F451 - Question Five

Seeing that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is set in the future, somewhere around the twenty fourth century, its hard to say how this novel reflects history of that time period since it has not yet been lived.  There are some very intriguing social issues within this setting.  The people have been stripped of their personalities, and are essentially being brainwashed day by day.  This story reminds me a lot of A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It is also reminiscent of Anthem by Ayn Rand, all being science fiction novels.  The characters set in this novel are very bland.  They lack some key human emotions which give someone their personality because the government has taken it away.  Like in A Brave New World, it is much 'easier' to live in this society.  There is peace and hardly any fighting. The characters lack the explanations behind their emotions.  Since they are unexplained, they imagine as if they never occurred in the fist place. Like when Guy's wife tried to commit suicide(Bradbury), she acted as if nothing occurred simply because she had no valid explanation of those emotions in her memory. I think the biggest thematic significance would have to be what censorship can do to a single person, and to society as a whole.  It can really destroy and completely deteriorate the human mind.  By burning books, this society is getting overshadowed by deceit from the government, and they are basically being put out in the dark at the expense of the governments stupidity.  This is all because this is supposed to make life easier, or some form of simplicity is supposed to happen.  Any simplification really causes a few problems for someone along the way.  Maybe not in math problems, but in real life, it can be an issue. I think the biggest issue is that censorship is happening today and if we do not keep a close eye on it, it could get out of control.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print.