We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind." - Captain Beatty "Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores." - Professor Faber Here you can post thoughts on Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's "dystopian" picture of a dumbed-down future America. You can share any quotations, scenes, images or themes that stand out to you, or make connections to real-life events and trends. There will be posts for each book; you're required to discuss two, and at least one of your posts needs to be a good-sized paragraph so I can get a sense of how you think and write. Go to "Leave a Reply" below when you're ready to post, but make sure you read what your classmates have already said. You don't want to just repeat one of their points, but you can always build off their ideas. Best of luck! The two key quotes above might help you get started. - Mr. Biggs
178 Comments
Mr. Biggs
7/19/2013 03:02:11 am
FYI, this is where your comments come out.
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Catherine Perry
9/5/2013 03:30:17 am
One scene from the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, that I found significant was more towards the end of the novel. Montag is running away from civilization and he ditches his former attire. He then bathes in the river and puts Fabers clothing on instead. I believe this is a turning point because it symbolizes Montag starting a new chapter of his life. Doing this, Montag rids himself completely of his former “dumbed-down” identity and takes on his new character while beginning his journey. He is a new person now and wants to continue his life as this new person. He realizes that society is not what it needs to be and he does not want to be apart of something so pathetic. He wants to make a difference or change. Clarisse had the largest part to do with Montag’s transformation. Faber contributed as well with his knowledge and understanding. Together they made Montag the man he is. A man who wants change. Today there should be more people like Faber and Clarisse who go against the flow of society.
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Ann Palma
9/6/2013 01:58:58 am
Adding on to your point about how Ray Bradbury predicted modern society, humanity nowadays is still influenced by the opinions of their peers. People, especially teenagers, will buy a certain item or take an interest in something just because everyone around them has it. They want to feel as if they belong, so they follow the rules of society. And if you go against humanity's way of life, you are tortured. For a modern day example, if a high schooler doesn't have that new iPhone or doesn't particularly buy their clothes from a certain shop, then their peers are going to harass them and say that their not "cool." Just like in Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse is considered insane because she doesn't believe in constantly using technology and insists on watching the world.
Lauren O'Brien
9/6/2013 01:03:53 pm
I agree with both Catherine and Ann, as society nowadays is so easily influenced by others' opinions. All people seem to care about is being accepted, being "cool", having the latest of everything. I definitely agree with Catherine's point of how Fahrenheit 451 could be an allegory- books may not be banned in a few years, but the world could fall apart and be filled with more crimes and judgement than it already is.
Samantha Havens
9/7/2013 01:28:35 am
I agree with your point. Focusing on what you said about technology ruining relationships, it is amazing how real Ray Bradbury's novel is starting to become upon our society sixty years after writing his book. Technology, such as TV is taking over relationships with friends and family. We watch the lives of others we wish to have, just like how Mildred's "family" is the television show she watches and talks about them as if they were her actual family. Due to the TV Mildred and Montag have a very distant relationship. However, Clarisse, a very carefree girl who didn't depend on technology, and Montag had a very great relationship due to talking about real life things and going against society. This just shows how real the world Ray Bradbury created is becoming true.
Hannah Christensen
9/5/2013 05:43:36 am
There is a copious amount of themes demonstrated in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The one general idea that I found to be very significant was the idea that the characters "faked" their own happiness and freedom. It seemed as if society tricked citizens into believing that their lives were great, when in reality it was similar to a dictatorship. An example of this is the main character, Guy Montag. For his entire life, he thinks that burning books is normal and that they serve no real purpose. After his encounter with Clarisse McClellan, she alters the way he sees the world. He now becomes curious and questions the standards set by society, an idea that seems terrifying and is completely unacceptable. Montag is now a new person trying to figure out the way the world really should be. His captain, Beatty, convinces him that it is normal to wonder about the books but this is just to make Montag become uninterested in what he is burning. Somehow, by forcing the curiosity out of Montag, he continues to believe he is happy. Clarisse, however, knows of these tricks and can see underneath the masks that these people wear; she understands that no one is free. The way that Ray Bradbury illustrates this relates to so many aspects of the real world. For example, being a high school student is almost like living under a dictatorship, but of course it is a lot less extreme. We are told what to do, what to wear, where to go, and how to think. This is very similar to the society shown in Fahrenheit 451. Montag is told what to do and the majority of citizens follow, assuming this means they are happy and free. Luckily, Clarisse is the one "rebel-like" figure in this novel who shows our protagonist the error of his ways. To me, the underlying message of Fahrenheit 451 is to think for yourself, question the standards, and be curious.
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Samantha Quinn
9/8/2013 03:16:43 am
I agree with your ideas. Fahrenheit 451 is a society in which the people are meant to think and feel a particular way. Such conformity comes from the older people including the fire chief, this makes it difficult for others to realize what is real. The larger figures tell the public that they should be content with the same routines and claims curiosity makes you an outcast like Clarisse. The girl asked questions which made Montag see things in a new perspective. If it were not for Clarisse, Montag would not have realized his feeling had been fake all along.
Hannahrose Wallis
9/8/2013 10:12:23 am
I agree with your point saying how in the novel people are being told not only what to do, but also how to feel. Society is controlling and basically brainwashing people and not letting them think for themselves. I like how you compared it to highschool because we basically are being told exactly what to do and when to do it.
Lauren O'Brien
9/6/2013 12:17:33 pm
While reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, I loved seeing Montag's viewpoints of right and wrong and his opinions change overtime. At the beginning of the novel, Guy enjoys his job as a fireman and gets a thrill out of burning. However, his beliefs first begin to change when he meets Clarisse. Guy has never met anyone like Clarisse before- she is different. Montag is ignorant at this point in the novel, to say the least; yet, once he truly opens his eyes to the world he is living in, he sees how cruel and inhumane the actions of the firemen are and he wants to change. Although Guy wants to change, to give up his job, it is not until he kills Beatty and the two other firemen and is floating along the river does he truly realize how and why he has to stop burning. He connects his burning with time, as "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant everything burnt! One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't... So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago" (Bradbury 141). This scene is significant to the novel because water is used to hydrate, cleanse and purify things- and also extinguish fires. Therefore, Montag conclusively discovers how to stop burning for good while he is surrounded by the solution to his problem.
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Tara Schwinn
9/7/2013 10:53:27 am
As I was reading this book i was also extremely surprised about how this novel is so similar to our lives now. When you read this book it seems so ridiculous that this kind of thing could ever happen to a society however our society now is actually growing closer and closer by abandoing reading actual books and relying on technology for everything.
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Jessica Auriemma
9/8/2013 10:51:42 am
Tara, I agree with everything that you said. Technology is becoming a bigger part of people's lives everyday. Almost everything we do today rotates around technology. Even something as simply as checking the weather most people can't do unless they have a weather app as opposed to just opening the window and feeling what it is like outside. The amount of time we all spend on technology, myself included, is ridiculous. Majority of our day is spent staring at a screen or pushing buttons on a keyboard. It is all so mind-numbing. People are beginning to need to think for themselves less and less because nowadays we just get the technology to do it for us.
Tara Schwinn
9/7/2013 10:58:38 am
I noticed that reading Fahrenheit this summer made me definatly start to look at everything differently. I started to notice how things were changing and if we actually have control over everything we do. I also question how much control the government has over us because I dont think we realize how much power it has. If our society started to act like the society in the novel more than it already has, I doubt that it would be a very obvious change until it was almost to late to do anything about it.
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Catherine Perry
9/8/2013 08:38:16 am
Tara, I completely agree with your ideas. I especially agree with your point that if society revolved into the way society behaved in the book, rarely anybody would notice. This is most likely because society already has begun to act similarly to the characters in the novel. I for one have certainly not picked up on this gradual change until I noticed the connection between Fahrenheit 451 and reality.
Katie Carroll
9/8/2013 11:54:35 am
Adding on to your idea, we really don't have that much control over things anymore. Just as how the Seashell radios have taken over Mildred's life, iPhones and laptops have taken over ours. I feel like we are all Mildred's walking around not knowing how much of ourselves we have given up to technology. Maybe one day a Montag will come around and rebel against the "normal" things we do everyday.
Hannahrose Wallis
9/7/2013 06:40:20 pm
In the novel Farenheit 451, I believe Ray Bradbury did an amazing job foreshadowing a distopia that our world could ultimately face. However, not all the characteristics in this "new world" were negative. For example, when Montag finds the empty pill bottle in his bedroom and a non-breathing Mildred, we come to the conclusion that she had over dosed. Right away Montag calls the hospital and they send over two workmen with a machine that sucks out the "old" Mildred and puts in a "new" one. This shows that technology has greatly advanced in a way where we are able to bring people back from the dead. Things were able to be done more fast and efficiently . I think Bradbury included that aspect in the book to show that among all the disaster that good things can still be found. Just like how Montag met Clarisse. His world was falling apart and yet she gave him hope and his whole life changed. This may not have been a big theme in the novel, but it still proves a point in trying to find the good in everything and everyone.
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Alexandra Gavrilovic
9/8/2013 04:03:15 am
Hannah, I like how you picked up on the details about the good things in Bradbury's future society. Throughout the novel, as i read i was only focused on the negative parts. Its very interesting to see how Bradbury found a way to incorporate little positive things in the society that was otherwise seen as a disaster.
Samantha Havens
9/7/2013 11:59:42 pm
Throughout the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, I picked up on many themes; however, the most significant theme in my opinion is life and death. There are multiple deaths or death attempts in the novel. The old women burns herself, Clarisse is killed by a speeding car; however, we do not know whether this is on purpose or not, Montage kills Beatty, and the Mechanical Hound kills an innocent man. At the end of the novel, Montag dies yet rebirths into the new city where everyone he knew is dead and his things are destroyed. He survived and got a second chance because Bradbury was trying to make us, the readers, realize that if you aren’t living life to it’s fullest and have no knowledge, you might as well be dead. However, when you can find the power to go against society and live your life with knowledge and independence, your life is worth it and you have something to stay alive for.
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Abby Westgate
7/19/2013 07:51:12 am
I noticed a pattern of counting and lists throughout the book. For example, on page 17, Montag associates people with numbers in his mind, and creates a list, "One, Clarisse. Two, Mildred. Three, uncle....one, two, three....Clarisse, Mildred, uncle...". I believe Montag has connected people with numbers in his mind. The number one represents Clarisse, two represents Mildred, and three represents Mildred's uncle. I don't believe it is a coincidence later on in the book when Faber is explaining to Montag what the world needs in the form of a list. Faber tells Montag on page 84 “Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn..”. I propose that through these lists Ray Bradbury is attempting to tell the reader what Clarisse, Mildred, and Mildred’s uncle truly represent. One is Clarisse---Clarisse represents quality. She notices the quality of the world around her, and is the result of the person that does so. Two is Mildred--- Mildred represents what happens when one has access to too much leisure. Three is Mildred’s uncle---Mildred’s uncle is the result of what one becomes when he gives himself the right to carry out actions based on what he has learned. Mildred’s uncle has talks with his family at night instead of allowing them to get sucked into the technological world being pushed onto everyone else.
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Sarah Baker
7/24/2013 11:17:25 am
I recognized the use of numbers in the book but I never noticed this connection! It makes sense after you explained it. While reading the book I figured that Clarisse represented knowledge and awareness of the world while Mildred was almost the exact opposite.I had an a-ha moment when you explained the counting though!! thank you for that; it helped me understand the book that much more!!
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Liv Winnicki
8/1/2013 07:07:40 am
Abby, that makes so much sense I caught that counting and I wasnt sure what it mean and it gave me another perspective of the book that you pointed that out.
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Alexa DeAnna
8/27/2013 02:43:01 am
That's such a great realization! I didn't even catch that, I just thought he did the counting and names thing because he was going insane and I totally disregarded it. Now that you said this I kind of appreciate the book more and connect to it easier.
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Hannah Christensen
9/5/2013 05:50:40 am
I never would have noticed this correlation if I hadn't read this! However, I disagree a bit on what the numbers mean to the characters. Clarisse represents quality, but instead of noticing the quality around her, I see it more as that she is a quality person. To Montag, Clarisse meant a lot to him and she helped him to be exposed to the world around him. She brought out the qualities within him that he couldn't do himself. Aside from this, I agree with the meaning behind Mildred and her uncle's numbers. Your post really made me understand Montag's attitudes towards the other characters which in turn made me understand the novel in general! So thank you!
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Ann Palma
9/6/2013 01:07:01 am
The whole counting and lists idea completely confused me until I read your entry. Your ideas about Clarisse and Mildred made me look at the purpose and themes of the book in a whole new way. However though, isn't it Clarisse's uncle who talks with his family at night and not Mildred's? On page 9, Clarisse and Montag approach her home when he asks why the house is blazing with light at such a late hour. She responds "just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking."
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Hannah Sauer
9/6/2013 05:39:39 am
I never realized that; I never connected the counting, I just thought he was simply counting to organize his thoughts. It makes complete sense now! I understand the book a little more now and Montag himself actually!
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Lauren O'Brien
9/6/2013 01:06:15 pm
Abby, that realization helps clarify so much of the novel for me! Whilst reading, the number to people correlations confused me, but now it makes perfect sense.
Elijah Sullivan
9/7/2013 09:30:39 pm
I picked up on the lists and counting and at first I was just confused, but then I became a little annoyed by how much repetition was involved in his lists. Now I realize how significant the lists were and I can only imagine Ray Bradbury had Guy Montag repeat it so much to get the point across. I wish I had noticed that earlier so that it didn't seem like nonsense to me.
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Catherine Ishimasa
7/20/2013 12:50:44 am
In Fahrenheit 451, people chosing ignorance over knowledge is a main theme. In order to make everyone seem equal, they took away the chance of anyone becoming smarter than anyone else because they took away books and began to only teach basic knowledge in schools. People who choose to see through the ignorance and search for intelligence, are punished. No one is allowed to think for themselves or be curious. People who are curious and seek more than a basic understanding of things are seen as weird and outcasts.
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Mya Alexice
8/29/2013 08:01:30 am
That's an awesome theme, one I didn't even notice! It reminds me of a Kurt Vonnegut short story where the government is obsessed with everyone being equal- and by doing so, they limit knowledge to the smart ones, make the beautiful ones wear ugly masks, and so on. It makes me a little bit worried when you mention taking away the education, 'cause it kind of reminds me of how our government is making it harder and harder for us to get a good college education.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
7/21/2013 04:14:31 am
I have noticed that there is a lot of irony in Fahrenheit 451. One example of it is the use of the word fireman. A fireman today is someone who puts out fires and saves people from them as well yet Ray Bradbury gives the word a very different meaning. In this book a fireman is to be feared for he could burn everything to your name and get away with it. Another example is Captain Beatty. He tells Montag, "“At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch. What do the books say, he wonders. Oh to scratch that itch, eh? Well, Montag, take my word for it, I’ve had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They’re about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they’re fiction. And if they’re nonfiction, it’s worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another’s gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost.”(pg. 62) Beatty always says that books are useless and better off burned yet he quotes quite a few of them through out the book. It’s almost as if Beatty is trying to convince not only Montug but himself that the books are nothing but “figments of imagination” too.
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Anya Carney
9/2/2013 07:02:22 am
I also noticed how ironic it was that the firemen in the novel do exactly the opposite of what we know firemen do in our everyday lives! At first I couldn't help but be complely confused, but as the novel's plot carried along, began to understand. Good point!
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Lauren O'Brien
9/6/2013 11:50:28 am
I noticed this as well while I was reading! I agree entirely with what you are saying and I think Bradbury's use of irony was to show the change in society from the reader's standpoint in current time to the novel's era; in both modern time and in the novel, firemen are considered heroes by the public. Although the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 cause destruction in our opinions, they are actually thought to be doing good for the world because of how people are brought up and taught in this futuristic society. If the characters in the novel could see modern society and how our firemen put out fires, they would think it just as ironic and confusing as we do for the firemen in the story to extinguish fires, not ignite them!
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Sophia Mazzini
9/7/2013 12:58:18 am
The irony in this book is very interesting. Like you said, the fireman do exactly the opposite of what they do today. I also noticed that in the book, a being a fireman is a career and they are paid to burn books and houses containing them, but in todays world, fireman are volunteers. I thought it was interesting how the fireman were paid to do bad things, like burning stuff when in todays world people risk their lives voluntarily to save people and put out the fires.
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Haley Watson
7/24/2013 01:25:28 am
In Fahrenheit 451, the society Montag lives in seems to have no rules or authority, except, no one is allowed to own books. People take drugs to sleep, drive their cars extraordinarily fast, and interact with their "TV families." Living without books isn't a concern for these people.Besides Captain Beatty and the firemen, there is only one other form of authority, the Mechanical Hound. I believe the Hound represents the final force of action and power in the society. In our world, the Hound and the firemen can compare to your older siblings and your mother. For example, when you were younger and doing something your mother wouldn't approve of, your older siblings may warn and stop you. However, when that doesn't work, your mother comes into the situation and has the final say. The firemen set the fires to the houses and do their best to control the owners, such as when Montag's house is set on fire. Montag loses his self-control and as Sigmund Freud would call ,lets his ID out. He beats the firemen ,kills Beatty, and runs away. Then the Hound is bought in to find Montag. Its duty is to make the ultimate encounter with Montag.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
8/4/2013 12:37:49 am
At the beginning, you talked about the society is one of doing whatever you want. It's very ironic because that's what they want people to think. They want the citizens to think they can do whatever they want but in reality it is set in their brain that they only allowed to do certain things. I think that if this society was actual one of do whatever you want it would be complete and utter chaos but that would be much better than the controlling society they believe they control.
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Ann Palma
8/8/2013 05:39:36 am
Going to the first sentence, I feel like there are more rules in this society besides books, however they are not as enforced or not as "set in stone" as the books rule. For example, it's not really a rule that you can't sit and have a conversation with others, however when Montag tried to converse with Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, they stared at him as if he was crazy/odd. Not conversing with others isn't really a rule, but it is frowned upon and people look down on those who do it.
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Amy Cavallo
8/21/2013 09:08:24 am
I believe the reason that the women didnt want to converse with Montag was because he had just spoken about literature and read from the poetry book, which is something that their society definitely frowns upon. However, that's just my opinion. You could be right though. In the beginning of the book, I recall Montag being slightly traken aback when Clarisse actually talked to him while he travelled home. So, that does support your statement.
Sarah Baker
7/24/2013 11:11:29 am
While reading Fahrenheit 451 it became obvious that the majority of the people living in the modernized “dumbed-down” America were content with the way they were living. There was no sense of wonder or questioning that the current population tends to have now. It is almost as if those living were brainwashed, or in a world of limbo- aware of the simple events occurring around them, but not of the complex ideas and questions possibly linked to those events. Characters like Mildred wandered around without purpose, filling their free time with senseless technology; there was little human interaction. Beatty, the fire captain explained that “those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory or thought” will “drown [the world]” (62). The people living in this time are brainwashed to believe that thought and philosophy is a waste of time, not only that, it will ruin the world. They become so preoccupied with their technology that they lose connection with the real world. This is what Ray Bradbury intended to portray with this book: a lost connection, little human interaction, no sense of belonging, no sense of wonder.
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Michael Colao
8/1/2013 12:38:02 pm
I’d like to add on to the connection you made between the “dumbed down America”, and our generation. The purpose of burning books is to avoid any intellectual superiority, and maintain equality. This attitude is also reflected in the elementary school environment where “everyone’s a winner.” I believe competitiveness is necessary for many to succeed and for their true greatness to blossom. If everyone was equal, as they are in the book, then we would have an awful society or a “dumbed down America.” Therefore, a competitive spirit should be encouraged, because that is what causes people to flourish.
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Mr. Biggs
8/3/2013 02:08:00 am
Michael, I like to play devil's advocate a lot, so I'm going to challenge this argument somewhat. Has the competitive spirit really disappeared in F451, or intensified? People are always competing to have the largest TVs or the most walls. They also love racing cars, becoming so involved in competition that they run over bystanders. Is it possible that competition actually has a negative impact, making people less thoughtful and more obsessed with buying and being "better" than their neighbor? Perhaps the status of competition would make a great essay topic. Are there different KINDS of competition, some inspiring but some harmful? Is there an alternative between "Everyone's a winner"/"no one should be intellectually superior" and "Spend your whole life competing to have the most useless stuff"/"race cars like psychos"? At the least, I don't think it's simply true that "a competitive spirit" automatically leads to people flourishing, but I think that developing that notion - finding some nuance and being more specific - could lead to a great thesis!
Aliyyah Godsey
7/26/2013 05:32:05 am
Ray Bradbury strongly displayed his views in Fahrenheit 451, of how the human race is fastly moving towards a society where people praise ignorance. In Fahrenheit 451, the main character Guy Montag has this battle, knowledge vs. ignorance. Throughout the book you see things that resemble what is going on today. Mildred, Montag’s wife has this intense relationship with a very large television. She loses reality of what is actually happening around her. “ His wife in the TV parlor paused long enough from reading her script to glance up... ‘I wanted to talk to you’ He paused ‘you took all the pills in your bottle last night.’ ‘ Oh, I wouldn’t do that’ she said surprised.” (Bradbury 19). Throughout the book you see just how lifeless Mildred is, she has more of a relationship with the TV than she does with her 'human' husband. People today have the same problem, wherever you go you’ll see a cell phone in someones face. That person, not paying any attention to their surrounding but only what is on the screen of the cell phone. Human contact is becoming non-existent. Twitter, Facebook, texting, all take the place of where people should be having physical contact with others.
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Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:38:19 am
Interesting post, really captures the essence of our discussions at the workshop. Also, excellent use of quote in your last sentence!
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Zack Sabat
9/3/2013 02:57:51 am
I never really thought about the idea of ignorance while reading this book, but the way you connected Mildred to people in society today is very interesting. I agree completely when you say how human contact is becoming non-existent because of cell phones, social media, and texting. Also, your argument connecting the idea that a lack of human contact would lead to a dystopian society is very fascinating.
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Mr. Biggs
7/27/2013 02:43:14 am
Wow, there are already some great ideas on this thread.
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Sarah Baker
7/28/2013 09:11:01 am
I feel as if the more advanced the technology becomes, the easier it is to use and get access to, making it more difficult for people to withdraw . if the technology is only getting better and making life "easier", why stop using it? i think that is the main problem, the accessibility. Making personal connections takes more work which is why people tend to lean towards using technology instead. Now that there are great advances in social networking and technology i think personal connections and face to face conversations will decrease more and more.
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Mr. Biggs
8/3/2013 01:59:08 am
It's weird though, because technology comes out of people learning working together on projects. If people lose the ability to interact and think, how will they continue to advance technology unless we end up with a very small elite who are able to be "human" versus everyone else? Actually, that sound a lot like Fahrenheit!
Erin Kirkpatrick
8/4/2013 12:23:36 am
I would like to add the irony of Beatty. He says he is against books and agrees the should be burn yet he quotes books and people all the time. I think he became a fireman because maybe he saw what happens to people when they are face with actual hardship and/or have to think about the "what if's" and "could happen's". Whether he meant to or not, Beatty is trying to protect society from having the rug pulled out from underneath them, but by trying to help he is actually hindering. By telling people exactly what they should think, it destroys their brains to the point of almost no return. They soon become used to not thinking and worrying about life and their families. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury created this society were the only people that are allowed to think are the ones in charge; everyone else is to remain turned in to seashell radio and block out the world.
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Ava Merz
9/8/2013 02:12:56 am
Erin, that's an interesting point! We can tell Beatty has read books before from reciting quotes. He must know the power of books, and that scares him deeply. So, maybe, he isn't a bad guy after all. He is just trying to help his community, but he doesn't realize the amazing wonders books have to help you. He is only aware of the dark "what if's" and "could happen's."
Jack Anderson
7/27/2013 05:58:29 am
When reading Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury I found that the mechanical hound had very interesting symbolism behind it. The mechanical hound represents the suppression of knowledge and the physical enforcement of it. All that the new American society stands for is upheld by mechanical hounds across the country. However, I thought that this symbolism was the obvious and perhaps simpler side to what Ray Bradbury meant for the mechanical hound to represent. I also believe that the hound represents the power of knowledge. The hound can remember as many as 10,000 scents at a time and the hound can follow these scents for miles. Its abilities show how powerful knowledge is and shows the kind of outreaching affect it can have on those around it. To get the most out of this novel, I’ve found that you have to look at everything from more than just one perspective and the mechanical hound is a perfect example of this.
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Casey Judge
9/5/2013 12:41:04 am
I didn't really think much of the mechanical hound while reading this book but after reading this post I completely agree with your point on its heavy symbolism. You are right when you say it represents knowledge, most things mechanical and other devices we use are actually extremely smarter than us and can do so much more than us, which is why we use them so often. This book is set so far in the future, yet the idea of this mechanical hound seems very possible to be used and created even now, also representing a futuristic society.
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Andrew Noglows
7/28/2013 03:59:45 am
While reading Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, I noticed that in the dystopian America, people prefer to be the same as everyone else as opposed to being an individual. Everyone listens to the same seashell radios and watch the same televisions. People are able to be copies of each other because they do not have any knowledge in their heads that would set them apart from one another. People develop their ideas and beliefs through outside sources: books, radios, TV’s. Without books, the characters get their information through the seashell radio and wall-sized televisions. I find this is important because the government can pump any information they want the general public to believe through these forms of media. The government is the only source of information to people. With everyone getting the exact same information, no one will be different.
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Anna Bongiorno
9/3/2013 01:48:36 pm
I felt the same way while reading Fahrenheit 451. The community Montag lives in is not accepting of anything other than what the government thinks is right. Imagine if our world was like that today... Think of the variety of tv channels, newspapers, and radio stations we have to chose from. People have the freedom to think whatever they want without being shunned from society like in Fahrenheit.
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Devon Barnes
9/5/2013 06:30:23 am
I never really realized the reflection the book has on America today. I like how you related the two because it put things into a whole new perspective to me. As a whole we are a lot like the people in Fahrenheit 451 in the sense that you are an outcast if you don't like the same music as someone, or like the same things, or wear the same clothes. In the novel you are considered an outcast if you think about things or ask questions, like Clarisse McClellan. Its actually kind of like the firemen are the "bullies" in Fahrenheit 451 for taking the books and lives away from people, just as bullies in our society take away things from people that are considered different.
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Georgie Greenwald
9/6/2013 04:18:26 am
Andrew, I agree there are similarities between our lives and the society Montag lives in. Bullying and stereotyping are important topics we discuss today. Just like in Fahrenheit, people are afraid of being different. We witness a less extreme version in schools; popular kids vs. the unpopular kids. Kids are put in one of these categories based on how similar or dissimilar they are to the rest of the school population. Just like in Fahrenheit, people are killed and looked down upon if they do not agree with society.
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Sophia Mazzini
9/7/2013 01:03:46 am
Andrew, I thought the connection you made between Bradbury's dumbed down America and America today was very interesting. One of the major foundations of our country is that people have the freedom to be who they want to be, think what they want, and say what they want, but many people still strive to be like everyone else and fit in. Many people complain that they want to be "normal". In Fahrenheit 451, the members of the society have been completely taken control of, and do not even think for themselves. As soon as someone begins to act differently, everyone either makes them an outcast, or fears them as if they were a criminal.
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Liv Winnicki
8/1/2013 07:40:42 am
Fahrenheit 451 is very symbolic to where society is going and it is a lot like how our society is today. it shows a lot of Tv watching. Such as, Mildred shows that she is completely controlled and obsessed with TV and this is a take on how TVs, cellphones, and the internet take over so many peoples lives in the modern world. With young people watching so much Tv we are manipulated by the commercials thinking that we must have the things that are advertized. Our society has raised very superficial people like mildred. This symbol to our everyday world was relatable to me because i do watch alot of reality TV.
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Mr. Biggs
8/3/2013 02:03:12 am
Good call Liv - the theme of anarchism is a powerful one in all four of the books for this summer. They all question what makes it legitimate or justified for one person to rule over another. Is it possible that all authority and power is simply based on who is stronger, not who is "right"? Science fiction is a great forum in which to explore this because authors can use their creativity to invent scenarios that really highlight such questions. But the non-science fiction works, Incidents and Cuckoo's Nest, present real-life scenarios of domination and control to make similar points. It would make a great essay topic, perhaps combined with some of the revelations about government spying that have come out recently.
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8/1/2013 09:29:53 am
Mildred and her friends contribute to the censored world in "Fahrenheit 451," written by Ray Bradbury, by mindlessly complying with government laws; Mildred represents humanity hurtling towards an empty, constrained, and controlled society. Mildred, the wife of the protagonist, Guy Montag, refuses to face the facts of reality which her husband discovers. Instead she immerses herself in sleeping pills, a radio headset called Seashells, and her television "family." Mildred can only sleep by swallowing pills to escape reality and even manages to overdose herself. The Seashells closes off her hearing with the outside world, allowing her to ignore realistic sound and the words of others. Her television set is called a family because the screen verbally projects real life interactions with Mildred. The television is a replacement for a real family and even if a person has an actual family, they act distant to each other. For example, one of Mildred's friends is a mother of two who compares her children to washing clothes. The mother, Mrs. Bowles, states, "You heave the children [them] into the 'parlor' and turn the switch. It's like washing clothes: stuff laundry in and slam the lid" (Bradbury 96). There is no love between parent and child. Realistic relationships do not exist between people anymore. They no longer see each other as humans, but inanimate objects. Even Guy feels next to nothing for his own wife after he left in the city to escape from the government who wants his death for smuggling and reading books. The government wants anyone who reads and spreads the knowledge of literature dead. Reasoning with the government is contradictory with them; they believe that if they lie or censor important concerns, the public will be more at peace with themselves. In fact an old literature teacher, Faber, explains to Guy about the contorted logic on the oncoming war. "Ten million men mobilized... But say one million. It's happier" (Bradbury 92). In "Fahrenheit 451," Mildred acts as a symbol of mindless obedience, which is the warning Ray Bradbury is telling his readers.
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Abby Westgate
8/13/2013 04:57:49 am
I completely agree with you that Mildred serves as a warning for the readers of Fahrenheit 451. Mildred, as you said, "mindlessly complies with government laws," and I think Bradbury worries that humans of the future will also do so. Readers speculate that Mildred was most likely killed in the bombing of the city because she mindlessly stayed behind, which was what the government would've wanted her to do. Bradbury warns us that those who comply to leaders mindlessly, like Mildred, never live long, happy, meaningful lives.
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Pat Monaghan
8/28/2013 02:25:14 am
I completely agree with the notion that in the world of F451 realistic relationships do not exist. This is seen numerous times in the book but it is also seen in our world today. People don’t look at each other when they speak. The only way they consume human interaction is through some sort of screen. People will be literally two feet away from each other and will be communicating via their iphones. This is sure to go on in the future as well. Today’s society looks like its headed in the direction the Pixar film WALL-E illustrates. In WALL-E mankind is no longer living on earth. We live on a massive spaceship and never talk to each other. The spaceship is run by a computer, which I connected, to the government in F451. The computer watches everything and follows immobile people as a little screen in front of their face. This reminds me of Mildred and the walls. She sits mindlessly and just listens to what the walls have to say. These two pieces are similar in central themes but different in how they get that point across.
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Jane Breslin
9/6/2013 08:15:27 am
Eventually without simple human interaction with critical thinking once in a while, people will become like technology themselves. In "Fahrenheit 451," almost all of the citizens live robotically, having shallow emotions towards each other as if they barely even live like a ghost.
Mya Sims
8/1/2013 10:44:31 pm
Fahrenheit 451 has ended up on many list of banned books, but it is ironic that one theme I found is censorship. With pages and pages about book burning, book banning and books being dangerous I felt that Bradbury might have been against censorship. I don't think that he was just against banning books but the limited thinking that it takes to actually censor them. Books are not relevant for various reasons in Fahrenheit 451 so other forms of entertainment, like television, have taken over. There are too many distractions for people to actually sit down and think about things. In the world of Fahrenheit 451 people expect to be fed information because they don't think for themselves, they are highly frivolous. I think Bradbury wants readers to challenge things like this otherwise, books like his get banned.
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Mr. Biggs
8/3/2013 01:57:19 am
Right Mya, that is a great irony. The notion of "limited thinking" is a good one - you could look at how two of the novels present limitations on thought, and how the authors criticize those limitations, in your essay.
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Jack Navitsky
8/2/2013 05:10:15 am
One of the major themes throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451 is the paradox of life and death. When Montag's wife Millie tries to commit suicide and the medical teams tries to revive her, they tell Montag that reviving suicides is very common. This commonality has Montag wondering what life truly is and why he feels so empty. Montag's search for truth and knowledge and his dedication to a new and better society saved him. I believe Bradbury is saying that life is dependent on knowledge and awareness. Once we become idle and complacent we stop living. Knowledge is growth and living.
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Amy Cavallo
8/21/2013 09:20:45 am
I completely agree with your concept of the world becoming a place in which ignorance is bliss. It seems to me that some people in our modern world have technology create their opinions and ideas instead of formulating their own. I believe that one of Bradbury's purposes for writing this novel was to warn future generations of what can happen if we surrender our power of thought and dont think for ourselves. We can end up in a society that follows its leaders with a blind faith. Bradbury couldve seen the beginnings of this happening when he wrote the book and invisioned that it could only get worse unless people wake up and realize that authority isnt always right and that, occassionally, it needs to be questioned.
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Matt Reardon
8/5/2013 02:27:21 am
An element of Fahrenheit 451 that stuck out to me was Ray Bradbury’s purpose for writing it. He appears to have been warning us about the dangers of mass conformity. It is illustrated how the people of the city have all reverted to a systematic way of living as enforced by their government. Televisions, driving fast cars, and materialistic things that are small pleasures to a person’s life, have become main aspects to their lives. Ray Bradbury’s story is showing to us an unnatural way of living: a life of conformity. This is where people’s dreams and aspirations are overshadowed by what has become comfortable for all the people. The government in Fahrenheit 451 succeeded in that aspect, because unlike other historic attempts like the Holocaust, the government made their people more comfortable while keeping them in their control. Bradbury’s warning to us is to keep our individualism alive, and never let people burn it away. The symbolic individualism of the story lies in the books. No two stories or authors are the same, and they all hold pieces of information relative to our lives. Guy Montag was able to outlast his aggressors by holding on to his books and realizing what was happening before it was too late. All it takes to stop such an event from happening is a couple of Clarisse McClellans and Guy Montags. People may be able to force others into a certain way of living, but they are unable to pull out one’s individuality, which will always shine through any sense of conformity. Ray Bradbury warns us that people have tried to make us conform to them before, and that the ramifications of a world like in Fahrenheit 451 are far more threatening than the benefits.
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Katie Peter
9/2/2013 10:16:40 am
This topic definitely stood out the most to me. It is almost like Bradbury is predicting that our government is slowly brain washing everyone into thinking that they are so free when they are really being limited to what they can think on their own.
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Michael Colao
8/7/2013 01:42:25 am
In the book Fahrenheit 451, mirrors play a major symbol. At the end of the book after the bomb Granger says, “We’re going to build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them.” Mirrors symbolize the only way for the people to have a sense of self-understanding. Looking in a mirror can be a real eye-opener to anyone, allowing them to see who they are and what they have become. In the book, people are going to need mirrors in order to see all of the wrong things they have believed, and to reveal all of the ignorance they have been injected with. Another instance where this symbol occurs is earlier in the book, where Montag compares Clarisse to a mirror. This is an accurate comparison, because she allowed Montag to see his own ignorance. She also makes him question his whole life, just as looking in a mirror can do. Even in real life, at the end of the day if you can't please the man in the mirror than you're not living correctly That is how mirrors play a major symbol in Fahrenheit 451.
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Pat Monaghan
9/8/2013 12:52:55 am
Michael, this was an awesome point that I didn’t pick up on but I see now what you mean. At the end when Mildred is watching T.V. and for a brief moment the power goes out and she sees herself in the T.V. which doubles as a mirror. She sees what she’s become just before she dies proving your point on what granger said. This is a really cool concept to think about.
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Claudio LoBraico
9/8/2013 03:23:44 am
This is a great point Pat. I never realized the significance of this scene. It seems that Mildred had spent most of her time in the last few weeks resisting the ideas Montag tried to point out to her and just wasting her time watching TV and listening to the seashell radio. I believe at this moment, she realizes what she has become and what she has done with her life:nothing. Mildred sees that her husband was right and that she has wasted her life doing nothing but watching TV, listening to the radio and racing her car. Even though it is just several seconds, Mildred feels all of her regrets after seeing her relfection.
Ricky Wild
9/8/2013 09:19:28 am
Michael, I agree with everything you wrote. One thing I would like to add, because you seemed to be the only person writing about the bomb, is that I wonder if the bomb was due to the society they lived in. A lot of times America tries to, when they shouldn't, get involved in other countries problems. Such as trying to make the country a democracy or republic. I wondered if this was the complete opposite and a country was trying to make us a democracy or better country.
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Michael Hanlon
8/8/2013 01:54:09 am
In Fahrenheit 451 there's a "fictional" world of people driving fast cars, taking sleeping pills, watching tv all the time on these huge screens, and no one cares that they're not allowed to read books. Although is this world really that fictional? In our society every car comes with some sort of a faster version, and people are always driving way over the speed limit, so check that off. Next, there are tons of sleeping pills and sleep enhancement drugs on the market, and some even over the counter for anyone to buy; so there another check. Third with the television watching; what do we take these new smart tvs as? The televisions we can buy now get to 80inches and have all these features so people can watch them more. That's another check. And finally books, Montag's society doesn't care that they aren't allowed to read books, and would the majority of our world care? Only about 10% of the people I know would actually read if they didn't have to for school. Last check. So what does this tell me? That our society is headed in the same direction as Montag's.
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Samantha LaRocca
8/9/2013 01:14:12 pm
Mike I agree with what you're saying about how our society is headed in the same direction as Montag's but then again there are people who appose to that direction. People just like Ray Bradbury. Although he may just be getting his point across more thoroughly because Fahrenheit 451 was published, there are select few who do not agree with our society. But those people who try to oppose and stand out end up being judged by society. So if they then decide to just "go with the flow" society wins and takes over. Such as on page 58 it says, " Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally 'bright', did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many other leaden idols, hating him. And wasn't it this bright boy you selected for beating and tortures after hours?" This proves that the ones who stand out and try to progress their thoughts are shunned by peers and society. It is a continuous circle between living up to society's standards and progressing the world's thoughts and opinions. Society has the upper hand so without more people like Ray Bradbury, how is society going to change direction at all? It's just a circle that somehow needs to be broken.
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Matt Reardon
8/11/2013 03:04:51 am
Mike, I also agree with your statement about how our world is headed in such a direction. One idea comes to my mind with this, however. This is the idea that a government or higher power can never please everyone. It's not about making everyone happy, it's about making the majority of people happy. Trying to please everyone never works out, henceforth I would say that a world destined to be like Montag's is only going to be confronted by the opposing group. Also, Samantha, I agree with what you said about society going with the flow. It seems as though the more that people end up shining brighter than their peers, the more likely they are to be shunned. I think that society is frightened by brilliance, as though it's not right to be smarter than the person next to you; however, it remains our duty to work hard and succeed as students. That we will do even if it means someone gets left behind or does it at a slower pace.
Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:44:35 am
I think Bradbury would probably agree, especially about people not reading. I would add that reality television is getting more and more like the programs Bradbury invented for the novel, and as internet and TV merge more this will become even more the case.
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Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:53:04 am
Also, Matt and Samantha, you will find some great textual evidence to support that view of society in Beatty's speech. He specifically talks about how no one should be allowed to stand out or show any "brilliance." The quote I posted on the blog introduction to this thread is from that speech.
Ann Palma
8/8/2013 05:00:53 am
My favorite part of the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was when Montag tells Granger that he thinks something is wrong with him because he doesn't miss Mildred and wouldn't be sad when she dies. Granger responds to Montag by telling him the story of his grandfather. When Granger was a child, his grandfather would make him toys, feed birds on the sidewalk, play the violin, and all sorts of other things involving his hands. Granger recalled his grandfather as "a very kind man who had a lot of love to give to the world," (155). Unfortunately, when his grandfather passed away, Granger explained to Montag that he wasn't crying for his grandfather at all, rather for all the things he did during his lifetime. The message of this passage to me is that everybody dies, but the people that are remembered are the ones that made a difference in the world, the ones that changed the people around them for the better. Those who spend their lifetime improving the quality of society are the ones that impact lives beyond their final breath. Their legacy is eternal and will never be forgotten. Granger still remembers how his grandfather shaped the world through his tender heart and the way he cared for everyone around him. To Granger, no one will ever be able to replace his grandfather. People whose hands touched the world will always have their fingerprints pressed into the earth.
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Abby Westgate
8/13/2013 05:29:38 am
I love your last sentence! I agree with it too, "People whose hands touched the world will always have their fingerprints pressed into the earth." You're right, Granger's grandfather shaped the world because he touched it and did things with his life that required physical exertion. Mildred, however, is an example of someone who didn't touch the world and didn't make any lasting impact on it. Montag even says "I think of her hands but I don't see them doing anything at all," (Bradbury 156), when he is talking about Mildred. Mildred and Granger's grandfather are opposites in the way they made impacts on the earth.
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Ann Palma
8/22/2013 01:36:07 am
Throughout the novel, Ray Bradbury uses characters such as Granger's grandfather and Mildred to show readers the difference between a person who spent their life trying to experience everything the world has to offer and a person who is too absorbed into technology to think for themselves and expand their horizons. I believe this technique is used to show that technology, social media, etc. cause society to miss out on the little things that life offers. For example, constantly texting and being connected to Twitter and other social networks prevents people from enjoying actual conversations with their peers. This relates especially to modern days, how humanity is continuously using their iPhones and sitting at their computers all day long.
Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:39:56 am
Great last line! A powerful, visible image that "metaphorizes" the concept of lasting influence.
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Katie Peter
9/2/2013 10:20:50 am
I loved your point! This was not one that came to me right away but it makes a lot of sense. And this idea almost seems to be hidden among the other more obvious points made throughout the book.
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Michael Rice
8/13/2013 07:43:14 am
A part of Fahrenheit 451 I found very interesting was in the opening pages where Guy firsts meets Clarisse. Clarisse opens up an entirely new world to Guy and makes him think about things he has never thought about before and she forces Guy to realize the emptiness of his life. One of the points Clarisse proposes is that she wonders if drivers know what grass even looks like or what flowers look like. She says that they just see a patch of green or pink and that they are going to fast to realize what they actually look like.
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Morgan Grant
8/15/2013 09:47:03 am
In Fahrenheit 451, society is incredibly “sped up.” As Beatty quotes on page 54; “Picture it. Nineteenth-century man with his horses, dogs, carts, slow-motion. Then, in the shorter. Condensations. Digests. Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, and snap ending” I believe that Ray Bradbury was trying to portray that society is moving too fast. When connecting the book to real life, I would say that they are very similar. Everything nowadays is very quick, swift, and in the spur of the moment. Not many people sit back and just watch the world. Think about it; what do you think Ray Bradbury would say about today’s smart phones, tablets, social networks, and even instant messaging? The name itself “instant messaging” explains how society has sped up through the years. In the book, Beatty also quotes “Sped up film, Montag, quick. Click, Pic, Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why, How, Who, What, Where, Eh? Uh! Bang! Smack! Wallop, Bing, Bong, Boom! Digest- Digest, Digest- Digest- Digest. ” I believe this quote shows just how speedy society has become. Even today’s music has become much shorter and also less meaningful. Songs used to be six minutes and up, and would be about things other than break ups love. From Ray Bradbury’s billboards, to today's 30 second Super Bowl commercials, the world has become one big “fast-motion picture.”
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Ann Palma
8/22/2013 02:26:21 am
I completely agree with how society nowadays is so fast-paced that no one every stops to just sit and think. When I read your entry, for some reason I thought of how on the bustling streets of New York City, millions of people are walking in infinite directions going to who knows where. They all have a destination and are concentrating on getting to that point. Everyone walks so fast to go to wherever they need to be and never stop to take a look at how magnificent and diverse the city is. New York is one of the greatest cities in the world and has so much to offer to humanity. Everyone in that city has a story and no two stories are the same. People walk those sidewalks while tweeting on their iPhones, only focusing on getting to their destination; whereas they could be, as you put it, "watching the world," learning about life, and observing the diversity of cultures around the globe.
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Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:47:21 am
Great points! The idea of the world as just one big "movie" would make a cool connection with V for Vendetta, where the government literally watches everyone on camera; the whole society has become like their theater to put on their own show, as V puts it in his song at the beginning of part 2, "This Vicious Cabaret."
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Jon Nielsen
8/20/2013 04:20:50 am
A thing that intrigued me in the novel was Captain Beatty as a character. Throughout the book, he was so mysterious yet made his point when he was inquired too. His vocabulary was so beautiful is was eerie and even in other cases he would literally quote famous lines from classic novels and poems- especially the bible. Another thing that intrigued me was when Montag said Captain Beatty almost wanted to die. Putting these two pieces of information together I began to really think about Beatty and his past. What if something happened to him that made him love books? After years as a fireman what if he got curious and opened one up (which also relates to a quote Beatty said to Montag when he found out Montag was reading books)? If this did happen to him, this maybe explains why he wanted to die because what if he was so paranoid of the fact that he read books AND he was the Captain of the firehouse that he knew someone would find out. He couldn't have bared the humiliation. He knew he needed to die because of his crimes and painful irony but he could never accept that fact. This is why he did not stop instigating Montag and let him kill him(to make it seem like he didn't want to die at all). However, this is all just a crazy opinion.
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Mr. Biggs
8/22/2013 10:37:07 am
It's pretty interesting. Did you read the afterword in Fahrenheit? Bradbury writes an extra scene where he was Beatty explain more about his past and he talks about reading a lot. He doesn't quite hate himself for it, though; he more feels that life sucks and nothing has much meaning, since he came to feel that books were all lies.
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Sara Murphy
8/20/2013 11:24:02 pm
A part of of Fahrenheit 451 that captured my attention was Mildred's attempt to commit suicide. I felt like Ray Bradbury was portraying her of being mentally ill. She really does not socialize with many people and considers the actors and actresses on her television to be her "family". It seems like this woman may be delusional but than again, I'm not sure if he is meaning for her to seem mentally ill because maybe that is just how all people behave in this world. They would rather listen to a sea shell than have a conversation with the person standing in the room with them. Human beings have lost a way to fascinate each other with their words, hence the reason no one wants to be reading a book composed of another mans thoughts. Technology is the only thing that can hold someone's attention.
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Casey Judge
8/28/2013 07:15:33 am
Sara, i also see the mental illness portrayed within not only Mildred, but within the whole cast of Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag seems to lose his mind at the flashbacks of the woman he had burned with her books early in the novel. As the story continues i notice a sense of insanity in Montag which leads me to believe that insanity was what drove him to kill Captain Beatty.
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Claudio LoBraico
9/8/2013 02:58:23 am
Sara you make a good point here, but have you ever considered that maybe Mildred's suicide was a cry out for help? She seems just like your average citizen throughout the book: watching TV, speeding her car, and listening to her seashell radio. What would've made her want to kill herself? I think that Mildred saw how society was, saw that she was being dragged into it and wanted to kill herself before she became like everyone else. When she was given life again, Mildred realizes she cannot escape the lifestyle she takes on and decides she might as well go along with it.
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Sara Murphy
9/8/2013 11:21:25 am
Claudio you're right about the fact that it seems that MIldred seems to just be you're average person. There weren't necessarily any red flags indicating that something was so terribly wrong that she would have to result to such drastic measures. The world that she was living in was filled with monotony and I do believe she dreaded going through the same cycle day in and day out. There was no way out of this world, theoretically and literally because she was indeed revived after her suicide attempt. She'll just have to take it day by day in her gloomy world.
Casey Judge
8/22/2013 10:15:51 am
While reading Fahrenheit 451, I noticed that some of the characteristics Ray Bradbury portrayed in the future based society relate to our world today. This led to me realize that we live in a world that is completely dependent on society's expectations and that maybe we are all on the path to the same society that Guy Montag is living in. Guy lives in a society where his wife and everyone else around him only care about how much money they make and living up to their society's expectations. For example, Mildred continuously pushing Guy to return to the job of burning books, that he is suddenly highly against, so that he can make money and because in that society what he did was considered heroic and she wanted her and her husband to be considered successful. If you take a look at all of the characters they all seem to not make much sense of what they truly believe in and are so caught up in what their lives are supposed to be like opposed to doing what really makes them happy. In such a similar way, people in our world today go to school and try so hard mostly for two reasons; to make money and to live up to what society thinks is successful. We are living similar lives to the Montags where we live by society's idea of what a 'perfect' person is and only focus on being just that.The general idea that this novel gave me is that we may be headed straight to a world in turmoil as illustrated in Fahrenheit 451.
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Adel Soliman
8/28/2013 04:07:29 am
In the book, everyone is always happy. They don't ever worry, nor are there many conflicts between one another. It could very well be that how society is setting expectations and creating standards for every being to live up to helps. Looking through the government's point of view, if everyone is the same, watching the same shows on tv, doing the same jobs that everyone approves of, and even listening to the same music, there is no difference to point out therefore, there isn't any conflict between people. No one will stand out of the crowd to cause a commotion. At least that's what I think is going through the Government's mind in the book.
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Brian Chamberlain
8/23/2013 04:56:48 am
I recently read online that in many states, including New Jersey, there is a bill to increase the speed limit on some roads to 75 mph. This immediately made me think of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 where people drive over 100 mph and miss everything going on in between the places they are going to. With the new possibility of the speed limit becoming 75, people will tend to drive over the speed limit at speeds of 80 or even 85 mph, making our world more like Ray Bradbury's world in Fahrenheit 451.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
8/23/2013 05:43:57 am
That's very true about what you are saying. Sometimes the government has to bend or change the rules to keep people in line, but what if this cycle keeps going? What if we do keep this cycle up and we become a society with no rules? I wonder if maybe Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 society isn't as far away as we initially thought.
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Michael Rice
9/3/2013 04:59:57 am
Brian, this is a very good point about how Bradbury could've predicted this. I like the sentence about Mildred and her sea shell radio, this is a problem in the world and I agree that it makes the book more relevant to the world.
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Catherine Perry
9/4/2013 12:57:11 am
Brian, I think that’s a great point. I was also fascinated and amazed at how Ray Bradbury could have predicted what our society today would be becoming! Maybe he noticed these changes occurring in the public of 1953 but not on such a large scale. However, today with all the new electronics and advertising of new products people are become less and less appreciative of what is real and what is happening in the world around us. Years from now it may be an even greater problem.
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Adel Soliman
8/25/2013 03:17:53 am
The world of Fahrenheit 451 is an overly relaxed world in which order is washed away along with books and knowledge. Clarisse even told Montag after being asked why she doesn’t go to school, “Everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?” One of the more important things Clarisse told Montag was, “I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other.” If kids freely hurt and kill one another for their own entertainment, the society they live in clearly holds minimal to no order. One of the events the book mentioned that kind of shocked me was when Clarisse Mentioned that the kids would do street races in their spare time seeing how close they could get to the lamp posts and many times end up crashing cars.
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Alexa McTernan
8/26/2013 03:03:57 am
I agree completely with what you're saying about how the people aren't fazed about a lot that goes on around them. I understand why the men that go off to war are worried about what will happen but women like Mrs. Phelps think that it isn't their place to worry about things like that because it's not them who are leaving. Is there a chance where one of the ladies might change their views on their husband leaving, knowing he might not come back? Maybe, but for right now none of them understand what is really going on in their life.
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Brian Chamberlain
9/3/2013 10:13:13 am
Adel, your sentence about death being taken lightly in Fahrenheit 451 really struck me. I responded to it because of recent news headlines. I read about 3 teenagers in the Mid-West who shot an innocent jogger because they were bored. Today's paper has a story about a one year old in New York who was killed over a dispute his father was in. All of these headlines show that there are some in our society who take death lightly.
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Alexa McTernan
8/26/2013 02:49:32 am
In Fahrenheit 451, a novel by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag always does what he is told to do. He is a fireman but instead of saving people from fires, he starts them because of the books that are hidden inside some of the houses. He goes along with the government and believes that books are bad. Yet when the company gets a call about a woman hiding books in her home, his life starts to turn around. The woman refuses to leave her home when the firemen set it ablaze so instead, despite Montag asking her to come with him, she sets her own house on fire and burns to death with her books. Montag begins to realize what he's been doing these past ten years and how little he knows about why the system wanted books to be burned.
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Katie Peter
9/2/2013 10:27:21 am
To go further along your point Alexa, when Montag sees the woman die with her books it almost seems as though that was his final straw before he started to try to understand books himself. He sees how passionate that woman was to die with her books that he thought maybe it was worth turning against everything that he was ever taught to try to understand what was in the books that made people so crazy. But I loved your entry!
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Ava Merz
9/8/2013 02:28:48 am
Alexa, I agree with your points. When he burned the woman alive, it was almost like a turning point or realization to his brain about the mystery of books. He witnessed a woman being burned alive! Beatty quoted, "We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." This is an explanation of why the woman chose to burn with her books. She didn't want to lose her books and she knew that if she perished in ashes with them, she would still have her books.
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Samantha Reynolds
8/26/2013 06:20:16 am
As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, I noticed Ray Bradbury portrayed a society where electronics have become a very important part in society. In the novel everyone is so fascinated with just staying home all day and watching TV. Their TV's are as big as the walls and they just surround themselves with them. Like our society today everyone is so interested with their phones and other electronics that they never stop and enjoy the life their living. People stay in the house all day and watch TV instead of going outside or picking up a book and reading it. Everyone in the world is just like Mildred in the book. All she want's to do is surround herself with her TV screens so she can be surrounded by the characters on the screen, she feels she know and loves. Mildred has no need for human interaction because she considers the people in the TV to be real. Everyday in our world people surround themselves with TV's, video games, cell phones and Ipods. After reading this book it seems as if we are making the same mistakes Ray Bradbury wrote about in Fahrenheit 451.
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Michael Maier
9/7/2013 08:26:08 am
What you said is very true. People have slowly become so engrossed with their technology that they no longer see a need for human interaction. It just goes to show you that even when Ray Bradbury wrote this novel, the negative effects of technology were obvious to him and he incorporated them in his novel to show how to avoid a situation such as the one in this story. He also tried to show that free thought and human connection are two important keys to a healthy and smooth-functioning society.
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Alexa DeAnna
8/27/2013 03:32:53 am
As I was reading Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", I noticed that the government of the world the characters are living in wanted to dumb everything down for its people and make them happy, or at least the government's idea of happy. Can't sleep? Take some sleeping pills. Don't like school or learning? Here, we'll cut it shorter for you. Want to drive faster? Sure go way beyond a normal, safe speed limit. All of these snips and cuts add up to society's dependence on the government. People need challenges, we need the struggle of life. This dependence on the government will only lead to total government control, which is not always the best thing. What the government says isn't always right, so sometimes doing the right thing is actually the wrong thing. For example, pretty much everything Montag did in this book would be deemed "wrong" by his government. Montag went against the grain and stood up for his beliefs, which is not unlike most people today. He gained knowledge once he opened a book and, fortunately, started doing the "wrong" things.
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Alexa DeAnna
8/27/2013 03:44:06 am
Oh I just wanted to add that I watched the Gotye music video, and I feel like it proves what I'm trying to say better than my previous post. The rockin' electric organ symbolizes the government that the characters live in. At first, it's there to make them happy and let them have fun. But then, it goes overboard and takes control of the family and turns them into robots, which I thought was perfect because the government can turn people into "robots" or even like "puppets" by controlling their every move and programming their lives.
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Jazmin Graham
9/2/2013 02:52:55 pm
Your connection to the music video helped me understand the book a lot better. It's crazy how the government keeps pushing and pushing their limits until they go completely insane and try to control everyone like puppets. It's actually kind of scary that the government would go to such extremes in the interest of keeping order.
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Felix Pascua
8/27/2013 08:52:45 am
The future won't always be bright as shown in Fahrenheit 451. Montag's society is controlled by an overprotective government that fears new thoughts or thoughts that can be labeled as imaginary or fictional. Books were the pathways for the outlandish thoughts. The government wanted a world of perfect productivity where every problem has a precise answer or solution. Books troubled most people as they may show different meanings to different people. Captain Beatty even considers them dangerous when he says, " Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation" (Bradbury 118). The government's overprotectiveness led them to make books illegal which led to the events of Fahrenheit 451.
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Adel Soliman
8/28/2013 04:12:27 am
Even with the society in the book being completely controlled by the government, everyone is still happy. If people don't read, they don't see different points of view, and with everyone on the same page, there is nothing to argue about. So with books being considered dangerous, it still leads to societies happiness.
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Sophia Mazzini
8/28/2013 04:11:08 am
As I read the blogs posted by other students, I noticed a reoccurring theme throughout the posts was that our society today does mirror the futuristic dystopian society in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. Although many things in our society do in fact show that we are slowly transforming into this type of a community, I do not think we are a mirror image of it. In one students blog post, they wrote that in many areas, the speed limit is increasing, which reminded the student of how fast-paced everything was in the book. Bradbury wrote that people in his dystopian society drive so fast, that people do not even notice what is happening around them. Although many people today are so focused on one thing that they do not notice the tiny details, this is not true for everyone. For example, as I was driving in the car the other day with my family and one of my friends, everyone seemed to be falling asleep, except my friend. He had been complaining that he was tired all day, so I asked him why he couldn't fall asleep. His answer was simple, he did not want to miss everything that was going on around him. He said car rides were his time to look around and notice the small details that not a lot of people pay attention to.
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Samantha LaRocca
8/28/2013 06:54:59 am
Sophia I agree partially to what you said about how the technology we use helps to further our communities today. With Google and many other great search engines we are given the opportunity to research and discover new things through the internet. We can communicate to others about a certain topic and further our thoughts with other people's opinions in blogs just like this one. But we also take advantage of all we are given. I am not saying we all do, but many. And that is where the problem arises about technology taking over our lives. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more are all evidence that our technology is advancing. They can be used for great things or just for fun but many people don't know where to draw the line. If we all let ourselves be sucked into the vacuum of reality TV and lack of reading, that is how our society will fall and turn into one like Montag's. We very well may be leading towards a world such as the one in Fahrenheit 451 but what happens is all up to us. If we learn how to cut off our electronics when necessary, which we must learn since technology is only advancing, we can figure out how to avoid a society like Montag's.
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Pat Monaghan
8/28/2013 09:08:18 am
One part of the novel that really caught my attention was Mildred’s want and almost need for the fourth wall in her home. She thinks the only way her life could be complete is if she has the fourth wall installed. She thinks that with three walls she’s just watching and not fully a part of it. She shows this when she says on page 20 and 21 “If we had a fourth wall, why it’d be just like this room wasn’t ours at all, but all kinds of exotic people’s rooms”. This shows she wants nothing to do with her own life anymore and wants to rely fully on fictional characters to live her life for her. Its also interesting that in theater the fourth wall is the imaginary architecture between the audience and the actors and if you “break” the fourth wall you are letting the audience in on the action. To break the fourth wall an actor can talk to the audience or look at them letting them know that he acknowledges their existence. Once you break the fourth wall the audience is no longer just spectators they are now part of the play. Just like Mildred would have been if they broke down the fourth wall. She would no longer have been a spectator but now fully a part of the play and the people in the wall would become the audience of Mildred. Watching her every move fully immersed in her life rather than the other way around. The whole book Mildred is just on the brink of losing herself in the world of the people in the wall.
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Brian Chamberlain
9/6/2013 01:18:49 pm
Pat, I never knew about the "fourth wall" in acting. I found it very interesting. When I read it, I tried to think of plays that I have seen where the actor breaks the fourth wall. This summer I saw the Putnam County Spelling Bee. During this play the actors spoke to the audience illustrating what you were talking about.
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Jessica Auriemma
9/8/2013 10:59:52 am
Pat, I love that you connected MIldred's fourth wall to theater's fourth wall. I never thought of it that way. I think it is such a unique interpretation and was very insightful. Since you mentioned it, I can understand your thinking in that the two fourth walls are very similar. This helped me to understand the novel on a deeper level than i previously was able to.
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Mya Alexice
8/29/2013 07:57:51 am
I've been diagnosed with synesthesia for a while now, which means that alot of the time, certain things emit colours for me- words, names, days of the week especially. And this book- for a reason I hadn't found out until the end, was consumed with the same colour scheme. Reds, and oranges, and yellows. The words were fiery and alive, and it wasn't until thinking about it that I realised that light, heat, and fire all play a crucial theme in this book.
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Hannah Sauer
9/6/2013 06:41:19 am
I like how you said that fire can be interpreted in many different ways: Bradbury shows this throughout the novel. For most of the book, Montag tells the reader how fire is harmful and destructive. For example, when the firemen get the call to the woman's house, they burn down the house and the books and the woman dies in the fire. Then at the end of the novel, Montag and Granger and the others are all sitting around the fire to keep warm and talking together. Bradbury shows how fire can be either harmful or helpful, it's just how one interprets it that depicts if it's good or bad.
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Jack Anderson
9/7/2013 02:01:51 pm
Whenever people try to pick out a books' symbols I often feel like they might pick an item or idea that has no symbolism at all. It's like they just might be overanalyzing the book. Something that a reader may put symbolism to, the author might have not put a second thought into writing about. However, in this case with Fahrenheit 451 I completely agree with Mya. Ray Bradbury does a fantastic job of putting deep meaning behind his words. By consistently using these words in description he really makes the reader think and that's one of my favorite parts about this book.
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Alexandra Gavrilovic
8/31/2013 03:27:17 am
A quote from Fahrenheit 451 that stood out to me was, "So it was the hand that started it all...his hands had been infected and soon it would be his arms. He could feel the poison working up his wrists and into his elbows and his shoulders...his hands were ravenous." (Bradbury,41) When Montag says this he is describing how he feels after he takes the book from the old women's house.He is describing how guilty he feels for taking it because he knows it is the wrong thing to do and by taking this book he has disobeyed the ultimate rule he has enforced most of his life. This is such an important part in the book because, without him realizing, this is montag's first real rebellion against the firemen. Ironically the way that Montag describes the guilt growing through his body is almost like a fire itself. It started with a little flame in his hands and kept growing rapidly throughout his body. With the guilt that spreads, so does the idea of change and rebellion. Taking the book is what lights the first match in montag to try and make a change. On the ride home from the woman's house he keeps trying to convince himself that there was no meaning behind him grabbing for the book, although it signified him trying to reach for something more in his life. When Montag reached for that book it was more than curiosity that drove him to do it, he was showing that he was reaching for something more to live for. Throughout the whole book i felt that Montag's rebellion against society was due to his need for something to fight for and something more that just being another almost "zombie like" citizen living in their dumbed down society. He rebels against the firemen and the whole society to try and make a change. The thought of everyone being so numb and emotionless angers him. He shows this when he lashes out at Mildred's friends when they are having a conversation in his living room. Montag is trying to reach for a better future, one in which people can hold meaningful conversations and also be diverse.Stealing the book in a way is what begins Montag's journey to find himself and make an impact on society.
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Samantha LaRocca
8/31/2013 08:53:55 am
A part of the novel that significantly stuck out to me was the very end when the bomb hit the city. All of the people who were horribly steered wrong by the government were victims of the bombing. Only those like Montag and the other homeless men who still believe in books survive. I think Bradbury used this as a representation that in the end only the books and those who read them truely advance society. That those who get too swept away in technology and let the government rule them as individuals as well as a whole do not 'survive' as well as those who challenge it. Also, at the very end when Montag and the other homeless men decide to go back to the city to help with the damage and spread literature, he is implying something deeper. I believe that also meant those who keep literature alive are the ones who can save humanity from itself but in a more metophorical sense. People like Montag and the homeless men are almost like the pheonix that is helping society rise from its ashes forming a better tomorrow filled with literature and people who are not wholey ruled by the government.
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Bridget Kelly
9/7/2013 05:50:14 am
I really admire how you saw Bradbury as saying that getting caught up in technology does not make for a "surviving" society. I definitely agree with what you are saying here, and that the author is hinting for people today to stray away from these sources of false happiness. I really see how a society such without education and human/life values would blow up.
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Ricky Wild
9/1/2013 03:24:33 am
In Fahrenheit 451, a reoccurring theme is that intelligence leads to problems, yet ignorance leads a life of simplicity and happiness. Being wise leads to incarceration, unsociable tendencies, and possibly death. Intellects include Clarisse, Faber, Mrs. Blake, and protagonist Montag, in which all these characters have a problem due to there wit. Clarrise is anti-sociable to peers because of her keen knowledge and is unable to make friends. She finds making friends tough because of the difference in intelligence. Professor Faber is just another victim of this atrocious society. Faber is highly aware and guilty of the civilization he let be created. If Faber was foolish he would live his life guilt-free and not worried about his past. Mrs. Blake, the old women burnt alive with her library of books, ultimately paid the price of death because of her intelligence. When kerosene drowned her house, Mrs. Blake lit the match because she felt life wasn't worth living in such an oppressive country. If Mrs. Blake didn't have such perception she would be fine living her life like everyone else. Finally, Montag, a once naive character, throughout the novel begins to open his eyes and realize his life isn't great. Learning and becoming intelligent he develops problems such as losing his family, job, house, and he begins to become miserable. Interestingly enough, when the novel begins Montag is worry free. Becoming smarter he sees everything wrong about the society he lives in. Fahrenheit 451 portrays that ignorance is bliss.
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9/6/2013 05:01:43 am
I agree with Ricky on his list of intellectuals except he forgot one: Captain Beatty. Although Captain Beatty is a fireman he is still an intellectual. It hints that he used to be an avid reader but he has always hated the way certain books contradict each other and he believes everyone should think the same way. So while I would still consider him an intellectual I do not believe he is smart enough to see how the benefits of books greatly out weigh the draw backs. His greatest flaw was his narrow-mindedness.
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Zack Sabat
9/1/2013 05:03:02 am
"She was as rational as you and I and, more so perhaps, and we burned her," Montag (Bradbury 51).
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Brandon Alvaro
9/6/2013 04:22:23 am
Yes, I also believe that this quote makes the readers realized that Montag is having another outlook on books. He thinks that just becuase this woman owns a bokk, does not make her any less of a person. Maybe shes even more of a person that they are. And i also agree with you Zack, that Clarisse did change his whole perception on life.
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Nicole Ortiz
9/1/2013 09:27:16 am
The novel Fahrenheit 451 reminded me of the saying ‘stop and smell the roses.’ The society in the book is so distracted by the fast new technology that no one stops to appreciate what is actually important. In Mildred’s case, she was so engrossed with winning the constant approval of the parlour family that she never stopped to notice the husband she pushed away. Similarly, Montag became too caught up in his work as a fireman (and hoarding books) to comprehend that his life had become cold and monotonous. Each day he would watch flames swallow houses of books before going home to a house that felt cold. Montag was so involved with the routine of his days that he did not realize that his life was not what he wanted it to be. He had finally noticed what his life had become when Clarisse asked him if he was happy. The young girl had been the one to slow Montag down. She allowed him to step back and see what became of his life. She not only noticed that Montag was missing out on the world, but that others were too. Clarisse pointed this out when she said, “I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly.”(9) A reoccurring theme in Fahrenheit 451 is to not become caught up in the fast pace of society, but to slow down and see what has become of your life.
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Jane Breslin
9/6/2013 07:56:27 am
I agree with the idea that the society in "Fahrenheit 451" has an emptiness and hollow shell about it. Maybe Montag likes to burn books because he feels a companionable warmth compared to his cold home.
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Yaritza Ortega
9/7/2013 11:36:08 am
I definitely agree with your point of view. i also believe that Clarisse made Montag realize that he need to step out and slow down.He was to cough up daily routine that he forgot of the simple things in life like nature. she thought him to see the person who he had become and what he had done with his life. i personally believe that Clarisse was like a mentor to Montag. she help him discover himself she made him question his actions and decisions. she did not only mad him question himself but influence him as well by sharing her knowledge and her personal experiences. i overall believe that Clarisse played a huge role in Montag's life she was not only his friend but his companion, mentor, and even like his mentor.
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Jessie Brand
9/2/2013 03:34:29 am
Fahrenheit 451 has a very strong reoccurring theme of censorship throughout the whole novel. In Bradbury's futuristic society owning and reading books are illegal. Any books found will be burned, and if you refuse to abandon them, you end up dead as well. I assume the reason for this is that the futuristic society wants to speed through things and does not have time for literature. Bradbury's fast paced futuristic society is based on technology and entertainment, and if you're not interested in those two topics, you're considered strange, sort of how if you don't like a particular band or activity in modern day society you're no longer considered normal. I feel as Bradbury was alluding to the fact that we are all very quick to judge people if they do not enjoy the same things as you.
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Will Cronin
9/4/2013 05:26:19 am
Also, another reason they outlaw and burn books is to make people conform to society. The fireman’s duty is to destroy knowledge and promote ignorance in order to equalize the population and promote sameness. This way no one has individual thoughts. With no one being individual, the government has total control over everyone.
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Anya Carney
9/2/2013 06:51:50 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, I believe the author was almost trying to make a point of how America could be in the future; if we don't "get our heads out of" our social devices, we could "dumb-down" America like the characters in the novel. Bradbury had the characters not read books anymore, and had them invite friends over to watch television! If we do not begin to realize, we could end up the same way! Like Aliyyah said earlier, we search dictionary words online rather than looking them up in an actual dictionary. All these great online search engines were created to help further our intelligence and research when in reality they have made it easier for us to be lazier. In Farenheit 451, reading books is not even legal, but when someone did read a book, Bradbury showed that they were so much smarter than the average citizen and came to the realization that the average living wasn't good or right. In the end, I believe Bradbury just wanted to make a point about how important literature really is
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Shannon Burke
9/5/2013 01:29:12 am
Anya, I completely agree with your idea. It is amazing to me that Bradbury could have foreshadowed the future of America the many years ago when he wrote the book. When you read a book, you enter a world of imagination and wonder that the internet cannot provide you with. When was the last time you read a book for the fun of it (not counting books assigned at school)? Truth be told, most kids our age probably cannot remember. But I bet they can remember the last time the refreshed their Twitter feed or searched Sparknotes so they did not have to read one of the books assigned to them. Books allow you to disconnect yourself from society and just read. Remember when in elementary school you were assigned 20 minutes a night reading for homework daily? The teachers were not doing it to spite you because you would have rather watched an episode of SpongeBob in the third grade than read a few chapters of Junnie B. Jones or the Magic Treehouse. They were doing it for your own good because they realize that reading is an essential part of life and without it, I couldn’t imagine where our world would be today.
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9/6/2013 05:09:21 am
I agree with Anya on Bradbury's reasons for writing the book Fahrenheit 451 to show us what could happen if we abandon literature. As it was so clearly shown, Bradbury's fictitious society was small minded, violent and indecisive. Crime ran rampant through the streets and no punishment were dealt. The average human couldn't carry a meaningful conversation for more than a couple sentences. And no one could remember what needed to be done and only listened to what the government had to say.
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Bridget Kelly
9/7/2013 05:44:52 am
Many points in the novel, as you said, seem to reflect the society as "dumb" or caught up in technology; however, when you step back and look at society today, much of what we are doing doesn't seem that far off. I agree with how the changes in the world and our technology may be making for a more lazy and uneducated future. Children today are rarely seen reading for pleasure, instead they spend time playing video games and watching television. While these are incredible inventions, a future of children with great skills in video game playing does not seem like one suit to take on the complicated challenges life has.These aspects are very heavily reflected in the novel, through the societies incapability to live happy or successful lives.
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Anna Bongiorno
9/3/2013 01:38:40 pm
For some reason, the novel Fahrenheit 451 reminded me very much of another book I read in middle school titled The Giver. Both stories take place in the very distant future ( I would like to hope) and give the reader an almost creepy feel as to what our world may change into. Similar to Montag in Fahrenheit 451, Jonas, in The Giver, is the only person aware of the crazy lifestyle everyone else is accustomed to living. In both novels the only way to survive is by rebellion and escaping their messed up communities.
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Alexandra Gavrilovic
9/4/2013 01:41:03 am
When i read Fahrenheit 451 i also saw many comparisons to the giver. In the end of both books the main characters run away and rebel against their societies. Both societies in the books are very similar in the sense that they are both very controlled an no one is really able to have an opinion or be an individual. I feel like both authors were trying to get across the same message in their books.
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Catherine Perry
9/8/2013 08:55:48 am
I never made that connection until you explained it. That is a great point. The societies are very similar considering they don't really have relationships or connections. The main characters also have personalities that stand out. They notice the faults and blemishes in society and want to find a way out.
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Will Cronin
9/4/2013 05:10:46 am
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book about censorship that uses fire as one of its main symbols. Fire is given multiple meanings throughout the story and stands for destruction, self-awareness, as well as cleansing. Fire can be used to symbolize these things for both good and evil and so it plays a very important and complicated role in the book. In the beginning of the novel, we quickly learn that books are outlawed and Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman. However, firemen do not extinguish fires; they start them. They burn literature and knowlage, keeping society ignorent. Fire, in this case, symbolizes destruction because of the firemen burning the books. Eventually he meets Clarisse, a girl who tells him that people used to read books and firemen put out fires not start them. Clarisse also reminds Montag of candle-light, and so fire, when controlled, symbolizes the flickering of self-awareness and knowledge. Montag is later confronted by Beatty who shares his views on society. Captain Beatty and the firemen want to use fire to cleanse the world of knowledge; a thing that they think is evil. When he explains that cremation is important to make people forget the dead, he says that they should "Forget them. Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean" (Bradbury 60). He thinks that the only way to have a peacefully and happy society is to make people forget the past and ignore or forget anything that they do not like. Ultimately, fire in this book takes on many significant meanings whether they are good or bad.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
9/4/2013 12:20:17 pm
You are right Will. Fire symbolizes both death and resurrection. It acts like a foreshadow, I think, to how Montag acts through out the novel. He goes through a lot of ups and downs just like a fire, when its is smoldering then suddenly is roaring with life. Just like how he was reborn at the end of the book when he escaped the hound and join the ex professors out in the open country.
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Jack Navitsky
9/5/2013 04:52:07 am
This is a great point. The firemen in Guy Montag's world do not put out fires but start them. The firemen start the fires to destroy books, reading materials or anything that provides knowledge that goes against society. I like the use of the word cleanse.They want all the knowledge that people learn to be from "society" Their information needs to come from technology.
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Matt Reardon
9/5/2013 06:58:18 am
The fire also sort of contradicts itself as well. It burns away one thing so that a new item can be made in its place. In the grand scheme of things, the revolution was constructed from the ashes of all those books and homes. Fire acted as a destroyer of freedom, yet also as a building block for change.
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9/6/2013 05:24:56 am
I agree with Will on what fire stands for but I feel fire also stands for intelligence. When someone is of great intelligence or intellect people are drawn to them and they almost seem to give off their own light just as fire does. In the novel it talks about when Guy first met Faber he seemed to be drawn to him and Guy also mentions that whenever they burn a house all the neighbors come out to watch it burn. So while fire is used in this novel for the destruction of knowledge it can also symbolize knowledge or intelligence itself.
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Katie Peter
9/4/2013 11:58:01 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, a question that always seemed to pop into my head was: "Did Bradbury intend to warn us about a future without love and difference?" After Montag meets Clarisse he realizes that the love between he and his wife is dying and is opened up to a whole new perspective of the world he lives in. Bradbury promotes this idea that in the future people become so absorbed in their materialistic things that they forget how to love each other. Which, if you think about it is not too far fetched from what kind of society we are living in today. No, we aren't killing each other and lighting each other's houses on fire, but we are a very materialistic society.Most are starting to lose sight on the important things and I think that Bradbury did an amazing job seeing that coming.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
9/4/2013 12:09:29 pm
Katie, that is a great point. This makes me wonder if Mildred's suicide attempt was a type of foreshadowing of their love and memories dying. It was almost as if that was their love/marriage was hanging on by a single thread and it broke as soon as he came home to find her "sleeping".
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Erin Kirkpatrick
9/4/2013 12:01:50 pm
In both Fahrenheit 451 and V for Vendetta, the government keeps a tight grip on the citizens and has too many rules to count. But the people react in different ways in each book. The citizens in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s society, believe that everything they do and think is because they believe it is their own free will. They are completely happy with how everything thing is and support everything the government says completely. But in Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta the citizens are as unhappy as can be. They are fully aware of all the restrictions placed on them and too scared to go against them in fear of the consequences. But in both books the main character is willing to go against the government for a better future. Even though, the effectiveness of the dramatic change is in play a lot quicker in V for Vendetta than Fahrenheit 451 you can still see that a better future is to come in both societies.
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Giana Apreza
9/4/2013 04:02:53 pm
When finishing up Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was describing Montag's thoughts. While deep in thought he spoke of the sun, "One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag.... Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another." This struck me as it made me think of not only it's concept in the book, but also its concept in reality today. Bradbury was describing how the dystopian world had to stop burning the literature to revitalize its society and its culture as a whole. Today this seems to reflect how soon enough someone somewhere will have to also take a stance (ask Montag had done himself) against the conflicts we are facing everywhere.. Between fighting for human rights, peace, and against the destroying of nature that is going on everywhere. When referring to the quote above, the sun will not stop burning, but we must stop destroying the planet. Bradbury wants to make this point clear to his readers by telling what damage fires can cause but it is also a change for rebirth to start again and make the right decisions.
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Yaritza Ortega
9/5/2013 10:45:28 am
While reading the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury I came across many interesting topics.This book made me think of all the simple things we take for granted. Now a days we don't really appreciate sitting down and talking for houses, we preferred been occupied by other things like electronics. I know a days with all the technology that we are expose to we forget of the traditional ways we use to do things. For example know a days simple task like meeting someone is different. Now we meat people on social media like facebook, myspase , intagram, twitter, tumblr, match, harmony, zoos and other kinds of wed- sides but it's throw an instrument. I believe that change is good as a matter of fact is part of life but i think that some times we have to go back to the traditional way. Talking through a computer changes our expression. In the book Clarisse (a 17 years old high school girl, one of the main characters)says "It all depends on what you mean by social doesn't i? Social to me means talking to you about things like this. Being with people is nice. i don't think that it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk, do you?" I think that when you actually socialize with people you see the true them; in there actions and though their physical expression witch you can't do thought a computer. This simple task like talking to someone can help you learn from them, change your perspective of things and even realize things that you might have ignore. A simple compression like the ones that Clarisse and Montag ;change Montag's perspective in his personal relationship, life and most important his carrier.
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Hannah Sauer
9/5/2013 11:06:03 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the topic of conformity appears multiple times. The people of the dystopian society believe that conforming to the ignorant and illiterate ways of the world in which they live is both a safer and better way to live. According to their government, with books comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes unhappiness. So the government enforces the use of media and technology and electronic devices, and outlaws books altogether. People spend all of their time watching TV and driving cars at fast speeds and not reading. To enforce the illiterate society, there are firemen. In our world, firemen are meant to put out fires; in the novel, a fireman's' job is to start fires. When they get the alarm, the firemen go and set fire to the house of the culprit(s) who illegally keeps books. This frightens the people of the society into not keeping books and going along with the technology and media-based ways their government enforces. Bradbury expresses that without books, the people in our society will become unknowledgeable and conform to the so called "norm" of that society.
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Samantha Quinn
9/6/2013 11:50:13 am
Hannah, I agree with your point. Fahrenheit 451 was a society where having too much knowledge was thought of as a terrible thing. The government was afraid that someone could use all the knowledge from the books to go against them, hence enforced the need of firemen to create the fires decreasing the risk of that occurring. That would convince the public not to question or go against society making them remain ignorant similar to others around them.
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Mikey Brewer
9/5/2013 04:21:46 pm
Fahrenheit 451's society is led by a government that doesn't value its people. Every single member of the society just goes along with what the government tells him or her to do without question. There is a huge suicide rate indicating real unhappiness with a life filled with no values, no thought, and no individualism. They are all living pointless lives with no meaning or purpose. Everyone just goes about their days as zombies thinking they can live without books or true knowledge, but only the people who have access to books (A.K.A fugitives) like Faber know how much color and life the world is missing. The government encourages mindless diversions such as false TV families and the strong push with technology, so there is a blurred line on what's real and what’s surreal. Choice is taken away and lives are pretty much dictated to you. There is no value emphasized on human interaction and connection, rendering everyone's life without principle or purpose. Clarisse represents the people not corrupted by the government; she thinks, feels, and speaks freely. She made Montag realize how corrupted the world he lives in was and got him to truly see what kind of society he was living in.
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Claire Toomey
9/6/2013 12:57:26 am
Mildred is insufferable. She's shallow, vapid, distant - traits that make her difficult to relate to or feel any sympathy for. That being said, I find her incredibly interesting and find myself thinking of her more than any other character from the novel. She is a deeply fearful woman, and seems to overcompensate for the emptiness in her life with fancy technology and a "family" she only knows through her television screen. She is so removed from reality that she cannot even remember attempting suicide. Mildred Montag’s troubling behavior and inability to cope with the world around her poses an important question: is Fahrenheit’s censored society a product of people like Millie, or are people like Millie a direct result of this culture of ignorance?
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Ava Merz
9/7/2013 08:39:19 am
Claire, you question really had me thinking! I believe that Fahrenheit's censored society is a product of people like Millie. The society's restriction of reading works of literature led Millie to the life she lived. She was brought into a tv family with the guidance of the society. If people were allowed to read books, I don't necessarily think there would be people like Millie as a result of the culture of ignorance. Millie watched tv, because she wanted and strived to express feelings by laughing, learning and even crying. If she had books, she could laugh learn and cry with them. She wanted something special to escape to. Just like, how readers escape into the book's world, she escaped into the tv world.
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9/6/2013 05:47:25 am
Who is truly the evil one in the novel Faber or Beatty? I believe both try to force their will upon Montag but Faber does it more gently and is less controlling in what he makes Montag do, unlike Beatty. But Beatty's vision for society seems safer. With everyone being ignorant and going along with one view of mind. He makes the world Faber wants seem to be a violent and crazy one with everyone contradicting each other. When in reality the world Beatty wants is the one filled with violence. In Faber's world people may contradict each other but sometimes contradiction make the world a safer place. I believe Captain Beatty was the evil one in the novel he was more controlling of Montag and tried to force his views upon him where Faber let Montag choose which path to take and Montag ended up choosing Faber's.
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Michael Maier
9/7/2013 04:34:42 am
Asking whether Faber or Beatty was the evil one was interesting. I had not thought about the possibility of Faber being evil. But as you stated, Faber also forced his will on Montag just as Beatty had done. They both tried to use Montag to achieve what they each wanted to happen. Along with you, I believe that Beatty was the truly evil one. But there can be a debate about whether Faber was the hero in all this, or just another evil trying to force his ways over another.
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Bridget Kelly
9/7/2013 05:32:22 am
I never would have thought of Faber in an "evil" way before reading what you wrote. Many people today would also not typically view the more gentle and calm man as the villain, because Beatty is much easier to point a finger to. Also, maybe people do not wish to believe Faber could really be evil, because the world today is filled with books and contradiction. Therefore, if Faber was truly wrong, wouldn't that make many aspects of our world today "wrong?"
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Georgie Greenwald
9/6/2013 08:39:40 am
The central topic of Fahrenheit 451 focuses on complete control of society. This is demonstrated by Captain Beatty’s character throughout the book. Captain Beatty, like all fireman in the book, feel that all books are dangerous and worthless. Captain Beatty tells Montag that books cause contradictions because they don’t have one stable meaning. Beatty’s real goal is to be in control of the answers.
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Samantha Quinn
9/6/2013 10:11:16 am
While reading the novel Fahrenheit 451, one of Clarisse’s many questions remained fresh in my mind as it would hint to a realization that would occur. The teenage girl questioned if Guy Montag was happy. Montag believed that it was a ridiculous thing to ask, and of course he convinced himself that he was content. Being a fireman for numerous years he would do as told, burn the books and the homes where they were found without thinking twice. The fireman displayed huge grins watching the fire they had just created, and that would never change. Not once did any of the men question the fire chief and their actions let alone the emotions they felt in doing them, however Clarisse made Montag think differently. All along he was anything but happy; reality set in to remind him that he had burned books, and a woman trying the save them. Even the fire chief told him that “happiness is important… [and he was] not happy” at all (Bradbury 65). The happiness that had once existed with his job went up in smoke leaving sadness in its place. He had been destroying books that had taken “some [men] a lifetime … to put some of his thoughts down” on paper, the thought of this made him upset (Bradbury 52). It took him many years to finally realize that the contentment he thought he had been feeling was not real, he need to do something drastic to change his emotion and finally feel happy like Clarisse.
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Michael Maier
9/6/2013 11:15:11 am
One lesson that I think Ray Bradbury wanted us to take away from this novel is that if you take everything in life and strip away the things that you deem unnecessary, then you will reach a point where you have taken the most important things out of life. This is shown when Captain Beatty visits Montag when he is "sick". Beatty explains that things began to be condensed when the world became crammed with more people. He tells Montag that classics such as Hamlet were compressed into ten- or twelve-line passages. When complicated and complex works such as these are "dumbed-down", it strips us of one of the most amazing human qualities. Thought. If you show people that they do not need to think about anything really deeply, you take away the ability of individuals to come to their own conclusions. You do not allow them to decide for themselves what is important to them. You basically deny them the ability to be separate from others, to be a unique human being. This is shown in the novel by everyone who has been fed all this compressed data, have turned out almost exactly like each other. Not in the sense that they look the same or wear the exact same clothes, but that they all believe the same thing. They believe that the key to happiness is the fastest cars and the largest TVs. They barely have any connection with their families who are supposed to be closest to them. This is because they have not had the chance to think for themselves and decide what they believe is the key to happiness. I believe that the basic lesson that Bradbury can teach from this novel is that you must decide what can make you happy. Do not let any other person or thing decide for you what can make you happy in life. Otherwise, you will be going through the motions of life under the false sense of happiness when really you are not happy at all.
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Katie Carroll
9/7/2013 02:03:13 am
Montag was a fascinating character to read about; he tried to conform to the thoughts of Beatty and the other firemen but did not succeed. There was something deeper inside him; he had developed a relationship with reading. The actual book, its pages and its content, had started to bring joy to his life. He was unable to suppress his need to seek the knowledge that was obtained by reading books. Conforming to society and its changes can be difficult. We have a family friend who's strong will and love for her home and location enabled her to embark in a battle for eminent domain. A few years ago she was confronted with the development of the Long Branch beach area. Homeowners were approached and encouraged to sell their property for the greater good of the development of Long Branch. She was unable to give into this ideology. Proximity and access to the ocean was a necessity to her life. The location of her home had become part of her lifestyle. She had taught and encouraged her family to live and learn about life through the sea. The ocean offered her an outlet to world of learning. Just as Montag had the need to be educated through reading, she felt the need to learn from the ocean.
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Michelle Andia
9/7/2013 04:57:10 am
In F451 i liked how Ray Bradbury represents the way that society looks at different thinkers. He shows how they are outcast just because they do not fit the mold. Also how he shows that what we think is normal and sane, may not be. Our habits which we are so used to, don't make sense if you look closer.
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Bridget Kelly
9/7/2013 05:23:54 am
In the novel, many of the seemingly outrageous possessions some characters have bring them a sense of "false happiness." However, almost every ridiculous technology seems to resemble different objects in people’s lives today. When one reads about these technologies in the novel, they view them as not bringing true joy or meaning, however, now one could look at modern objects as bringing false happiness to society today. One example of a crazy technology in Fahrenheit 451 would be how Mildred constantly chooses to watch the wall, rather than talking to her friends or family. She vicariously lives a "happy" life through, when you think about it, a wall. Nowadays, people use the Internet or television to supply them with this feeling. Many people find themselves sitting around all day on different websites or watching shows rather than enjoying company with those around them. Hence, the wall, and today the Internet, resembles a sense of unreal happiness or enjoyment in everything the world has to offer. In a similar way, the seashells kept in character's ears were another "false happiness" bearing technology. Characters constantly walk around with these seashells on and in their ears. One could always find them listening to this shell, seeming to ignore the people and things around them. Today, almost everyone has a smartphone, with access to thousands and aps, websites, and other entertaining aspects. Therefore, much like the shells, one can be found living in a world on their phone, even in the company of others. Both shells and cells can never fulfill one's true happiness. These examples of technology taking over peoples lives seem as though the author was "predicting the future" by writing about the false happiness found in technologies.
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Jack Anderson
9/7/2013 01:52:28 pm
I like Bridget's point she made when she talked about a sense of "false happiness". Because the government was able to create and make available these technologies they were able to pull the wool over everybody's eyes and fool them into thinking they were happy. It's scary to think of a government doing such a thing to its own people, but i think it's especially scary because it might not be that hard to do. I hardly blame Mildred for living like she does. If I had all those things at my disposal I just might too.
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Claudio LoBraico
9/8/2013 05:35:10 am
I agree that the technology both in our world and in F451 give a 'false happiness'. If you think about it, we don't really think much when we watch TV or when we go on the internet. Obviously the pictures and videos etc. distract us and keep us occupied, but when it comes down to it, happiness can only be achieved by human interaction and knowledge. The internet, television, and technology are all nice to have but are really just distractions, which is why the government was able to control the people so easily. When you take away the main source of knowledge and human self expression and replace it with television you create nothing but a bunch of distracted people who lose their understanding of true feelings.
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Erin Kirkpatrick
9/7/2013 05:25:41 am
The other day I found this quote "When they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people," by Heinrich Heine and it made be think about this topic of fire and the soul. At the end of Fahrenheit 451 Ganger talked about how he would cry not because he lost his grandfather but because the world suffer from the loss of his hands. His hands touched the world and managed to make it better, even if it was only in a small way, it still helped. That's kinda of what writers and authors do too. They put their thoughts down on paper and bind it for others to read; but they aren't just thoughts. They are a mix of what they learned so far and what they have overcome; in simple terms their soul. That's what I think Heine meant when he said that quote. Burning those books is burning the imprint that someone made on the world. It almost as if you erased their existence completely just by burning their book.
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Ava Merz
9/7/2013 08:31:09 am
Erin, this is a great point! I absolutely agree with you. The quote, "A book is the gateway to the soul of its author" by A.R. Voss explains what you just said! A book is filled with an author's thoughts, beliefs, knowledge and passion. Every word of a book was written for a reason. An author always has a point he wants to get across. By burning books, you are burning lost knowledge as well.
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Pat Monaghan
9/7/2013 07:14:16 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM8JhvfoqdA
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Ava Merz
9/7/2013 08:06:37 am
In the novel "Fahrenheit 451" a major theme is knowledge vs. ignorance. Beatty and his firemen strive to destroy knowledge by destroying books and works of literature. They promote ignorance and lack of knowledge to equalize the civilization's thoughts and ways of thinking. As Montag searches for knowledge, he destroys ignorance. The fireman are afraid of Clarisse and the intellectuals' knowledge. They are deep in thought about life and the way the world lives. The firemen and their followers don't want to think of the "ways of the world", and learn/analyse life. They don't want to be sad and realize how horrible the world is. They want to perserve happiness. Montag is trying to stress to people that this wonderous works of literature will truly help them with problems/situations they are having. These books are precious. The followers of Beatty and his firemen simply live off of this quote by Alexander Pope "A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow droughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again." Even today, people are avoiding books. Technology is pushing people away from literature. Think about Mildred. Her life is based on a tv screen. She doesn't have a real family. Technology took that away from her. She now has a televised family who makes her become worthless. She is dead. Montag's connection to literature is keeping him alive, unlike most of his population. Since these people are afraid, this is the world they have to live in!
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Ricky Wild
9/7/2013 12:28:30 pm
In this novel if you have knowledge you are miserable. Every person in this book that even remotely is intelligent is regretful or upset. Though, the dumbed down majority live practically unworried. I strongly believe that if everyone was smart, then the it would be the exact opposite. Intellects would live normal as they should and the misfits would be the ones not as bright.
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Yaritza Ortega
9/7/2013 11:44:12 am
I definitely agree with your point of view Nicole. i also believe that Clarisse made Montag realize that he need to step out and slow down.He was to cough up daily routine that he forgot of the simple things in life like nature. she thought him to see the person who he had become and what he had done with his life. i personally believe that Clarisse was like a mentor to Montag. she help him discover himself she made him question his actions and decisions. she did not only mad him question himself but influence him as well by sharing her knowledge and her personal experiences. i overall believe that Clarisse played a huge role in Montag's life she was not only his friend but his companion, mentor, and even like his mentor.
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Lizsete Santamaria
9/7/2013 12:41:29 pm
From the beginning of the book, I noticed that technology is a big part of this futuristic society. They have televisions that are the size of walls, blood machines that clean and pump out blood, and mechanical hounds that kill. Technology overrules human nature in many occasions through out the book. For example, when Mildred drives, she drives at 95 miles an hour and kills animals left and right without taking the time to stop and take a look at what she's hit. Technology has been very helpful through the past decades and I think this is what Bradbury was hinting at; technology will someday ruin us all. Technology won't just ruin us but nature as well.
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Elijah Sullivan
9/7/2013 10:31:01 pm
In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, Clarisse, Professor Faber, and the outsiders that Guy meets at the end of the novel, are the only few free thinkers in their dystopian society. They are the outcasts who chose to be able to be knowledgeable instead of ignorant run of the mill average people. These average people who spend their time trying to become happy purely out of having luxury items, don't know any better because their government influences them that knowledge is bad and that everyone is "made equal". In our society, our government doesn't necessarily try to terminate knowledge, but there are fewer free thinkers than there are close minded people; Similarly but to a lesser extent than those in Fahrenheit 451's society. I like to consider myself open minded and I know that my personal beliefs are a bit unusual to the majority of people in our society but the one question I couldn't help but to think about while reading Ray Bradbury's novel, is "If I lived in a society like in F451, would I still be a free thinker or would the government have persuaded me to be just like everyone else?" The people in our society are much more diverse than the people in F451, but if roles were reversed, how many of us would be so different?
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Jose Ramirez
9/8/2013 09:24:13 am
In Fahrenheit 451, what was most fascinating to me was the idea of "ignorance is bliss" and how in the society of Fahrenheit 451, it was used to control society as a whole. What was really fascinating about this to me was how no one ever questioned anything due to their lack of knowledge and ignorance about the world they lived in. Their lack of knowledge made the people very "emotionless". In this Dystopian society books were highly illegal and burned if found because of the dangers it holds of enlightenment that could result in people questioning the world around them. They used the lack of knowledge as a way of control, almost as "brainwashing" society as whole. Also using technology to their advantage to keep people from talking to other people. This reminds me of how people in the real world are being "brainwashed" with todays media and having an impact on how we live our lives on a day to day basis.
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Jessica Auriemma
9/8/2013 10:47:09 am
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is very relevant to today’s society. The people in the novel, like Mildred, are blinded by technology. They are completely dependent on it and without it they are lost. When the books were taken away, it only fueled the dependence on technology. The firemen in the novel said that books were meaningless and served no purpose, however this could not be farther from the truth. Books are a way of self-educating. Through reading what someone else has written one can gain new perspectives and open their mind to new ideas. Once literature has been outlawed, the citizens are left with no way of seeing life through someone else’s lives and thus are left trapped in their own heads. They almost become inhuman and more like robots. Everyday they wake up and do the same thing over and over never questioning just why it is that they do it. The society they live in may seem like an extreme case of becoming dependent on technology, but it may not be so far fetched anymore. Today more and more people are more concerned with their social media accounts, phones, computers, television, etc. Sitting down to read a book as opposed to watch a TV show is becoming an unheard of thing. If society continues down the path it is on at the moment, more and more people are going to become Mildred.
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Georgia Stierman
9/8/2013 11:05:21 am
I completely agree with the point you're making about how our society is. Technology is a huge part of our lives today. Our society is so obsessed with checking the latest news on their social media that we don't give ourselves a chance to notice things going on around us. People have become so obsessed and attached to technology, and it isn't that different from the way the people act in Fahrenheit 451.
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Katelyn Johnson
9/8/2013 12:28:08 pm
I completely agree with your points, especially the part where you state “everyday they wake up and do the same thing over and over and never question just why it is they do it”. In today’s day and age reading books is portrayed as a waste of time. Through reading these books, we learn to ask questions about the novel and ponder new ways of thinking. These questions then go into our real lives as we learn to question everyday things as well. In F451, people stop asking questions and just do as they are told, I feel this is largely attributed to them not having literature available. Since people in our world today are reading less and less and instead turning to their computers, phones, etc. in their free time, we too are loosing our ability to questions why. Instead, we have learned to just do as we are told. Though it seems our society could never get to a place as bad as theirs, it is becoming more probable as we seem to be following in their footsteps.
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Georgia Stierman
9/8/2013 10:54:51 am
I liked seeing the transformation of Montag throughout the book. In the beginning of the book, Montag starts out just as ignorant as everybody in the society, not really questioning anything that's going on. He loves his job as a fireman too. But after meeting Clarisse, he opens his eyes to everything going on around him. I also think believe that this book is very similar to our lives now. All we seem to do nowadays is rely on technology for everything, and you rarely see anybody reading books more than using some sort of technology. As much as the society seems abnormal in Fahrenheit 451, it's sadly not all that much different from ours.
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Katie Carroll
9/8/2013 11:50:54 am
He loves the job as a fireman. It is displayed in the first page of the book. Montag says that he loves to burn and he feels pleasure in burning things. He is such a dynamic character in the way that he feels by the end of the book he doesn't want to burn the books, he wants to gain the knowledge inside of them.
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Katelyn Johnson
9/8/2013 12:02:47 pm
In Fahrenheit 451, because the characters were deprived of any sort of knowledge gained from literature and brainwashed to believe books serve no purpose, the characters seemed to have a missing link to them that Clarisse easily picked up on and later opened up Montag's eyes to notice. The society seems so in awe by all the new technology, as shown by Mildred when she shows her love for the wall and tells Montag that the wall is her family. The people within the society are almost turning into robots and as the novel progressed Montag started to notice it more frequently. Today, society seems to show these same qualities by relying on both technology and social media to control their lives. Society is lacking actual communication. We talk through text message, tweets, etc. Throughout the novel, Clarisse opens up Montags eyes more and more to what society should be and how people are depriving themselves of literature and the self-education from it. The amount of "Clarisse" in our society is deteriorating and more of us are turning into "Mildred". Though the world Fahrenheit 451 is set is seems to be a very extreme case of technological dependence, however, in todays age it does not seem so far-fetched.
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