Jimmy Culberson
Introduction To Literature
Michele Domenech
April 28, 2008
Censorship and Control
“It was the hand that started it all . . . His hands had been infected, and soon it
would be his arms . . . His hands were ravenous.” (Cheng & Gatten “Quotations”)
Montag had an instinctive hunger for the pursuit of knowledge, and desired to be unique.
This is not unlike many people of today. However, just like in the novel Fahrenheit 451
there is still many areas were one could easily make general comparisons to the novel and
today’s society.
In the collage, titled Censorship and Control, (see file: introlitfinalproject.jpg) I
have illustrated 9 examples that portray a sense of censorship and control in today’s
society. In the upper left this image is what I primary perceive as today’s form of control.
Where as in the novel control is managed through the burning of books and enforcement
of set ideals, today it is my opinion control is maintained by the suppression of ideas.
Such as any idea or academic principle that is in conflict with the belief of the general
population or certain minorities. The next image of blacked out lines of text goes along
with this form of control. Ideas can be suppressed in many ways, such blacking out text
that is deemed to be either classified or controversial, or removing certain lines of text
entirely from any form or recorded history. Today, we may not have the general practice
of burning books, but what would be different of this from blacking out certain text? The
truth is always the truth, and anything that was once written will always remain in one
form or another. Perhaps the text could survive in the memory of the original author, or
someone who was told second-hand. A similar approach was taken in the novel.
Granger explains that they are part of a network of thousands of people all over
the country who have bits and pieces of different books stored within their
memories. (Cheng & Gatten “Burning Bright”)
The next picture in the sequence is that of a woman in front of the TV. Just like Montag’s
wife she appears to be completely taken in by what she is witnessing. She also appears to
be drained and emotionless to the image on the TV. This is exactly like Montag’s wife
Mildred and many people today in the world.
[Mildred] suffers from a hidden melancholy that she refuses to accept consciously
and that causes her to commit suicide. This same type of repressed inner pain
affects much of the population of this world, manifesting itself in self-destructive
acts. (Cheng & Gatten “Burning Bright”)
Censorship and control of ideas is most notably done through the use of television
programming and advertisements. Faber tells Montag…
Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have
quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book
has pores. (Cheng & Gatten “Quotations”)
This is still very true today. The reality TV shows of today lack the meaning that Faber
was referring to, meaning that is found in abundance in a good book. It’s possible, just
like in the novel, that over time people become so used to being censored and controlled
that their lives become meaningless.
Beatty says that “minorities” and special-interest groups found so many things in
books objectionable that people finally abandoned debate and started burning
books. (Cheng & Gatten “The Hearth and the Salamander”)
Today people are constantly in disagreement on various topics; this disagreement could
even eventually lead to war, so the scene in the next picture, of people burning books,
may not be such a far-fetched idea that books could be burnt to appease the masses. In the
next picture the fire on the book “symbolizes both blatant heresy and divine presence.”
(Cheng & Gatten “Themes, Motifs & Symbols”) Books can be taken many different
ways; sometimes the words can be burned into one’s consciousness. Causing one
person’s ideas to become another’s belief, thus another form of control. To censor one’s
beliefs you would have to remove all forms of influence and persuasions, or just flood
everyone with the same persuasions causing people to conform to the same standards,
ideals, and beliefs. One example of this today is the theory of evolution. It is such a
commonly taught fact that man evolved over millions of years, and originally from apes,
like the one in the collage, as opposed to originating from Adam and Eve, that idea of
creationism is thought of as being absurd, and only believed by those that lack educated
understanding. The picture of the bible in chains is a great symbolism of this belief. In
many educational institutions and academic environments the teachings and facts that the
bible portrays is simply considered to be fiction. A great example of censorship today is
the removal of the Ten Commandments from the courts. I would compare removal of
certain texts to the burning of the books in the novel, the end result and effect is the same.
Censorship and control can also lead to war like the picture of the military and
prisoners of war. In Fahrenheit 451 Montag’s society is also at war, much like our own.
War is, however, welcomed by some as a means to begin again. “Granger compares
mankind to a phoenix rising again and again from its own ashes.” (Cheng & Gatten
“Burning Bright”) Could this be our end? Anything is possible. Books are the tangle form
of ideas that are recorded for all to see. These ideas should be kept alive so that mankind
can avoid such a fate as conceived by Bradbury, and prevent such a place were
censorship and control rein supreme in a close-minded society.
Works Cited
Cheng, Wendy and Gatten, Brian. SparkNote: Fahrenheit 451: Burning Bright
(continued). 1 May. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/section10.rhtml >.
Cheng, Wendy and Gatten, Brian. SparkNote: Fahrenheit 451: Important Quotations
Explained. 1 May. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/quotes.html>.
Cheng, Wendy and Gatten, Brian. SparkNote: Fahrenheit 451: The Hearth and the
Salamander (continued). 1 May. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/
451/section5.rhtml >.
Cheng, Wendy and Gatten, Brian. SparkNote: Fahrenheit 451: Themes, Motifs &
Symbols. 1 May. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ 451/themes.rhtml >.
NOTE: I was unsure how to cite my sources from an audio version of the book I
purchased from iTunes. As a result, I took all my citations from Sparknotes.