Welcome Back. Now...Reflect!

With the first day back at school mere moments away, the time is right to reflect on what we've read.   

One of the most commonly made statements about Fahrenheit 451 is that it is a novel about censorship.  You'll even find such a comment on the back of the book!  However, one of the ideas Bradbury makes very clear in his novel is that censorship is not the only contributing factor in society's widespread abandonment of books.

Consider the following quotes:

Beatty: "It didn't come from the government down.  There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship to start with, no!  Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God." (p. 58)

Faber: "Good God, it isn't as simple as just picking up a book you laid down half a century ago.  Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary.  The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.  You firemen provide a circus now and then at which buildings are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it's a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line" (p. 87)

Faber: "I remember the newspapers dying like huge moths.  No one wanted them back.  No one missed them." (p. 89)

So what happened?  If censorship isn't how it started, and firemen are "rarely" needed, then why did people stop reading?

Go back to your book and revisit those conversations with Beatty and with Faber.  Think about Millie in the parlor, think about the Seashells, think about Denham's Dentifrice, and challenge yourself to truly consider why this society left books behind—and what Bradbury is trying say about the world in which we live.