Week 15 - Challenging My Book

[Hana Izuka]

It was very hard to find who challenged Fahrenheit 451. The only real case I could find was one in the Mississippi School District where a parent complained that the book had words like, ''goddamnit'. Others would also say that they would ban it for the language. But in most part, people probably wanted the book banned because it showed a negative future for us. The books talks about how we might be censored in the future and how the 'firemen' are trying to control the people in this way. Some say that it shows us as a stupid America, my generation, where no one talks to listen. They talk to make noise, to show they are present, but not to discuss important factors of society. This is exactly what society is like today. If you look around you, everyone is listening to their ipods, not thinking, only trying to escape. Bradbury clearly states that the book was only trying to say that television is rotting the minds of the young, but politicians and others, like parents, are saying that the book is undermining their choice to censor things and to keep people oblivious.