Post on 14 Pages

I enjoyed reading the fourteen pages and the various passages within. I thought the first one was very cool even though I wasn't alive and don't know much about hockey. The second one was similar because it discussed the way the people backed their country in a time of struggle or even a time which needed a rise to the occasion. It further supports the idea that sports are a way to bring people together. The most confusing of the passages to me was "An Image a Little Too Carefully Coordinated." It didn't make much sense at all but I could tell that it was paired with the Kate Middleton passage for a reason. They possibly utilized different types of rhetoric in similar subjects. For the final two passages, I noticed that it was the separate parent's desires put into an individual column. The wife of the marriage wanted to organize an awesome themed party for their young child, while the dad just wanted a dog.

Theme Handout

Censorship causes diminished individual thought.

Cami Albers, Vidhan Bhardwaj, Jack Douglas, Alex Fortson, McKayla Peebles, Joann Tsai, Amanda Weis

Bell 4

Timeline:

1. Montag is a normal member of society, and comments on how Clarisse thinks too much in this censored society.
2. Beatty talks about how everything is shortened and censored so there is no room or need for thought
3. Montag realizes there is something to books, that possibly makes people happier, trying to break through the censorship.
4. Beatty attempts to rebut Montag’s realization by saying books can be used for people as well as against people.
5. Montag joins up with Faber to try and stop this censorship, but Beatty keeps trying to stop them.
6. After killing Beatty, Montag runs away where he meets a group of men, who open his mind to the world of books, thoughts and literacy.

Textual Evidence:

Part 1:

• “‘You think too many things,’ said Montag uneasily,” (Bradbury 6).
• “‘School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophers, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about the work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?’”(Bradbury 53).

Part 2:

• “‘We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I look around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years,’”(Bradbury 78).
• “‘Oh, you were scared silly,’ said Beatty, ‘for I was doing a terrible thing in using the very books you clung to, to rebut you on every hand, on every point! What traitors books can be,”(Bradbury 104).

Part 3:

• “It's strange, I don’t miss her, it’s strange I don’t feel much of anything,’ said Montag. ‘Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don’t think I’ll feel sad. It isn’t right. Something must be wrong with me,’” (Bradbury 148).
• “The chase is still running.”...”They’re faking. You threw them off at the river. They can’t admit it. They know they can hold their audience only so long. The show’s got to have a snap ending, quick! If they started searching the whole d*** river it might take all night. So they’re sniffing a scapegoat to end things with a bang,”(Bradbury 141).

This theme contributes to the progression of the story because it shows how Montag changes his views of the society, also how he wants to change himself.

In today’s society, this theme could be seen as people trying to stop others from making their own decisions, North Korea being an example. People are forced to think as one country, not individuals when a dictator takes absolute authority.

Fahrenheit 451

Imagine a world without books. A world where your house can be incinerated by the people who should be putting it out. A world where people are so censored and controlled that they can't even read their own emotions. Where the horrors of war are covered up as no big deal. Fahrenheit 451 is an exact reflection of this nightmare.

I really liked the premise of Fahrenheit 451 and the dystopian idea of it. I just didn't like the way it was executed by Ray Bradbury. I felt like there was too much going on and I had  bit of a difficult time following it .However I liked the way that allusions played a role in the novel and I enjoyed doing research on Gandhi, Confucius, and Buddha. I learned a lot about censorship, and totalitarian governments. It made me think a lot about the way people in society are affected by literature or lack there of. A great quote that displays societies relationship with literature: “There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” I made many connections to society today, and even the past. North Korea has technology they can't control as well as power and The Nazi book burnings are similar simply because they were book burnings and attempts from the government at limiting the peoples knowledge. But as a whole Fahrenheit 451 was a pretty good book that I enjoyed studying and reading.

Hearth and Salamander