Arguably, the moral lesson of Fahrenheit 451 is that censorship not only stifles learning and creativity, it also makes people miserable. We see this in Part One through the relationship between Montag and Clarisse. She is a non-conformist and creative individual who makes Montag realize that his happiness is little more than an illusion. She does this (unknowingly) by encouraging him to question the world and its rules. The result of this reflective practice is transformative on Montag:
He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other.
Similarly, we see the relationship between censorship and unhappiness through the character of Mildred. She busies herself with the television and her seashell radio but, deep down, she is miserable, as we see through her suicide attempt in Part One. Furthermore, her reluctance to accept the overdose demonstrates her unwillingness to deal with her emotions. Through Mildred, Bradbury suggests that censorship can never bring true contentment and happiness: at the end of the novel, for instance, Mildred realizes her emptiness as she meets her demise in a hotel room:
She was her own face reflected there…and it was such a wildly empty face, all by itself in the room, touching nothing, starved and eating of itself.
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