In Farenheit 451 the citizens allowed the
government the freedom to burn books, they did this by not speaking out at
the initiation of such actions. Faber tells Montag "I said nothing. I'm
one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would
listen to the 'guilty', but I did not speak and thus became 'guilty'
myself" (Bradbury 82). When good citizens quail in the face of attempted
censorship, then censorship will thrive. Without the knowledge blocked by
the censors, the citizenry will flounder under the thumb of oppression.
The characters in the book who meet Montag after his escape from the city
know this is true. Granger, one of the leaders of the group tells Montag,
"All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think...
The message seems to be that ultimately such
censorship will lead to the entire downfall of a society and this is
starkly evidenced by events in the book observed by Montag, and it takes
just one sentence. Bradbury writes, "Montag saw the flirt of a great metal
fist over the far city and he knew the scream of the jets that would
follow, would say, after the deed, disintegrate, leave no stone on another,
perish. Die" (158). With those words, society is obliterated.
Works Cited
Anderson, Ron. "Movie Censorship and American Culture", Journal of American
Culture, 30.3 (2005): 349 - 350
Bradbury, Ray. Farenheit 451. New York: The Random House Publishing Group,
1953
