Censorship In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 shows us how censorship can go too far. In this novel, it is in the future where books, whether for knowledge or entertainment have been banned by the government. The government uses censorship of these mediums to control the public by limiting what kind of input the community has. This theme is shown by the settings, the characters, and with symbols.

The settings in the novel really convey the theme by showing how the society is controlled by the government. Take for instance the main character; Montag's house. In the house the tv's are huge and take up whole walls. These are depicted like this to show how much importance a tv is to the lives of these futuristic people. Mildred, his wife, is consumed with this medium. There are tv's all over the house almost as if it is mandatory. The houses of this time are filled with any medium that the government can use to regulate its citizens's access to
In old mythology the phoenix dies by fire and from its ashes it is born a new. The comparison is who human beings have made so many mistakes they have simply burnt themselves to the ground and that with this humanity can be reborn and can learn from its past mistakes so history can't repeat itself. The way the author shows the theme is that if books are kept, it allows humans to learn the lessons of prior tragedies, which allows humans to remember the suffering and will avoid their failure in the future.

These three literary elements help show the theme of Fahrenheit 451. The theme of censorship. How awful it is. How it can destroy mankind. The settings, the characters, and the symbols, all play an important roll in this. The phoenix, to me, is what I would call the most important and best element in showing this. Explaining how books allow us to learn from history, so we don't make the same mistake