Fahrenheit 451 Theme Analysis

Most people have some understanding of obedience; however, many can fail to see the purpose and the effect of it in their own lives and in our world. Censorship is one of the major themes in Fahrenheit 451, and its impact is shown through obedience in appearance, behavior and thought. This helps us to draw similar relationships between Ray Bradbury‘s novel and our current world.

The connection between appearance and “social acceptance” is already in our lives today. In order to achieve “societal normal” we wish to look and act like our friends, and celebrities we see daily. As a result, censorship in appearance has become a common example of “obedience” today. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag realizes that a major part of being socially accepted

as a fireman is to be accepted through appearance. Montag sees this fact by how people treat the firmen, to how they treat everyday normal people. The belief that “physical” beauty is more valuable than what's inside, is a very normal habit throughout the world. Especially in school, and those people make others feel worthless, or not as important. And as a result we may often feel the need to accept the standards of your outside looks, rather than focusing on the value of our gifts and talents, and what's inside.

Change of behavior is another bad habit found in our society today. But, in Fahrenheit 451 Beatty describes changing to the needs of others, as a positive aspect of society. He argues that change in behavior prevents violence and jealousy by limiting the gifted and talented people from their ability to succeed, which is good in a way because then others won‘t feel bad. The real problem in the situation Beatty describes, is not the “higher” bright child but the people who submit to it. This situation occurs often in our society today. People who choose not to change, or be accepted may be harassed by the groups of people who do follow into the censorship, which can result in arguments, and bad habts.

In this way we see that Bradbury’s portrayal of censorship in behavior is similar to the way we conform in our society, illustrating yet another fundamental connection between Fahrenheit 451 and our world today.

Because of the democracy in which we live, we are free to hold any opinions we wish and we feel pride in ourselves on our right to freely say these opinions by talking and making announcements in the daily news and also on the television.

However, we often find that although we have the right to think freely we often choose instead to take upon the opinions of the others. Thus, one of the most prominent examples of conformity in our society today lies within thought.

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury sees a futuristic society in which this submission of thought is highly valued.

In the novel, the fire captain Beatty strongly believes that every person must think alike; for conflict and unhappiness only arise when differences are perpetuated. There may be some truth to Beatty’s claim that conflicting theory and thought creates unhappiness and discomfort within a society (again when Beatty was saying the uselessness of books). One example of this is the strong pressure from our culture and some factions of government to be “politically correct”. As a somewhat ordinary remedy for the cruel intolerance of minorities, our society has created a system of thought in which we must exhibit ultimate acceptance of persecuted groups. The pressure to be politically correct can be so strong that any opinion that does not suggest an underlying discrimination but which is conveyed to the public in a “politically incorrect” manner is considered socially unacceptable. Those who communicate their non-negotiable thoughts may be viewed as immoral and dishonest. Through the strong pressure to be “politically correct” we see that conformity of thought remains in our society and parallels Bradbury’s portrayal of the theme in Fahrenheit

451.

“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way,“ a man said the previous quote and this quote was placed in the beginning of the novel. Obviously selected to create awareness of Bradbury’s principal theme. By choosing this quote, Bradbury reaffirms that the purpose of the novel was to encourage independent thought and create a basic awareness of the submission found in our world. This conformity is illustrated through appearance, behavior and thought both in the novel and in our society today.

Also some people think that with the knowledge of books and other references they are somewhat superior than others and that is why Beatty claims that books should be burned with no restriction. On the other hand if it weren’t for people like Dr. Nash, Einstein and others we wouldn’t have the technology and intelligence we have today.

Why do you think that the books were allowed to be burned in the novel? Because of the ignorance of humanity. We humans wish for everything to be as simple and with the least effort possible, that’s why we don’t like to learn, we want everything to be as simple as it can be among others.

In conclusion, censorship is found in many ways throughout our world and if we keep up our discrimination of people, the censorship in our world, submission into conformity, etc. We will wind up on the world Bradbury portrays in his novel.