Fahrenheit 451 Conformity Essay

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury portrays a society with the absence of thought, complete conformity through the use of propaganda, and a disregard for one another. In the story, a city exists some time in the future and makes it illegal to own and read books. The city hires firemen to torch buildings containing the illegal contraband even if there are still people inside the structures. The citizens in the community line up around the “heroic” firemen and applaud the men whenever they save them from the “disgusting content of books” which confuses them by debating theories, methods, and histories that are widely held in the society. Bradbury writes this book to demonstrate the dangers of conformity and thoughtlessness in society. Bradbury’s book ridicules all forms of censorship and makes it clear …show more content…
The city in the Fahrenheit 451 begins its dissent into a thoughtless society through the promulgation of the media. The same opinions were continually repeated by the media, and with no conflicting thoughts or ideas, there is nothing else to believe. The United States and other developed countries are in the beginning stages of this. News networks like the Cable News Network (CNN) discuss the same ideas show after show. Other countries like China North Korea are even closer to compete censorship because of the many laws and regulations they have on the internet. With all the regulations, China has a low ranking in the Index of Press Freedom (IPF) with a rank of 175 out of 180 countries (Xu 1). The freedom of press is important because it will help keep society from becoming thoughtless. The reason for Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 is to demonstrate the dangers of censorship. Censorship leads civilization to a place of no wonder or reason. People begin to conform and unique cultures, histories, and ideas are lost. Through the use of censorship, a society of compete conformity can