Fahrenheit 451 Censorship Quotes

The Hidden Truth

Censorship is the act of suppressing unacceptable media such as books, movies, and

magazines in society. Sometimes it can help maintain peace in one’s world while other times, in

extreme cases, it can create chaos. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the author conjures up a

story in where censorship has completely destroyed a society’s way of thinking. The book

teaches the reader that if we do not be wary of the censorship that goes on in one’s society, then

it will bring chaos into one’s world.

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury utilizes many examples and literary elements that

stirs up fear about the ideas of censorship. For example, Beatty explains to 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 written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The

cigarette people are weeping? Bum the book. Serenity , Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight

outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them,

too. Five minutes after a person is dead he's on his way to the Big Flue, the Incinerators serviced

by helicopters all over the country. Ten minutes after a man's a speck of black dust. Let's not

quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn them all, burn everything. Fire is

bright and fire is clean." (59-60). The author’s use of vivid imagery helps the reader picture

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the horror and destruction of extreme censorship and it also helps the reader become alert to this

idea, the repetition helps fuel the anger and corruption of censorship. These words are

appropriate because these words help convince the reader that censorship is bad by implanting

fear, this fear persuades the reader of this idea by making the reader experiencing the horror of

censorship in the reader’s mind. Another example would be “ A great thunderstorm of

sound

gushed from the walls. Music bombarded him at such an immense volume that his bones were

almost shaken from their tendons; he felt his jaw vibrate,his eyes wobble in his head. He was a

victim of concussion. When it was all over he felt like a man who had been thrown from a cliff,

whirled in centrifuge and spat out over a waterfall that fell and fell into emptiness and emptiness

and never-quite-touched-bottom-never-never-quite-no not quite-touched-bottom ... and you fell

so fast you didn't touch the sides either ... never ... quite. . . touched . anything.” (45) The words

the author help portray a false sense of security and emptiness using repetition to emphasize the

importance the brainwashing effects of the parlor walls, a form of censorship in the book. The

author chose these particular group of words because these words help sink in the idea of the

when one is brainwashed by censorship, one has no control over oneself and anything can

happen. Censorship has destroyed the society in Fahrenheit and it is evident in the literary

elements the author uses throughout the novel.

Ray Bradbury has described the effect of censorship has on society in Fahrenheit 451.

He has taught us how to prevent this from happening in society. In conclusion, The

power of censorship is tremendous and it and it is up to one’s society prevent it from getting

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out of control in it.