Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury explores the idea of

a dominating, censorship obsessed, post-literate society,

where books are perceived to be the the source of all
discord and unhappiness. He illustrates a disturbing society
gone awry, that evolved drastically to the extent in which
education was suppressed, and citizens were drug-induced
and media-saturated. Over the course of the novel, the
protagonist, Guy Montag, comes to the realization that his
life is rather empty and oppressive. He tries to search for
meaning in illegal books and people similar to him. However,
books are banned as knowledge is constantly feared, and
peoples time have been idled away by absurd conversations
and are consistently crammed with an excessive amount of
meaningless media. Due to this, peoples personalities have
altered to become stolid, reserved, apathetic, and
unfathomable.
Throughout the novel, the theme of government
empowerment, disloyalty, and censorship is very vivid.
Bradbury shows how the monitoring regulations from the
government isnt derived from the conspiracy of dictators,
but is shaped by the consensus of everyday people.
Moreover, he conveys the message that people are weakminded, with an indolent nature - preferring to live a life
under a delusion rather than experiencing reality through
the use of metaphorical and symbolic language.
Furthermore, he advocates the idea that men should think
for themselves, and knowledge should be expanded through
the study of books, despite the fact that it can provoke
penetrating questions and riots. Bradbury delivers the
message that problems shouldnt be obliterated, but instead,
should be used to prevent mistakes from happening again.
Fahrenheit 451 shows the importance of freethinking, as
well as the exchange of intellectual ideas, to protect the
ideals of a democratic nation.