“Censorship causes diminished individual thought.”

1) Guy Montag meets Clarisse, who contradicts the ideas of the society that they are living in.   3) Montag realizes he is living in darkness and hasn’t really thought about what he is doing when he burns the books filled information. 5) Montag asks Mildred questions such as when and where they met. She cannot remember. 7) Montag decides to read Dover Beach outloud to Mildred and her friends, who then become very upset. 9) Montag becomes a fugitive after killing Beatty and knocking down the other firemen. As he escapes, he gives some of the books he hid to Faber.

2) Montag returns home to find Mildred collapsed from taking too many sleeping pills; he calls over a medical team to save her. 4) He later responds to a call to burn the house of a woman who is hiding books. However, she chooses instead to burn herself (and the books) using a match. 6) Montag goes to Faber’s house to discuss books, specifically the Bible,  and what he should do about wanting to keep the books. 8) He gets called in to go burn another house, only to find that out that it is in fact his house they are scheduled to burn. He later finds out that it is his wife who placed the call. 10) Once Montag reaches the river, he is no longer followed. He begins reminiscing about events in his past and notices many details about the nature around him. He also finally remembers where he met Mildred. He meets the new society which values and memorizes books and becomes part of it.

Quotes:

Part 1-

“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.

Breach man’s mind.” (pg 58)

Part 2-

“‘...the televisor is real. It is immediate,it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It rushes on you so quickly to its own conclusions, your mind hasn't time to protest,’what nonsense!’” (pg 84)

Part 3-  

“Even if she dies, I realized a                                                     

moment ago, I won’t feel sad. It isn’t right. Something must be wrong with me.” (pg 155)

“He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him.” (p. 144)

This theme is important to our understanding of the story because it showed us that the characters had their own thoughts and their own opinions but the censorship did not let them have the full individual thought they could have had.

Censorship causes diminished individual thought relates to our modern-day society because on a daily basis we stop ourselves from doing things just because somebody else could be watching or vice versa. It is important for us to study this theme because we need to realize that we all have an opinion and censorship shouldn’t stop you from doing something you believe in.