The 50’s presents a difficult time in America, where there is sense of disconnection and lost hope. Many races are fighting for freedom, the aftermath of World War 2, and the economy was still trying to grow after the great recession of 1939. Ray Bradbury’s book, Fahrenheit 451, is a story I feel connects his time with the possibly of foreseeing the future. This story takes place in the twenty-fourth century. We get introduced to a man named Guy Montag. A fireman, but not the one that would save fires, instead, he burns books that were outlawed, as well as people’s homes that had the books in it. Montag would go through numerous tragedies before he realizes there’s more to life than what they were taught. …show more content…
Could they be right? Is this the ultimate plan to control us? By taking the most powerful weapon we possess, our minds, by dumbing us down? The world couldn’t handle if everybody could think for themselves, and if someone was to figure it out, they would tell us to disregard what their saying, insinuating they are crazy. Just like Clarisse, who saw the world different than everybody else. I felt the government didn’t want people to know about their history and where they came from. I came to this point by analyzing some of the character’s actions and dialogue. They seem brainwashed and robotic, much like Captain Betty and Montag. Coupled with the burning of books, there’s cause to think the government was keeping something away from them. One of the books that were outlawed was the Bible. This means there were no religions. Throughout history, religion has always been a great opponent to the government, and If they censored religious books, then nobody would believe in anything but the government, making it very easy to control people. We’re not quite there just yet, but we do see religion becoming less and less significant to people. We know there is plenty of important things the government doesn’t tell us. The symbolic part of this assumption that the government is bad, come from the very books they are censoring. The past does …show more content…
Some people would say there’s no way our world could ever be like theirs. We have technology that surpasses them, and we are free of government, allowing us to be independent, something they didn’t have. The characters had no empathy much like the 40’s and the 50’s. In the 40’s across the sea, Germany’s government was very controlling, and if somebody was different, they were arrested or worse, death. I watch a few clips from Fahrenheit 451 movie that came out in 1966, to help me put a face to the characters. Montag was dress up in military style clothes. The black suits, and black boots were very close to what the Nazis would wears. Maybe Germany style fueled Bradbury to create Captain Betty character and the way the government was ran. Furthermore, knowing that books played a substantial factor in people’s lives back then, Bradbury was showing that era what could happen if they didn’t read books and how not reading gives them limited knowledge. In today’s world, books are very close to being dead and buried, with the web taking its place. So, I would argue that the prophecy of the book could be true. Bradbury might of saw this happening. We know nobody house is getting burned down but ever since our lives were taken over by technology, we have overlooked books. Information is at the tip of our fingers, allowing us to never pick books up again. Censorship on the web is