Fahrenheit 451?!?

Question

okay, so I had to read Fahrenheit 451 for my honors class over the summer, and the teacher wants me to write an essay on how the book relates to censorship. but i'm confused about the meaning of it? so if any of you have read this book..can someone please help?!
thanks :]]

Answer 1

haha read this book for honors English too!

Okay so basically the whole 451 society is censored because they don't want these people to think...so the government even the branches as little as the fire department, stop any form of free thinking. They don't want people to read because they believe that opens the mind up to think free thoughts to ruin the government's control. So they burn books, get rid of educational shows, and erase any trace that free thinking was ever accepted. They replace all this with new technology and laws that forbid people to think and be free. They are controlling what people think and do basically. You're teacher will also probably wanna hear that Ray Bradbury did an amazing job of predicting somewhat of what the future would be like, take into consideration this was written in like the 1920's or 40's or something like that. Bring up the virtual TVs and blue-tooth headset like phones these people had. Also bring up that fact that the government and entertainment industry can pretty much control you and limit what you see and don't see. They advertise, we want it, they ban it, we think it's horrible to have it. They burn books to keep people from having an opinion...that's the main point of censorship in the book. Good luck!

Answer 2

So does this question mean you did not read the book, or does it mean that you have not read much satire or science fiction so you are out of your depth?

This book is science fiction, satire, and popular among some in academia. Because this book is fiction, I don't think Politics / Law & Ethics is the best place to post this question. More appropriate might be
* Education / General
* Arts & Humanities / Books
* Entertainment / General
although I do not see a good place for science fiction in Yahoo Answers (SF encompasses Science, Fantasy, Literature, Movies, Games, Music)

Farenheit 451 is the temperature at which books burn.
In our world, firemen are people who put out fires.
It the novel, firemen are people who burn books, because in that society people are not allowed to have books, magazines, Internet, any kind of information other than that which is provided by the state.

Depending on how old you are, you might not yet be watching the news, reading newspaper, knowing aboult multiple sources, original sources. Well in that world, there is no news, newspaper, phone friends, e-mail, etc. because people are not allowed to get any information other than what the government wants them to know. Plus, you not allowed to write anything down ... if the government changes the official story, they not want you to remember the old story.

It is similar to the Former Soviet Union when if anyone was caught with a typewriter, that was treason, they could be executed, because no one was allowed to publish anything independently from the state.

There is something like that going on in China right now, where companies with Internet connections can only do business in China if they block stuff that the state does not approve of. If some people in say a cyber cafe' manage to get around the censorship, the ISP is required to turn them into the state, then they got to jail and the key is thrown away.

Or it is similar to Nazi Germany, where they burned books that said anything contrary to the Nazi philosophy ... they also burned people, who they thought were of no value to the state.

Your teacher probably does not want to hear comparisons to Politically Correct in Academia where people can get in trouble for expressing thoughts that are contrary to what the schools are trying to teach or inculcate.

It may be acceptable to your teacher for you to make a parallel to the news media, in which today it is all owned by big corporations. We get to hear bad stuff being done by hollywood airheads and ordinary people, but we dont get to hear about bad stuff being done by big business, until they collapse like some scandals, plus they are closing their foreign correspondent offices so when something bad happens in rest of world, we only learn what is happening right now, not how it got that way.

All the blogosphere, and academia is people opinions, and info based on other people opinions, no real research, so it is very easy for a few news media conglomerates to control what we never get to hear.

Answer 3

One think no one has mentioned so far is the response to censorship in the book. A group of people preserved large volumes of literature by memorizing entire volumes. Once a person memorized a book, their duty in life was to transfer the knowledge to the next generation.

Answer 4

I'm going to have to reread it this summer (after 35 years). All I can tell you is that you might think about the parallels to the political situation here in the USA right now, especially as it pertains to the government taking away our civil rights in the name of "national security."

Answer 5

Sorry the only thing I can remember is that paper burns at 451 degrees.