A fireman's purpose is to preserve and protect, but in Montag's society firemen destroy and dictate their society. They act as law enforcers, they censor their society from the knowledge withheld inside a book. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag seeks the truth in his society. Montags skepticism of his life and how his society performs makes him questions if the one thing he's meant to destroy has answers to the way they live. Bradbury uses juxtaposition and symbolism to portray how Montag's society is formed through censorship.
To begin, the juxtaposition of a firemen’s ideal purpose to a firemen’s purpose in Montag’s society represents law enforcement and censorship in his society. Readers discover early in the text that Montag’s society is different than our own. In their society it has a different law enforcement that enforces censorship. In Montag’s society firemen “were given a [the] new job, as custodians of their [our] peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors.” (Bradbury 56). This passage uses juxtaposition to contrast the ideal purpose of a fireman as a protector and preserver to a new purpose of being to a censor, judge, and executor. Explaining the dynamic of their society, if a law was to be broken the enforcer would be a fireman. Thus, explaining to the reader the high ranking role firemen play in forming their society. In addition, in Montag’s society a firemen’s purpose is to serve, “against the small tide of those who want everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.” (Bradbury 59) This passage uses symbolism to show what firemen in Montag’s society represents. In their society they choose firemen for their use of getting rid of something by the use of fire. Firemen in Montag’s society were given the new job to ignite and burn books, an object that withholds knowledge and stories. They give people dreams, an escape from reality, make people feel emotions, make you think, and give opposing ideas. A books gives you all the things they don’t want the people in Montag’s society to have, to know, or feel. So they burn them to censor a society from hardships, dreams, controversy, emotions, and all the things that can be provided from the profusion of ideals a book carry. Bradbury uses symbolism to show what firemen in their society stands for, they stand as a barrier between controversy and happiness. It explains why firemen were chosen as high ranking official censors, judges, and executors in their society and how they use censorship to shape their society.
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To continue, the juxtaposition of the purpose of school as an educator contrast to its purpose in Montag’s society as a mind hinder represents how schools in their society play a key role in censoring and forming Montag’s society. Clarisse tells Montag about the schools in their society and how they function: “ An hour of Tv lass, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports, but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don’t; they just run the answers at you bing,bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film teacher. That’s not social to me at all. It's a lot of tunnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us its wine when its not. They run us so ragged by the end of the day we can't do anything but go to bed or head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break window panes in the window smasher place or wreck cars in the car wrecker place with the big steel ball” (Bradbury 27). This passage uses juxtaposition to contradict the purpose of a school. In their society, they use the place of “education” as a tool to impede, control, manipulate, and manifest their minds negatively making them into selfish, anti-social, emotionless, and violent people. It explains how schools play a key role in forming their society using censorship by corrupting the people in their society’s minds by starting off with the young to develop their minds into emotionless, thoughtless people to get them to function the way they want them to. In addition, there are three things missing in Montag's society that resulted in forming of the mindsets of their people, “ Number one, [as I said] quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what they [we] learn from the interaction of the first two” (Bradbury 81). This passage uses symbolism to show how the difference in school education can impact an entire society. In Montag’s society school educators take those three missing components from their society to prevent people from thinking. Montag’s society revolves around happiness and when people think problems sprout and happiness isn't found. So they cram them with non-combustible data, so they feel brilliant and believe their thinking. They stick them in activities so they don't get the chance to digest information they receive, so they don't think. They can't carry out actions they learn of fear of punishment from firemen or from the violent tendencies of the people in their society for being indifferent. Montag's society revolves around happiness so they keep everything simple so there wouldn't be controversy, indifference, or emotions. In their society they teach them to not be indifferent, indifference brings unhappiness. They don't give them problems to solve to avoid people from thinking and giving them a range of emotions. Schools use censorship by taking out those three components to develop kids minds not to think, when you think controversy happens, emotions grow, and problems start. Therefore, explaining the major impact schools have on forming their society and how they use school as a tool to censor and shape the people's minds of their society to create a happy society.
In conclusion, Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 society is formed through censorship. Bradbury uses symbolism and juxtaposition to show how firemen and school educators censors Montag's society. Instead of being used for its original purposes Bradbury shows how two normal jobs in our society can be reformed for new purposes and make a different impact than it would as it original purposes as a preserver and educator. Through Bradbury use of literary devices readers learn, discover, and differentiate our own faults in our society.
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