Fahrenheit 451

Part A

One of the major themes that runs through Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Censorship takes on many forms; not only are characters not allowed to speak their minds openly, but they are not allowed to write about them and/or read works that oppose the governing force in the society. Often there is a direct reason for the censoring of materials, but in Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury defies this by leaving the reason open to interpretation. He seems to suggest that censorship is justified because the characters do not really care anyway. There is an incredible amount of stimulation in their society in the forms of loud, fast cars and giant, interactive televisions. Who has time to read or concentrate on important tasks? Another idea to consider when one ponders the roots of censorship in this novel is the idea of human emotion. So often we are driven by our own selfishness and our need to feel important that we neglect the needs of others. Censorship, it seems, counteracts that idea. If no one is educated due to the lack of opportunity, all persons will be on a level playing field. Censorship runs throughout the novel in order to act as an equalizer at the expense of those who truly want to better themselves through enlightenment. Censorship is the opposing force in Montag's life, and it eventually leads to the demise of Beatty. The one thing Beatty was trying to enforce, censorship, eventually led him to lose faith in himself and not care about his future.

Part B

"Beatty grinned his most charming grin. 'Well, that's one way to get an audience. Hold a gun on a man and force him to listen to your speech. Speech away. What'll it be this time? Why don't you belch Shakespeare at me, you fumbling snob...Go ahead now, you second hand litterateur, pull the trigger'...And then he was a shrieking blaze..." (Bradbury 119).

At this point in the novel, Beatty and Montag are at his home and Montag is being forced to burn his residence down for breaking the law. Rather than submit, Montag grabs the flame-thrower and turns it on Beatty, his boss. This is one of my favorite lines in the novel because it is very haunting. In most cases one would assume that the threat of being burned alive would prompt anyone to do whatever it took to stay alive. In this instance, however, the reader realizes that death is all Beatty wants. Montag realizes "Beatty wanted to die" (122). This part of the novel is used to show the reader the effects that a society can have on an individual's mind. Before becoming fire chief and before extreme censorship, Beatty had been a well-read man, illustrated by his frequent, poignant interjections of quotes from literature into his conversations. The fact that Beatty was willing to end his life because it seemed not worth living due to the conditions censorship had created is very powerful to read.

Part C

I enjoyed reading Fahrenheit 451. The novel provided a unqie look into the future and the possibilities of censorship in a real way. We are aware of the past, but it was eye opening in a good way to see that this is still possible. I also enjoyed the challenge of unraveling characters like Beatty. It's obvious his past haunts him, but how? I found the task of searching for clues very intruiging and it made the novel an easy read. One aspect I found annoying were some of the terms that were used such as parlor or wall televisions. Some were hard to comprehend, but on the whole it didn't detract from the novel in an incredibly significant way.