Fahrenheit 451 and 1984: Connections part 2

One major similarity that exists in both novels is that the government attempts to control the way that people think. In "1984" the totalitarian government simply wants to have complete control over peoples' minds by constantly rewriting the past. That's because with that type of control, they have the power to manipulate the residents exactly as they wish. And their ability to manipulate them doesn't simply stop at controlling their actions, after all; if one is acting a certain way, that does not guarantee that they thoroughly believe that what they are doing is right. Which is why the government in "1984" goes as far as controlling the way that people think, by causing them to be loyal citizens of Oceania who only possess love for their country, and hate for their nation's enemies. In addition to that, people that have unorthodox opinions, in other words any opinions or thoughts that do not coincide with those of the government, are caught by the "Thought Police" and tortured. The "Thought Police" is used to further reinforce the idea that one is going to suffer if they have unorthodox thoughts.

On the other hand, in "Fahrenheit 451" the way that the government controls people is by burning books. They do that because of the numerous disagreements that occur because of the topics that the books are written about. And it is because of that reason that the government decides to burn books, and continue on doing so every time that a person is reported to have books. The other more in depth reason as to why books are burned is because they are thought to be "evil" due to their ability to make some more intelligent than others and result in the less bright pupils to feel inferior to the brighter ones. After all, the more one reads, the more knowledge they gain. Therefore, by eliminating the existence of books, one also eliminates the main source that one can gain knowledge from. And this type of censorship results in controlling the way that people think, by causing all of them to think the same way (since no individual has more insight when it comes to a subject, because they are never exposed to books). So instead of having books which can enable people to think for themselves, the government replaced all the "intellectual" subjects with sports. Simply because playing sports cannot make anyone more intellectually superior than someone else.

In addition to that, Clarisse, a girl that stops going to school and is viewed as peculiar because of her individualistic ways of thinking, disapears later on in the novel. The similarity of her disappearance can be linked to the disappearances that occur in "1984" when the "Thought Police" snatches thought criminals away from their homes.