay censorship

In Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Montag burns books for a living because the society he lives in wants to make things more simple by getting rid of books. In the society that Montag lives in they believe that books bring controversy which is why they are against it. In the text, Montag begins to question his desire for his job and starts to debate that maybe books can benefit his society. Bradbury introduces the concept that Montag was ready to quit his job when he wrote “Montag said, “It's only a step from not going to work today to not working tomorrow, to not working at the firehouse ever again.” (Bradbury 61) In the novel, Bradbury begins to have Montag start to stray away from society’s policies, and having him lean more towards the rebellious side. Later in that same conversation, one can see how Montag is becoming more rebellious when he said, “I’ve been saving up a lot of things, and don’t know what. I might even start reading books.” (Bradbury 62) By having Montag begin straying away from society Bradbury has allowed the climax to increase causing more suspense in the story. Montag started to become rebellious after having a conversation with Beatty. He began to tell Montag that their society is self-censored for the sake of peace in their society. In that conversation, Beatty tells Montag “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s writing a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.” (Bradbury 57) When Beatty tells Montag this he was explaining that controversy is not worth fighting so they should just get rid of anything that has the possibility to cause controversy in hopes it would make society peaceful.

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury develops the theme by using Montag and the idea that censorship would make life less complicated. One can see how censorship was relevant in their society when Montag was having a conversation with Clarisse about his happiness. In this conversation, Bradbury wrote, “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to know on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9) This quote essentially explains how Montag was unhappy with his life, but because his life and the society he lived in were so censored he was not able to realize what true happiness is. In this novel, their society was so censored and sheltered with the thought that without controversy it would allow everyone to be equal and happy. Their society believed in this concept so much that it had a major effect on the people living in it that they barely even realized it. Montag’s life being censored, it changed the way that he perceives things. This can be seen when he compared his childhood to his knowledge of the Bible. Montag compared these things when he was talking about himself trying to fill a sieve with sand, but he was such an innocent child he didn’t realize that it was impossible to do. He compared his ability to fill a sieve with sand to his ability to understand the bible and to comprehend the words he was reading, but it was simply unattainable. Montag explained, when he read the words from the Bible it simply fell through his head like sand through a sieve. An example from that comparison is when Montag said “... If you read fast and you read all, maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve. But he read and the words fell through…” (Bradbury 74) In this quote, Montag explained how when he read the words just fell through like the sand in the sieve as a child. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury used Montag as a device to develop his theme and plot in the story, but he also used rhetorical devices to do so as well.

Bradbury used both Montag and rhetorical devices to develop the theme and plot, but one of his most significant rhetorical devices relevant to the story is tension. The author uses tension in the text to build up more suspense and make the reader want to continue reading. For example, Bradbury wrote, “Two minutes more and the room whipped out of town to the jet cars wildly circling an arena, bashing and backing up and bashing each other again. Montag seen a number of bodies fly in the air.” (Bradbury 90) In this quote Bradbury builds up the tension by repeating himself, such as “...bashing and backing up and bashing each other again.” (Bradbury 90) By repeating these words Bradbury is building up for his final sentence saying that bodies were flying in the air. When repeating himself it allowed him to build up enough suspense to introduce the idea of war later in the conversation. Not only did Bradbury use tension to develop the idea of a war in society he also used it to form the idea of Montag becoming anxious when trying to figure out if he was truly happy. Bradbury describes Montag’s stress over this concept by using tension and example is when the author wrote, “One drop of rain. Clarisse. Another drop. Mildred. A third. The uncle. A fourth. The fire tonight. One, Mildred, two, Clarisse. Two, Mildred. Three, uncle. Four, fire ...” (Bradbury 15) In this quote, Bradbury used tension by repeating himself and using repetition to show the stress and anxiety Montag was going through. During this time in the text, Montag has just had a stressful conversation with Clarisse about his happiness, and his wife Mildred has just overdosed. The author tends to use repetition and tension to build up the climax in the characters which will ultimately allow him to develop the theme of censorship. Throughout the novel, Bradbury uses many different rhetorical devices, but some of the more relevant ones were tension and imagery.

The author uses imagery to develop the idea that books were controversial. For example, when Montag was reading the story The Sea of Faith. The author uses imagery when Montag read the story because after he finished reading the story Mrs. Phelps began crying. Mrs. Phelps began crying after the story because their society including herself was so censored to the idea that books were a bad thing she was scared of going against the rules. Not only was Mrs. Phelps crying because she was scared of the idea of reading books she was also upset because she couldn’t understand what the story meant because she has been brainwashed her entire life. One can see this in the text when Bradbury wrote “Mrs. Phelps was crying. The others in the middle of the desert watched her crying grow very loud as her face squeezed itself out of shape…. Mrs. Phelps ‘I don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, I just don’t know, oh, oh…” (Bradbury 97) This quote shows how brainwashed Mrs. Phelps was by censorship because she was unable to understand the meaning of the text, but this quote also shows how scared she was of books because of the policies that she has lived her entire life. In Fahrenheit 451, the author used multiple forms of imagery to describe the theme of the text. Another example of how Bradbury uses imagery to describe the theme is when Mildred left Montag after she found the books he had hidden. In the text, Bradbury wrote, “Mildred climbed in the beetle, and sat mumbling, “Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now…” (Bradbury 114) This quote shows imagery being used in the text because it shows that Mildred really didn’t care about her husband as much as she did her TV family. In this novel, Mildred was too caught up in technology to really care about her family and what was going on around her.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this Fahrenheit 451 censorship theme essay explores Ray Bradbury's use of Montag and rhetorical devices, such as tension and imagery, to develop the theme of censorship and its detrimental effects on society. Bradbury was a unique and creative writer because he was able to use rhetorical devices and the characters in the novel to further develop the theme and plot in his novel. Bradbury used rhetorical devices such as tension and imagery to develop the theme. The author uses tension to develop the theme by creating intense and climactic moments allowing him to introduce plot twists. Bradbury uses imagery to illustrate the situations and feelings that the protagonist was going through. By allowing the reader to understand the protagonist's feelings, it sets the mood for the text and can persuade the reader into having similar thoughts and emotions on censorship. The author also used the main character of the novel, Montag, to develop the theme by showing his fear of censorship in his society because he believes that without books life would be simple and have no meaning. Overall, Bradbury utilized many rhetorical devices and characters from the novel to show the theme that censorship is not always a good thing for society.