Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Nick Sieb
English
December 10, 2008

Fahrenheit 451


Your life is blank and devoid of meaning; no one cares no one notices. Everything is controlled precisely, no one is thinking freely, no one is thinking for that matter. Censorship destroys everything that makes us human, and takes away all of our rights. You cannot suppress the combined power of the mind, for curiosity will always exist, and people must think for themselves. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 they try to censor everything, and people are not given the information that they need. This makes sure people do not know the severity of the issues that are affecting the country, this means they have no reason to worry, but they cannot help.

Mankind will always be curious and we have the right to know about issues that are affecting our lives. Clarisse awakens the curiosity that is laying dormant inside Montag’s mind. She wants to know the reasons why things are how they are. Curiosity is what drives mankind to make advances in technology and other fields. When Mildred overdoses on the pills, she does not even know what the pills do. She has no curiosity to find out what the pills do, or how much she has to take. Mildred is the perfect example of what will happen when we have no curiosity. She does not care, and she does not know; in short her life is just about doing the robot motions of daily life, without any passion or fulfillment. It is so obviously an irony, because mankind would never be able to live their life doing things so mechanically; life has no purpose without fun or curiosity.

Unlike Mildred, Montag realizes his ignorance and tries to change it. He becomes frustrated with other people, he knows he is right, but people are unwilling to accept the truth, because they are afraid of change. Just like the Myth of the Cave they are unwilling to accept change, for they only know how things are now and they don’t want to change them. Montag begins to see the world in a whole different dimension, and for once he actually begins thinking how things could have been better. This sort of knowledge comes as a shock to the women at Montag’s house and they call him a monster for having these intellectual thoughts. People need to voice their opinions, because everyone has a different opinion, and everyone can contribute something to society. If only one person were to think for you, and tell you everything, and you had no power to think differently everyone would be the same and passion would be gone.

Although thoughts being expressed orally is good, written books are a great way to gain intellect and stimulate thoughts in your brain. When Montag learns of the power of books he is amazed. When the woman is being burned she says “You can’t ever have my books”. He realizes that if people are willing to die rather than give up their books, then books must be pretty important, and powerful. Books teach us what we should fear, and shows the mistakes we have made. While we cannot exclude ourselves from society, you must be able to criticize things intellectually. Montag realizes that not being able to criticize society, the society will become corrupt, and you have no say in it.

Even though Montag knows that everything is turning bad, and he needs to do something; he can’t help them now. The people are mindless, and they cannot be changed. If everyone allows the government to censor what they read, people will cease to have to think about things. If everyone allows their minds to be turned to mush then the government will take over. The government wins and they control everything and everyone. Every thought is closely monitored and you cannot disagree with the governments opinions or decisions. This is the ultimate dystopia.