Independent versus Controlled Thought

It would be easy, and understandable, for readers to consider "Fahrenheit 451" as primarily a condemnation of censorship. It's more appropriately argued, however, that its central issue, both narratively and thematically, has less to do with the controlling of thought and more to do with REACTIONS to that control. In other words, the narrative's action and its themes are grounded in, and defined by, conflict arising between those who advocate and sustain independent thought (manifest in books) and those who devalue and suppress such thought, their actions manifest in the destruction of books. That conflict is dramatized in and defined by the experiences and actions of the central character, Guy Montag who, long before the narrative even begins, has experienced awakenings of independent thought and is confronted by the forces working to suppress both societal and personal experiences of what he is beginning to explore.

That...