Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis

All throughout history, many political leaders have wanted total control- some have even gotten full power, to feel everyone else beneath them. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the government bans books to stop critical thinking, reflection, in order to gain power over its citizens. Technology ultimately replaces books, and people remain ignorant to the dictatorship in society. In Animal Farm, a novel, by George Orwell, after getting rid of the intolerable humans, the pigs take over the farm; however, end up worse leaders than the humans. In both works, authorities use manipulation strategies and feed lies to the population, which results in total control over the ignorant and unsuspecting citizens. Primarily, the use of propaganda …show more content…
In both literary works, there are two major characters who are seen justifying the horrifying actions of government, and convincing other citizens to promote the poor leadership as well. To illustrate, Squealer, a character from Orwell’s allegory novel, is described as a sly pig who could take unpleasant realities and turn them into delicious lies, when called “a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side, and whisking his tail… he could turn black into white” (Orwell 16). Throughout the story, he justifies the pigs’ actions for becoming more and more like the evil humans they had overthrown previously. Squealer also traps the animals into doing all the hard work to attain glory for the farm, while the pigs lay on their backs living in luxury and doing no work with his persuasive tactics. Beatty, a character parallel to Squealer in the novel Fahrenheit 451, also rationalizes the government’s actions in a conversation with Guy Montague, “Colored people do not like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people do not feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it.” (Bradbury 57). This demonstrates Beatty’s justification for public safety, when in reality these priceless pieces of literature are meant to encourage the public to challenge authority, and to stand up for what you believe in. It also stops critical thinking and reflection of society. Both antagonistic characters are in favor of the governments, and rationalize their actions-making excuses for

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