Entry 7- Settings then comments

Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? Or disturbing? Or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

There was a setting in this novel that was very memorable to me. That was when Montag showed his wife, Mildred, that he had many books hidden in the hall near the front door. As the author described how Montag pulled out book after book, the expression on Mildred's (Montag's wife) face was incredulous with the air of astonishment around her. Montag with his fixed and solemn face reaching in than out, in and out built suspense in my mind of what was going to happen next. When Mildred is terrified as if she was confronted by a pack of mice that had come up out of the floor, Montag explains to her what they should do. While they are talking, they are interrupted. On that paragraph it says "'Guy!' The front door voice called softly: 'Mrs. Montag, Mrs. Montag, someone here, someone here, Mrs. Montag, Mrs. Montag, someone here,' Softly. They turned to stare at the door and the books toppled everywhere, everywhere in heaps 'Beatty!' said Mildred...
That paragraph sent us a message of how terrified that was, and that was very memorable to me. Montag's immeasurable guilt and imagining how he felt that moment in front of his wife confessing that he had been doing this all along shot my brain like an arrow and deeply pierced my mind. Even though it was not one of the major scenes, it showed how head-strong and brave Guy was and how faithful he was to his wife. I also thought that the big troubles started from this moment and that feeling was a sensation to me.

Another major memorable scene was when Montag was running, he was almost killed by a 'Beetle' that was being driven by a carfull of children of all ages. Starting with the sentence 'Three blocks away a few headlights glared', I felt that the author really brought out the scene and once again built suspense that put the reader on the edge of their seat. On page 127, in the last paragraph it says'...then he broke and just ran. He put his legs as far as they would go and down and then far out again and down and back out and down and back. God! God! He dropped a book, broke pace, almost turned, changed his mind, plunged on, yelling in concrete emptiness, the beetle scuttling after its running food, two hundred, one hundred feet away, ninety, eighty, seventy, Montag gasping, flailing his hands, legs up down out, up down out, closer, closer hooting, calling, his eyes burnt white now as his head jerked about to confront the flashing glare, now the beetle was swallowed in its own light, now it was nothing but a torch hurtling upon him; all sound, and blare. Now- almost on top of him!' At this sentence, I was too wild to read the next sentence. I could feel that the author put a lot into this paragraph to let his readers know how it would feel to be in this kind of situation in reality. Just think. Just think for a moment if it was yourself running down that alley with your life at stake running for your life. It felt to me that Ray Bradbury had opened a door to let us be in his mind for that moment as Guy Montag. How the author set the paragraph of Guy running was a mind-flipper.

Entry 6- What do you think?

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

He was looking for a brightness, a resolve, a triumph over tomorrow that hardly seemed to be there. Perhaps he had expected their faces to burn and glitter with the knowledge they carried, to glow as lanterns glow, with the light in them. But all the light had come from the campfire, and these men had seemed no different than any others who had run a long race, searched along search, seen good things destroyed, and now, very late, were gathered to wait for the end of the party and the blowing out of the lamps.

They weren't at all certain that the things they carried in their heads might make every future dawn glow with a purer light, they were sure of nothing save that the books were on the file behind their quiet eyes, the books were waiting, with their pages uncut, for the customers who might come by in later years, some with clean and some with dirty fingers.
Montag squinted form one face to another as they walked.
"Don't judge a book by its cover," someone said.
And they all laughed quietly, moving down stream.

This passage was very significant to me, and I especially liked the quote "Don't judge a book by its cover". I also thought that this quote really matched the situation. In the previous page of this in the book, it tells us that the people who are like Montag and who are with him now are basically walking books because they have the contents of a book instead of the physical copy of it. Now Montag is looking at their faces to find the glow and light in their faces, which practically means he is looking at the 'cover' of the walking books(the men that Montag are with).

It was also meaningful to me because I agreed to this passage, however, most of the time, it didn't quite match up. Don't judge a book by its cover" is a quote that I heard many times in my life from teachers to parents, and is not entirely true. Just because maybe a book had a stain on the cover, or has old styled, black and white pictures does not mean that it will be a horribly boring book with the most dullest characters. Maybe the cover is a scene from a dream or an event, or an adventure. The outside appearance cannot give you a direct judgement about the contents of the book. Most of the time however, I found this false. An front cover of an action book forexample, will have a picture realted in some way to fights or maybe violence that can send the reader the message that this book is about action. This is the same with people in society.

If someone was handicapped, or maybe did not have the most beautiful face in the world, it cannot possibly give you what their personality or characteristics are like. Unless you have actually met them, interacted with them, had spent some time with them, it is impossible to find if one's character is good or bad. The problem is, it is not always like that. Many people, in fact most people who live in this world judge people they have never met before by their outside appearance first. Often times, people are misunderstood by their looks and the judgements other people make by your appearance. Imagine if this occurred to you. Would you feel good if somebody judged you by the way you look?

I find that I cannot say it is right or wrong when people say "don't judge a book by its cover". In my opinion, we should not judge the book at all by its cover, but judge the book by actually reading it and thinking it over after you are done reading.

Entry 5- Moods to choose

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? Why?

The mood of this novel was sad, depressing and despairing with violence with a faint glimmer of hope. It saddens me in a way because the fact that in the future in this book, books will be for burning along with the houses in which they were hidden. How Mrs.Bowels(one if Mildred's friends) talked about books however, angered me but had an acceptable reason. She said "Silly words, silly words, silly awful hurting words. Why do people want to hurt people? Not enough hurt in the world, you got to tease people with stuff like that!" True, in these kinds of circumstances, Mrs.Bowels might have been right, but that didn't necessarily mean that all books contained words that hurt people.

I felt sadness and depression in some parts of the novel especially the poem that Montag read to the ladies. It went like this...
"'The Sea of faith
Was once,too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.'"

The chairs creaked under the three women, Montag finished it out;

"'Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.'"

In my opinion, this poem felt so melancholy and depressing and sounded rather pessimistic. This poem felt like it was describing the current situations especially the part 'But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating, to the breath of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear'. The melancholy, long, withdrawing roar could be the books being forcefully burnt and the retreating, to the breath of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear could be the people who once loved books and their long for books retreating and being ignored because of the people's lack of courage and the fear to speak up and stand up for whatever the consequences may be.

Towards the end, the story mentioned hope when Montag was successful in running away from the mechanical hound and from the government. It gave me, as a reader that what books contained would not be easily forgotten even with all the violation in the world.

Entry 4- What happens?

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

The climax of the novel is when the firemen including Montag stops in front of Montags house and Captain Beatty orders him to burn his own house alone by a 'flame thrower' instead of kerosene and a match. After Montag has finishes burning his own house, Montag kills Beatty and realises that Beatty had wanted to die, and he had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling. Montag thought how strange to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them. While he thinks, Montag runs to Faber's house (a friend) while feeling his life at stake. Montag nearly dies. The 'Beetle' driven by a careful of children all ages nearly kills him, but unsuspectingly saves himself by falling down and would have surely been killed if he was standing upright the moment the 'beetle passed.

When he reaches Faber's house, he tells everything that has occurred and he gets ready to run away from the city. Faber and Montag's ways part and they hope to see each other soon. Montag runs to the river, and tries to erase his scent, and other proofs that he was there. Having reached the river just in time, Montag is safe from the mechanical hound that is claimed to have never failed in these kinds of circumstances. Montag is now officially 'dead' according to the government files.

All this last minute action towards the end of the book and the climax has left me as an excited reader and eager to learn what happens next when Montag joins the other people similar to people by the river. I think, the way how this novel ended was fantastic and I especially enjoyed how the author described the scenes lively with different metaphors and similes.

Entry 3- Who are they?

Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

The main character in this novel in Guy Montag (protagonist), one of the firemen whose jobs are to burn books along with the houses which they were in. In the beginning of the book, there is a description how burning books were pleasurable and how Montag never doubted the fact that books should be burned into ashes. Then, his new neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, who says that she is seventeen and that she is crazy comes into his life and utterly spins his life and changes in which he cannot go back. She does not take a big part in the novel, but I think she is the person who actually created the story to life.

On page eight in the novel, Clarisse says "You laugh when I haven't been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I've asked you." This tells us that in the beginning, Guy Montag was simple-minded, and a outright straightforward type of person. As time passes, he changes as he goes through what Captain Beatty calls 'the itch that you want to scratch', and he starts to be thoughtful unlike his wife, who watches the 'parlor walls' (TV program) to spend most of her time. In my opinion, she is not the most likeable woman. The way how she is quite ignorant of her husband and how she betrays her husband to Captain Beatty is unpleasant to think about. I also think Guy Montag is a person who can easily be influenced , and takes actions immediately when a decision is made.

I have to admit that Clarisse McClellan, is not like my friends or the people that I know well. As she says so herself, she is not a normal person. She loves to look at things and feel the situation around her and smell things. She sometimes stays up all night, walking,and watch the sun rise. I think Clarisse is the girl the most observant person that I have ever heard of and has many thoughts in her mind. On page twenty-nine, she says "I'm antisocial, they say. I don't mix. It's so strange. I'm very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social doesn't it? Social to me mean talking to you about things like this. Or talking about how strange the world is. Being with people is nice. But I don't' think it's social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk, do you? ... and she rattles on and on. This tells me that she is a truthful and honest person (maybe a bit too honest).

Lastly, there is Captain Beatty, the antagonist. I can tell right away, that he is a person who can almost persuade and influence anybody. His style of language and his way to keep his audience on the edge of their seats is in my opinion, quite extraordinary. Particularly on page 106 and 107, when Beatty is talking to Montag to just forget about books and live without the sadness and difficult feelings that we get when we read books. He confuses Montag while Montag tries to concentrate on the fact that Beatty is wrong which indicates that he is slippery, a bit malicious and witty.

These four characters each put together the story of the life of Montag and the story of the novel. This can be compared to the fact that each each and every one of us have several people who are part of our world and help create our life.

Entry 2- Make some connections!

Are there any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

In our world history, there have been many well-known book burnings such as those in China by the Qin Dynasty who was also called the Qin Shi Huang during 221 to 206 BC. Another example would be the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and one of the more recent ones were book burnings of the Nazis.

Books are not being burned these days, however, we do have situation where many people are not reading as many books as they did many years ago. With the fast development of technology, the number one resource that we use for learning is the computer and the internet. Powerpoints, microsoft word, adobe acrobat, and other programs are now being used all over the world by a vast number of people. Books are frequently treated as boring things and are being replaced by the newest electronic devices all the time. This is just how it is in the book, Fahrenheit 451. The program called 'family' seems to be on every woman's mind and they are constantly viewing with the purpose none other than their pure entertainment. Books are treated as if they were dangerous trash that should not be opened or even touched. Our society is (thankfully), not that extreme, but people are being vacuumed out of the whimsical world of books by rapid development of technology.

The novel shows a bit how the current situations could be solved. There is hope. There are also many people like Guy Montag who have burned books before, but resisted the government and escaped. That group of people including Montag will wait and begin to persuade the citizens around them after the war is over.

Thankfully, there are not many books being burnt today but there is an obvious situation that connects with the novel to our world. That is the use of media. Computers, television, and other electronic devices are used more and more and technologies develop. It's becoming a big issue to our society. The majority of people watch television or used the internet for both entertainment and for information. Schools all over the world are now thinking about electronic textbooks and using computers to interact with teachers instead of comping to school. Hopefully, Fahrenheit 451 can send the message to readers that books have a significant part of our life and should not be banished in our society.

Entry 1- Think about themes

What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The unawareness of the importance of books would be the major theme of this novel as well as the suppression from the government. Fahrenheit 451 is the ideal image of the future, a future without books, and firemen who are paid to burn them. The ban of books lead to the absence of the awareness of the value of books. Negative things such as the restriction of the capacity of human thoughts and imaginations can occur and is proven by the novel Fahrenheit 451.

Today, with watching TV, completing assignments by using the internet, or by using powerpoint and microsoftword to do school work, there is almost no place for the books to fill a part of our life!

I feel that books are significant for teenagers living in 2007 because we teenagers tend to neglect and fail to remember the importance and the quality of book. With the development of technology in this world, we might forget that books are excellent tools for learning and for life. This theme of the novel can teach the quality of books that makes you be aware of the past, present, and the future. Opening our eyes to the importance of the existence of books, the theme of this novel can point out what books contain are valuable and priceless beyond words.

As I said before, we, as teenagers use all kinds of electronics to internet to TVs to research and look for information, but we must be careful. The information and 'knowledge' such as TV programs have, is not always helpful to us. Sure, there are many educational shows and programs for learning, but books are right there for us to open and read. We must not choose neglect the wisdom and knowledge books have. Therefore, we should be careful of what tools we use because one day, we might, we JUST MIGHT find ourselves in Fahrenheit 451.