Censorship in Fahrenheit 451
Text Support
"I'm antisocial, they say. I don't mix. It's so strange.
I'm very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean
by social, doesn't it? Social to me means talking to you
about things like this."
"Authors, full of evil thought, lock up your typewriters. They did."
"We must all be alike. Each man the image of every
other; then they are all happy."
Personal Connection
Growing up, you censor what shows
your children can watch because you
believe they are too young to be
watching/learning about that.
Jobs make you wear strict uniforms
because they want us all to look the
same.
One of my schools made it a
requirement that all tattoos be
covered and gave a piercing
requirement. This was because
the school had an "image" to keep
up with.
Entertainment Connection
A university in Kansas was
threatening to remove a student's
art because it was deemed a "desecration
of the flag"
A well-renowned oil painter in Maine had
his 3 pieces removed from a gallery due to
a wrongful conviction of sexual offenses from
his past.
Any detainees residing in Guantanamo Bay
is not allowed to bring back any art that has
been created while being held.
Science/Health Connection
Climate change research has been
censored and restricted at times
due to the fact that the government
does not want it to be fully public yet
Stem Cell research was censored
and could not be continued in 2008.
This protest went so far as to bring
the first Amendment of the Constitution
into question.
Quotables
"Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence
in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian
regime." -Potter Stewart
"Wherever they burn books they will also,
in the end, burn human beings." -Heinrich Heine
"No passion in the world is equal to
the passion to alter someone else's
draft." -H.G. Wells
Literary Conection
In Shakespeare, there are instance
where words were changed around
and the sexual components of Romeo
and Juliet was nonexistent.
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
is a very popular example of censorship
because that novel has been altered
many times to remove the "n-word" and
has been replaced with "slave" instead.
In Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms",
it it known for his colorful language of
cussing. This novel has been censored
by replacing those cuss words simply
with dashes!
Historical Connection
With censorship, comes retaliation.
This is depicted in the book through the
various wars mentioned and the bombings.
North Korea is seen to have the most
extreme censorship in the world.
Political Connection
People have always feared the government is
listening in on our conversations and basically
all forms of communication.
America does not have a censorship that
requires us to act a certain way or not
post/talk about specific things.
Even though we have
laws that explain right
and wrong, that is not
the same as this book's
society.