Censorship and Unhappiness - the Two Main Points in 'Fahrenheit 451'

If something was taken from you your whole life without true reasoning, wouldn't you want to know more about it no matter the consequences? In Fahrenheit 451 a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books in his city begins to question his task. To clearly understand the book “Fahrenheit 451” we need to make a literary analysis - that is done in this essay. Here we see a guy Montag who is a firefighter and who lives in an isolated society in the United States where books have been outlawed by the government. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 dystopian society there are many themes that are built and formed throughout the story which includes censorship and unhappiness.

In this dysfunctional society, you can see a lot of censorship because the government wants to keep all of the citizens balanced and never explore outside of the rules. When Montag is talking to Beatty, the book conversation happens. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book”. Beatty explains that books were burned if they offended people. He says it was for peace even though the authors didn't intentionally mean to do that. This quote shows how their society is censored just by being offended. It also shows how feelings matter more than the truth in society. When Montag visits Faber, he then offers another detailed perspective on why books are hated and feared. “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless'. Faber says there is life present in books, and most people are uncomfortable with how truthful books can be. This quote shows how the truthfulness of books can really bring out the inner person, the hatred most people have towards books makes such easy censorship possible. The censorship is taken to to the extreme to keep people comfortable, but it can really backfire.

In this society, you can see a lot of unhappiness because the citizens are still unable to know their true selves. A conversation between Montag and Mildred takes place after Beatty has spoken to Montag about how banning books can increase public happiness. Montag has been thinking about the question of his own happiness since Clarisse asked him if he was happy. “Did you hear Beatty? Did you listen to him? He knows all the answers. He’s right. Happiness is important. Fun is everything. And yet I kept sitting there saying to myself, I’m not happy, I’m not happy. I am.” Mildred’s mouth beamed. “And proud of it”. Montag is starting to examine his life and understands that something is missing. This quote shows how this dystopian causes people to not even express their happiness and they can't explain it because they're missing something. When Montag insists on talking about the war with Mildred’s friends, Mrs. Phelps explains the conversation she and her husband had about what would happen if one of them died. “Anyway, Pete and I always said, no tears, nothing like that. It’s our third marriage each and we’re independent. Be independent, we always said. He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don’t cry, but get married again and don’t think of me”. You can see how the relationships in this society are so disconnected. This quote shows how disconnected even married couples are so awkward and different compared to our customs. Like Montag and Mildred not being able to remember how they met, or the use of separate beds, Mrs. Phelps demonstrates that people seem to coexist rather than nurture relationships.

In conclusion, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 dystopian society there are many themes that are built throughout the story which includes two that are very important. The two main points were censorship and unhappiness. This entire novel shows how in human nature we are very curious when something is taken from and we will look in further no matter what.