A Review of Fahrenheit 451 - Essay Example

This point is brought home when there is a nuclear war that happens to Mildred and others, that nobody really knew was coming, because nobody was reading anything and staying informed. The television shows which were on tv in this alternative world were not informative at all – the entertainment on the TV is considered to be insipid and as having no depth. Therefore, even though Montag tries to talk to Mildred and her friends, it is difficult to do, as they are not interested in much of anything and only have trivial knowledge about the world and politics.

So, since the people are not aware of what is going on, the government is able to do what they want to the people, and the people are not going to protest and try to stop it, because they do not know that it is about to happen. That was the point of showing the advent of the nuclear bomb at the end of the book – this shows what happens when people are not allowed to read.This is one of the themes. Another theme, of course, is the dangers of censorship. There seems to be issues with today's society, where there is censorship going on in places.

Individuals want books taken off of school shelves because the content of the books are deemed not suitable for their children to read. Which is all well and good, except that they don't want other children to read these books either, which is not good. A parent may decide for him or herself that a certain book isn't suitable for the individual child, but this is not what they want. They want the books to be off-limit to all. Bradbury obviously does not believe in this practice, and he shows the books burning.

Censorship is related to not knowing what is going on, and it is not difficult to imagine why this would be so. Because, the fact of the matter is, there is going to be content that is objectionable to somebody or another, because there is going to be aspects of life which are objectionable. But, if one shuts their eyes to what is objectionable, then the people will shut their eyes to all that is bad in the world. This, too, will result in the government being able to do what they want to the people.

So, this is how censorship is bad for society, and Bradbury captures this perfectly. Therefore, the two major themes, which are related, were the dangers of censorship and the dangers of apathy. Apathy came from censorship, in part, but one gets the feeling that Mildred and her friends would be apathetic even if there wasn't censorship. Which brings the review to another aspect of Bradbury's tale which was effective, and that was characterization. Each of the characters represented some kind of archetype that would exist in such a dystopian future.

They represent aspects of society which exist now in some form. Mildred and her friends, for instance, are representative of the apathetic people in society. The ones who do not care currently what is going on around them, but will memorize every episode of something insipid on television. These people are legion, really, and this is what Mildred and her friends represent. Montag represents the individuals in society who try to observe law and order, but fail to do so, because the law is unjust.

Montag is a fireman, who sets fire to books, which means that he was a part of the problem. Yet, he also was questioning, and eventually was the one who tries to buck society. He's active in doing this, so he represents the