Fahrenheit 451 Research Paper

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Fahrenheit 451: A Critique on Society During the Holocaust, Nazis burned books that went against their ideologies in an attempt to indoctrinate their beliefs into society. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, was passionate about writing from a very young age. He began a career in writing after he was rejected from the military during World War II due to poor eyesight. He wrote and published short science-fiction stories in fanzines. The idea of Fahrenheit 451 was born when he published a short story called The Fireman, and was asked to extend it so it could be published as a novel. The story is set in a futuristic dystopian society where the government has banned all books and essentially brainwashes its citizens. The main conflict is when the protagonist, Guy Montag, begins to see the value in literature and disagrees with book burning even though he is a fireman, someone who is supposed to burn books. …show more content…

Throughout the novel, Bradbury uses his storytelling to address major societal issues such as censorship, war, and totalitarianism. Additionally, censorship is a major issue in our society that is addressed in the novel. In the story and in the real world, a group of people decide to censor information as they see fit, restricting the awareness and literacy of the general public. Captain Beatty is the fire chief and the antagonist in the story. He stated, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it down. White people don’t like Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it down. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping. Burn the book.” (57). Like people burn books in this story, people ban books in reality. They justify banning the books for reasons such as it being “offensive”. When they do this, they are limiting the knowledge of people, whether or not that is their

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