Censorship Is Wrong-Fahrenheit 451 | Teen Ink

Censorship Is Wrong-Fahrenheit 451

March 24, 2013
By RohitMathew SILVER, Elmont, New York
RohitMathew SILVER, Elmont, New York
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
























- Steve Jobs


“It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade journals.” Censorship in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, shows many people losing their freedom and their knowledge. As a person living in a normal society, not many things are controlled. If a person were banned from his or her own rights and knowledge, censorship would clearly not play a beneficial role in society.

Guy Montag, in the novel, stated, "I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense." Freedom of speech affected Montag and his society. Montag reveals the affect of censorship when it infringes with the freedom of speech. During this period in the book, people were not allowed to read or even own books. Guy Montag wanted a change but no one wanted to listen to him, especially his wife. This suggests that Guy Montag’s society does not have a formal say in government. When people try to give a say, the government tends not to listen and usually ignores them. This quote by Montag coincides why censorship does not play a beneficial role in society but rather does it create a problem in society. Readers can tell that in the novel, no say can lead to harms way.

"Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries of more." This is a quote stated by Captain Beatty to Guy Montag in Bradbury’s novel. This is the general view of censorship in the mind of Beatty. He feels that the censorship of books is causing people to become more inane and less intelligent, according to Beatty. Books like dictionaries, encyclopedias, and novels are banned and thus creating a society that is not as bright. Books are essential for daily lives because they

reveal lots of information that can be essential. Censoring books is just another bad idea and can lead to problems. Censoring things as a whole can lead into more problems such as strikes, riots, or even war. In The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, censorship is highly enforced there. If a person goes there and asks a student, “What is Google?” the student will respond saying, “I don’t know, but I hope to study it one day.” We see that censorship in this nation creates a lack of knowledge within people. This is why censorship won’t be able to play a beneficial role in society.

People in today’s society live in a world where they should have the freedom and privilege to do what ever they want. People can read books of their choice and make books about anything. In the United States, people are given the freedom to say whatever they want to say. This freedom is given because of the first amendment in the US Constitution. The readers have seen that censorship within the novel caused chaos and war. According to one’s opinion, censorship is not beneficial in society.

All in all, censorship is a bad idea. It is believed that no one wants a society like the one in Ray Bradbury’s novel or even the one in North Korea. The society in the novel had many issues and it is not a stable society to live in all together. Many have seen the results of censorship and have also seen that it can cause problems. To end with, the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury shows that censorship does not play a major beneficial role in society but rather does it create a society that is unlawful and unintelligent.


The author's comments:
This article is censorship within the book Fahrenheit 451 and I have also connected censorship this essay with the outside world.

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