Thursday, November 29, 2012

What is textual evidence of censorship/ book banning in Fahrenheit 451?

In the opening paragraph, the narrator describes Montag's joy in burning books: 



He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning. 



In his first conversation with Clarisse, she asks Montag if he's ever read any of the books he's burned. He laughs and replies, "That's against the law!" He goes on, saying, "It's fine work. Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official slogan." 


In a later conversation with Beatty, Montag expresses how the firemen would feel if they had books and if someone burned those books. Beatty responds that they have no books and then asks Montag if he has some. Montag says "No" and then he "gazed beyond them to the wall with the typed lists of a million forbidden books." 


Montag is particularly affected by the woman who chooses to burn with her books. In describing the traumatic event to Millie, he bluntly says, "We burned a thousand books. We burned a woman." After this, Montag becomes more and more curious about books. 


In a later discussion, Beatty notes that if a fireman does dare to take a book, the firemen give him twenty-four hours to satisfy his curiosity and then burn the book. If he doesn't, the firemen will come and burn it for him. 


There are many other references to the practice of book banning and burning in this novel. Look at discussion between Montag and Faber, Montag and Beatty, and other descriptions in which the narrator describes how the society is oppressed. 

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