Ignorance is Fatal

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Ignorance is Fatal

The short story Usher II uses themes of irony and vengeance, as well as, classic literature to explore the consequence of blind censorship. Usher II is featured in The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury's "best known work and in many ways his finest achievement" (Mogen 82). In The Martian Chronicles, "Usher II" takes place several years after the colonization of Mars has begun and humans almost have a complete society on Mars. In this story, on earth there is an agency referred to as the "moral climate people" and the agency's primary objective is to try and enforce their idea of what a moral society should be. "Usher II" tells the story of Mr. Stendhal and his brilliant plan to get rid of the censors that try to make him and the rest of the population conform to their idea of how a "decent person" should act in society.

Mars-2005, the planet has been occupied for several years now and Mr. Stendhal has commissioned a complete and stunningly accurate replica of the House of Usher to be built for him. Upon the completion he talks with his architect and we learn in 1975 all of Edgar Allen Poe's books along with many other masterpieces were burnt in the great fire. Any story about horror, fantasy, or the future was burned and by now all of those stories and authors are forgotten by most people. The architect didn't even know the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" and had no idea who Poe was. Stendhal continued to explain: Oh, it started very small. In 1950 and '60 it was a grain of sand. They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another one group or another, political bias, religious pr...

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...irony in McCarthy's approach is communist regimes use censorship as a primary tool in their government. Censorship is the first step to oppression and Bradbury, through "Usher II", reminds us that we need to fight censorship and those who try to impose it. There are still struggles with censorship everyday currently John Ashcroft is trying to censor a lot of the material that is used to teach students in public schools and colleges. It is important that we have stories like "Usher II" to help us realize that it isn't in our best interests to let someone else decide what is appropriate or inappropriate, decent or indecent, moral or immoral. The moral climate of a society needs to be determined by the people in the society.

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. "Usher II" The Martian Chronicles. New York: Doubleday, 1950

Mogen, David. Ray Bradbury. Boston: Twayne, 1986

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