The novel “Fahrenheit 451,” written by the visionary author Ray Bradbury, is about Guy Montag who lives in a dystopian America. Montag is a fireman, but in this world they set books ablaze instead of putting out fires.  One day he comes to the realization that there might be something to books, something that is worth writing down and passing from generation to generation.  His Fire Chief Captain Beatty tries to discourage such ideas. Beatty’s views on the way their world is set up are extreme but accurate. The government of this version of the United States of America works to keep its tight grip on every aspect of life through denying its people social, political, and psychological insight. By doing this the government can control its people without worrying about intelligent people rising up to restore knowledge to the people.  

Montag met a young girl name Clarisse; she was different from anyone who he has ever met before. She is curious and makes conversation with people she meets on the street. She went missing a couple days before Beatty goes to talk to Montag. Beatty tells him “Luckily, queer ones like her do not happen often. We know how to nip most of them in the bud, early” (Bradbury 58). This is meant to taunt Montag and intimidate him as well. Beatty says that they have a way to find out who is a “queer one.” In Beatty’s eyes anyone who refuses to assimilate is considered a queer: someone who is considered as a lesser person and should be put in jail, reeducated or, killed off completely. Clarisse and her family evaded capture for so long because they were smart, but their luck ran out and the government found them, or at least this is what Beatty wants Montag to believe. This is how the government controls its people, by snuffing out a different kind of person in order to keep every social interaction relatively the same. If there are no differences, there are no social issues. In Beatty’s mind he is doing the right thing as he is only trying to save his friend. 

Beatty is a representation of the government, he thinks and talks the way the government would if it was a character. The audience is most likely upset with the Captain, and by extension, the government, because in the real world people do not considered burning books and abducting families who are different a positive pursuit. In today’s society, differences are encouraged and celebrated as books are, however, in the world of Fahrenheit 451 this is not the case. People who are different are persecuted, tracked down and killed. In this society people are not supposed to have any real worries. The Government gives them “Contest they win by remembering words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals…Cram them full of non-consumable data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information” (58). Beatty is telling Montag how their society works in full trying to get Montag to fall back in line maybe even saying too much about it. The government wants people to stay ignorant. They want people to feel smart without being intelligent. The difference being a smart person can memorize simple facts but fails to figure out how they all connect or apply them. An intelligent man would be able to piece together what is absolutely insane about the culture they live in and be able to do something about it. These contests become a huge part of the social norm of the country. The government makes these social events so people will focus on the games and not real issues. If people ever figured out about what the government is doing then change in the society is bound to shift, and that is what the government fears most about its people, a change in culture. If people become aware that they are purposefully kept ignorant they will wonder and strive to find what it is that they are kept hidden from them. People would look for more meaningful social interactions and would learn of domestic issues facing them. At that point the government will lose their control over the people and they will start a rebellion that the government would eventually lose. The power of this government comes from the obedience of its people, that is why the government bans books because they lead to intelligent people, intelligent people lead social movements, and social movements lead to change.   

 The government tries to keep people happy so they do not search for a larger meaning. That idea is how Beatty’s mind is set up and how he as a person thinks. He operates on the idea that “Any man who can take apart a TV wall and put it back together again, and most men can, nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to slide rule, measure, and equate the universe, which just won’t be measure or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely” (Bradbury 58). He is saying that knowledge is a burden that should not be placed on a population. If people concerned themselves with such high concepts they would never find happiness in that work so it is better for them to be dumb and happy. That is Beatty’s idea he does not want people to think about philosophy and greater concepts. Beatty thinks that this is a necessity to keep what they would call a utopian society from falling apart. To them the end justifies the mean. The government uses social tendencies to keep the society at “peace.” The government eliminates people who are different, keeps the public distracted and happy, and they keep the populous ignorant of a greater meaning. The government denies it’s people the freedom of thinking for themselves and in by doing this they do not let the populous that there is more than giant T.V. walls. 

The government controls the population politically as well; this is so that rival factions cannot challenge their rule. Beatty’s idea about how to do this is the same as his social views he says “If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none” (Bradbury 58).  If you don’t tell a man, there is a question he can’t answer it. That is the governments ideas on how to stop people from forming ideas about how government should work. They distract them with all these little social events and contest. The goal of the government is to make the people forget there are any problems at all. In the background of the story there is a nuclear war raging and its completely glossed over until the end. This is done on purpose. It gives you the same treatment that the citizens get. They simply forget about the war and if they hear about it they only hear that they are wining. To the citizens it just back ground noise as it is to the reader until the end when the bombs fall on the city. The government does this so that the people are never fearing anything until it’s too late they had no warning because the government did not want any panic. To their own detriment, the government will lose its’ citizens rather than allowing them to solve the problems and protect themselves. They did not want anyone feeling like they are not in total control. The regime did not tell people that bombers are coming so people cannot choose to leave or surrender or any other choice that they may have had. Instead they distracted them with a live feed of them chasing Montag, who was found to have books and was almost arrested until he burned the firemen with a flame thrower and went on the run. They could have told the public but instead chose to let a whole city be destroyed because they wanted control. This government is so corrupt they have lost interest in keeping their citizens safe and instead have decided to do whatever they can to keep control and the only way they seem to be able to do so is to lie to the public not giving them any choices.

A person whose mind is ignorant is much easier to control than a person who is intelligent. This is a psychological fact a more intelligent person will have more ideas about how things should be. In order to prevent its’ citizens from becoming intelligent, the government gives the people no programs with any substance to feed people’s minds. Beatty who is a part of the government acknowledges this “If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the Theremin, loudly. I’ll think I’m responding to the play, when it’s only a tactile reaction to vibration. But I don’t care. I just like solid entertainment” (Bradbury 58). This speaks volume to how the psychological aspect of control. Beatty is a highly intelligent man who understands what the government is doing yet, he still is fine knowing that nothing that the government is giving the people means anything. He, along with the rest of the population, is stuck sitting in front of a giant T.V. screen talking to an actor who is not saying anything. The human minds of this America have never been exposed to any raw emotions on the T.V.  Their world is of simple conversations that are not even as shallow as its citizens. This society has no point in searching for something that they know nothing about. Their minds are dull and have no interest in sharpening them because they have no reason. 

The government in this dystopian America has controlled the population through means of simply distracting its people and keeping them ignorant. They abuse the populous through social, political and, psychological neglect. They simply divert their people with games, do not give them political choices and, give them no reason or means to become more intelligent people. They have total control over the people because no one really cares or knows about problems in their society. 
