Fahrenheit 451
(Ray Bradbury)

Censorship

In Bradbury’s world, books are outlawed. As a fireman, Montag burns illegal books and the houses in which they are found. A variety of factors led up to this government control. As population explodes, more groups of minorities develop, taking issue with literature that offends them. In addition, television and radio provide entertainment requiring less concentration and intellectual work. Information overload also played a role in people retreating to their parlor rooms. Ultimately, Bradbury says, the people invited censorship by deciding to not read books. Books became briefer until they disappeared altogether. Only when the people stopped reading did the government forbid them.

Suicide

After her overdose, technicians arrive to pump Mildred’s stomach. It is a common occurrence, they say dispassionately, smoking cigarettes. The firemen mention that one poor soul programmed the mechanical hound to hunt his own chemical balance, resulting in a gruesome suicide. Later, Captain Beatty does not fight Montag’s threats of murder, leading Montag to presume Beatty wanted to die. And in a key moment of the novel, a woman uses her own match to burn herself with her books rather than give up her illegal library. In a society that caters to universal happiness, for many in the novel, the happiness proves to be empty.

Technology

At the Montag home, Mildred watches television that spans three walls. She bugs Montag to spring for a fourth. The walls even allow her to interact with characters. If she is not watching television, she has “Seashell Radios” stuffed in her ears. Faber gives Montag a similar invention that allows two-way communication. Cars drive at extraordinary speed. The mechanical hound hunts and demolishes its prey programmed to target a specific scent. Bradbury’s world, created in the 1950s, includes many examples of advanced technology. He highlights the negative consequences of technology, culminating in the destruction of the city by bombardment.

Television

In Bradbury’s world, television has replaced intellectual thought and meaningful, personal relationships. Mildred watches television constantly and refers to the characters as “family”. She cares more about these relatives than Montag, whom she shows little love. Montag tells Faber that television “is real” for Mildred. “It tells you what to think and blasts it in,” he says. The rise of television led to the censorship of books because the people chose television over books. In that decision, the people chose a more superficial world as television provides only “factoids”, leaving more complex concepts unearthed.

Anti-Intellectualism

Faber is an out-of-work professor due to lack of interest in the liberal arts. He is an outcast, as is Granger and Clarisse. Beatty recalls the high school days of hating on the smart kid. The sediment becomes policy, as intellectual “snobs” are closely watched by the government. According to Beatty, “the word intellectual became the swear word it deserved to be.” No one wants to be made to feel less intelligent, and, therefore, firemen serve as “custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior,” says Beatty.

Happiness

At the end of their first meeting, Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy. Puzzled by the question, he returns home to find his wife has overdosed. What at first seems like a ridiculous question takes on new meaning for Montag. Society’s main motive for state-sponsored censorship is to keep everyone happy and unoffended. However, with suicide so common, it is evident that the happiness is not genuine. In a world where the people have institutionalized the idea of “ignorance is bliss”, anyone who would challenge this is seen as impending on happiness and is disposed.

Political Correctness

Beatty explains the origin of censorship to Montag. As population explodes, so do the minority groups, who take offense to anything that fails to put them in a less than positive light. “Don’t step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants....,” Beatty says. In his coda added to the 1979 paperback edition, Bradbury retaliates against those recommending he change his books to fit a more politically correct vision. “There is more than one way to burn a book,” he writes. “And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”

Death

Most of the characters in the book die. Clarisse falls victim to a speeding car. Montag murders Beatty. The old woman burns herself rather than give up her books. Most of the other characters are presumed dead when the city is leveled. Beyond the physical deaths lies the paradox of living. At one point, Montag reflects on the irony of referring to the room with the television as the “living room”. Montag gradually comes to believe the emptiness of life has led to a society of the walking dead, lacking the deep relationships and meaning required to feel alive.

Programming

The mechanical hound is programmed to hunt its prey based on chemical disposition. Montag speculates as to whether the robot likes him. “It doesn’t like or dislike. It just functions,” says Beatty. “It doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think.” The government exercises similar control over the people. For example, no one talks about the war. Mrs. Phelps does not worry about her solider husband because the President insists the coming battle will be a quick victory. Such programming is made easier when everyone is distracted with entertainment, mainly television programming.

Distraction

When Montag speaks to Mildred, she never gives him her full attention. Her mind is always at least partially devoted to the television or radio. The people of this society are constantly being distracted from reality and are tricked into thinking that the entertainment is “real”. When Montag tries to read a book on the subway, he struggles to block out the commercial jingle playing over the speaker system. In this world, constant, loud stimulation makes it nearly impossible to concentrate. This way, the people are not thinking about more important things, such as the impending war or the infringements on freedom.