Censorship

            
             In Fahrenheit 451, as in society today, censorship has completely destroyed originality and intelligence throughout the country. Whether you are listening to music or reading a book, newspaper, magazine you will come across something that has been censored. Censorship has evolved from getting a slap on the wrist for certain four letter words to getting fired for telling someone what color the people are in the vicinity. In some ways censorship is good, but in other ways it's gone too far. Censorship in the United States, like in Fahrenheit 451, prohibits people from hearing all the facts, puts limits on one's creativity and expressions, and conforms different works to make it all sound the same. .
             In Fahrenheit 451, all the people are the same in every aspect of life. In order to insure equality, to keep from offending others, firemen destroy knowledge in books. Everyone drives fast cars and watches flat televisions while not taking time to express themselves or learn anything new because they are not allowed to. People were prohibited from learning about the past or the present except through forms of broadcasting which was obviously censored. Beatty says, "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal" (89). In the United States, censorship relates to this by keeping people from hearing all the facts. For example, if something gang related happens in a populated neighborhood, the city may not broadcast it in order to keep people quiet and to keep people from worrying. This could be harmful to people that are unaware of gang activity in their local area. .
             In the Winter 1996 issue of The Alan Review, the author of one column, Suzanne Fisher Staples, stated that many books, including classics, are being banned from school libraries because of frequent use of foul language or because the protagonist is displayed as a rebel, etc.