What reasons does Beatty give for the current state of society and for books being destroyed?

 

In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Montag realizes he no longer takes pleasure in his job while Beatty explains to him the importance/reason for burning books and why it is the right thing to do. Mr. Beatty makes it clear that he agrees with the government control and their ways of burning books to deprive the public of disturbing information that can potentially be found in a book. Beatty believes that books should be burned because every book can offends someone, he said “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it.” This is one example of why Beatty thinks it is beneficial to burn books. It appears that Beatty thinks having negative emotions are bad, but as Montag asked “When was the last time you really felt bothered”. By burning books, the fireman are taking away the potential hurtful knowledge and facts that are in books but they are also taking away the opportunity for people to be in touch with their feelings and have opinions about books. Beatty believes by taking books away from people, they are creating a safer environment from conflicts that may be brought up through facts found in books. Beatty said “We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.” Beatty thinks the job of a fireman is helping the society by eliminating the possibility of people being unhappy by the content they may read in a book. By burning books and purposely taking away knowledge, Beatty and the government is taking away peoples freewill, thoughts and opinions, resulting in a loss of happiness in people’s lives. Beatty shows support of the governments ways, creating a ‘brainwashed’ society, keeping people safe from their own negative emotions that would potentially come out when comprehending information that can make someone feel upset.

I chose this image to represent my paragraph because Montag has hope that he will show people the  importance of books. The child in the photo represents Montag and the balloon represents knowledge. Montag is curious and wants to learn however, due to government laws he finds it very difficult to spread his love for knowledge.