Why Fahrenheit 451 should not be banned from school?

Essay by tennisnick12High School, 11th gradeA, October 2007

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Dear School Board,I hope that after careful consideration and thought that the board will decide not to ban Fahrenheit 451. I understand that the book contains language that might be offensive to some people. Still, I do not think a student should be sent to a public school if they are easily offended by profanity. Fahrenheit 451 should not be banned, because profanity is already commonplace in school, it has educational content, and the book shows some scary revelations of the future.

I think that banning the book, because of profanity would be very ironic. There is an excessive amount of profanity used in public school. So parents should not send their kids to public schools if they have a problem with profanity. Also the irony of wanting to ban a book that shows a world of censorship. “Colored people don’t like the Little Black Sambo,” so get rid of it.

But if this were to happen with every book that one group of people doesn’t like millions of the books would need to be banned. Everybody is trying not to “step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico.” So I think that the School Board should not ban a book just, because one group of people or one person is offended. So profanity might offend one person, but profanity is just a part of school that cannot be eliminated.

Fahrenheit 451 is a “classic” that can be very valuable to one’s education. The book shows what can happen when people no longer have a thirst for knowledge. The people that have “Harvard degrees” have to hide in the wilderness like outlaws hiding from the law. They have “walking camps” all along the railroad where they share the knowledge that they still retain. All of the intellectuals have to hide, because they are “wanted and hunted in the cities.” There is something to be said of this when education has no value and it is better to know nothing and ask no questions. Students hate their teachers now, but what if they could not learn at all, they would thirst for the knowledge. The book shows what can happen when there is a lack of education.

Fahrenheit 451 shows some very scary and reasonable revelations for what might happen to the future of this country and world. Ray Bradbury talks of nuclear wars, “parlor televisions”, and the censorship of books. Bradbury talks of the country having two nuclear wars. Then all of the people in the city have full wall televisions that “enclose” them during their off time. The people in the city just sit around and watch TV, they “fidget and look nervously,” when the TV is off. This shows what is already happening with kids as they come home and watch TV and play video games all day. Society is also banning books, because it offends one group of people. Schools are banning books, because they offend parents. Some of these books that are being banned have a strong literature value. When newspapers disappeared “no one missed them.” “Only one student signed up for drama class,” showing how when people don’t have to go or need to get an education they don’t. It is very easy for people to get sucked up in electronics and they become automatons with little emotions.

If the school board wants to ban Fahrenheit 451 they would be making an irrational decision based on one parents concern. The book has a good educational value and shows some good and bad revelations toward the future of society. To ban the book would be the exact same as burning the book.