The 21st century world has become a place where many books are banned while people are less and less interested in them and prefer other forms of entrainment that primarily come from technology. These elements are also present in Guy Montag's fictional world, the main character of the novel Fahrenheit 451.
Although education and freedom of expression are human rights in the 21st Century world, there are places where not only books are banned, but also individuals are deprived of opportunities to get an education. These unfortunate events occur in countries like the United States. Most of the time, this is due to a small, powerful group of individuals' actions that cause greater harm to society and, instead of providing better possibilities, oppress the weaker groups. Sadly, today's world has many examples of obstruction and manipulation of truth. For instance, in Iran, the protests’ purpose is for freedom. A fight against political oppression, to abolish violence against women and defend their rights. However, Iran’s protests get more complicate as days pass for the government suppress freedom of expression and protests as many activists are silenced via communication platforms, arrested or sentenced to death.
Depending on the genre, books—whether in physical or digital form—are one of the most important sources of information, power, and leisure. Everyone is free to select, seek for, and purchase the books they want to read. For the residents of Fahrenheit 451, however, this is not the case because their government has both outlawed all books and destroyed them by setting them on fire. Additionally, in Farenheit 451, the government limits the citizens to be interests on their TV and Radio shows only and create a false ideology to dislike and believe that books are terrible for society. This is another common quality between this fictional world and today's real world. As discussed previously in this website, technology is a powerful tool that when used incorrectly, it has the potential to create confusion, conflict, and isolation.
Regardless of all these similarities between the dystopian society depicted in the book and the real world, it is clear that individuals always have the power to influence their destiny by acting in favor of or against it. The characters in the novel have the ability to modify their world's established order by becoming game-changers like Montag. And in the world of the twenty-first century, there are those who, in addition to preserving stories, continue to battle for their freedom and against oppression.
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