Final Blog Post

    I thought it was interesting how hopeful the ending of Fahrenheit 451 was. Bradbury's language is so hectic, so full of fire and stuffed with words, that the relatively simple, vague prose of the last few paragraphs seems spartan in comparison. The final words, "when we reach the city" (165), seem both ominous and uplifting. It's ironic how a society obsessed with burning books, in the end, burned themselves to the ground, with only Montag, the fireman, left to bury them. Like The Road, The Handmaid's Tale, and Children of Men, Fahrenheit 451 offers up an ambiguous ending whose meaning is left up to the reader to decide.
    I also found the Coda and Afterword fascinating. I rarely read prefaces or afterwords or such; normally they're written by different authors, analyzing the book, and they're normally pretty dry. However, these were entertaining and revealing. I can't quite figure out if I agree with what Bradbury writes in the Coda or not. I think it's uncomfortably true what he writes about each minority 'taking a bite' out of literature; in this politically correct age everybody must be appeased. Whatever Bradbury writes, he is vastly entertaining, and always a joy to read.

The ending of this book reminded me of the endings of The Handmaid's Tale, Children of Men, and The Road. In all of these stories the main character ends up with a different group of people than they began. There is also a degree on uncertainty at the ending of each of these stories. I think Fahrenheit 451 is the least uncertain because you know that Montag is where he belongs, with the other intellectual people. Yet there still is the possibility that they could be lying to him but it seems unlikely. In the other three stories the characters join new groups of people but we don't really know if they are good or bad. The people the boy joins in The Road could end up eating him and the rebels in The Handmaid's Tale could be eyes and we have no idea who is on the boat in Children of Men. Children of Men is definitely the most uncertain because we don't even get to see them interact with the people on the boat. There is also an aspect of rebellion at the end of all of these stories, except for The Road. There's not really a way for the boy to rebel against the society in The Road since there's not a government for him to rebel against. However, at the end of all of the other stories the main character joins a group that is trying to rebel against the society. Fahrenheit 451is no exception, Montag joins a group of people who continue to discuss books even though that is against the society's morals.

Blog Post #3

While Clarisse has been gone from the story for an extremely long time, after reading the ending I am still confused on why she was taken out so abruptly. She was a major character because she helped developed the story at the beginning. She is the person that made Guy question aspects of society and be more curious about what is in books. After her few short meetings with him she was suddenly killed off and barely mentioned again. Without her he would have never thought about stealing another book or freaking out at his wife and boss, causing him to end up running away with other scholars. There is no doubt in my mind that she was needed, but I think the author used her poorly. By taking her out so quickly he made Clarisse almost feel unimportant and the characters relationship fake. To me she seemed to defeat her purpose. Her exit from the story seemed like the author just gave up on developing her as a character. I wish that she could have stayed around and interacted with Guy more, which would definitely develop the theme and story line of the book further. 

Blog Post 2

   "Montag said nothing but stood looking at the women's faces as he had once looked at the faces of saints in a strange church he had entered when he was a child. The faces of those enameled creatures meant nothing to him, though he talked to them and stood in that church for a long time, trying to be of that religion, trying to know what that religion was, trying to get enough of the raw incense and special dust of the place into his lungs and thus into his blood to feel touched and concerned by the meaning of the colorful men and women with the porcelain eyes and the blood-ruby lips. But there was nothing, nothing; it was a stroll through another store, and his currency strange and unusable there, and his passion cold, even when he touched the wood and plaster and clay. So it was now, in his own parlor, with these women twisting in their chairs under his gaze, lighting cigarettes, blowing smoke, touching their sun-fired hair and examining their blazing fingernails as if they had caught fire form his look." (95)

   Once again Bradbury has managed to create astonishing imagery with his striking prose. His consistent use of bold, fiery language makes even a relatively simple scene, like the one above, heavy with significance for Montag. This scene with Montag's wife and her friends is one of the saddest so far for me because, juxtaposed with Montag's seriousness and his anger, they seem so silly and so shallow. When he reads them poetry and one of the women begins to cry, you realize that none of them are really happy; like Mildred they are all miserable, perhaps have also overdosed, but they keep flitting from husband to husband and home to home and show to show because it's all they've ever known, and they see no way out of it. It's scary because you realize that, in a society like the one Bradbury paints for the reader, the majority of people do not rebel. Guy is one among many, and even Faber, the wise professor, is too frightened to act. Everyone is distracted by the thrill of race cars and the senseless noise of the TV walls, and they let that lull them into their false senses of happiness. This, more than the image of fire or burning books, is what I find sinister about Fahrenheit 451.

Blog Post #2

I was actually surprised that Guy’s wife was one of the people that called in the alert to the firehouse. I would have thought that she would be more loyal to him for some reason. Even though they didn’t have the best relationship, and they didn’t actually love each other, I still wouldn’t expect her to report him. When he first showed her the books she reacted a lot better than I thought she would. She only burned some of them and then she just hid them in a new place. When she didn’t run out of the house screaming at first glance, I didn’t think she would report him. Guy’s wife relies on him for his money, so wouldn’t she want to keep him around? This definitely goes to show that there are no real relationships left in this new society. True marriages don’t actually exist, and neither do friendship. Technology has turned people into a bunch of fakes because face-to-face communication is no longer necessary. No one needs the experience of real people anymore because they have their families in the TV walls.

Blog Post #1

It seems Ray Bradbury is finally hinting at where the novel takes place. At the bottom of page 31, fire chief Beatty mentions a fireman in Seattle releasing a mechanical hound on himself to commit suicide. Unless the "fire department" Montag works at is in a different country, this seems to suggest he is in America. And then, on page 34, it is mentioned that Benjamin Franklin was supposedly the first fireman. This also implies that he is in America, along with the insinuation that the government of the future has heavily altered society's perception of history. I wonder if we'll get any more evidence that Montag lives in America? Or what city he lives in?

Blog Post #1

     "How like a mirror, too, her face. Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you? People were more often-he searched for a simile, found one in his work-torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. How rarely did other people's faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?
     What incredible power of identification the girl had; she was like the eager watcher of a marionette show, anticipating each flicker of an eyelid, each gesture of his hand, each flick of a finger, the moment before it began. How long had they walked together? Three minutes? Five? Yet how large that time seemed now. How immense a figure she was on the stage before him; what a shadow she threw on the wall with her slender body!" (11)

     This passage stuck with me when I first read it because of its beautiful clarity. The book is a mix of vivid imagery and striking metaphors, gorgeous and easy to follow. I love his comparison of Clarisse to a mirror; it's so apt, because she makes him really reevaluate himself. As he thinks later, "he wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back" (12). In this "disposable tissue" (17) world, Clarisse is unique because of her openness. Unlike Mildred, Guy's wife, Clarisse asks for nothing except conversation. Her honesty is refreshing. Bradbury's language in this excerpt is amazingly eloquent, and puts into words emotions that are difficult to portray. When Guy remarks that Clarisse is huge on the stage before him, the reader understands that the fireman has undergone a profound shift, one that will define his internal conflict for the rest of the novel.

Blog Post #1

            In Fahrenheit 451 the society seems to be obsessed with material wealth. Mildred, Guy’s wife, lives with her Seashells blaring in her ears and participating in life through her televisions. She is only focused on what else she can buy to put into their home. This lifestyle in the book’s society causes the characters to miss out on life experiences and important relationships that should be formed. The couple rarely spends time with each other and they have begun to forget things about one another. The gain of technology that the author portrays heavily throughout the text is in a way portraying at how people are living today. Everybody believes that they need the biggest TV, the newest cell phone, or the nicest computer. We think we need these things when we actually only want them. We get so focused on gaining materials and being glued to those items that we miss out on life. We no longer actually talk to people because we are too busy texting, and we no longer spend time outside because we are watching TV. Most people think that these items will complete their lives and make them happy, but instead they are making everyone lazy, depressed, and miserable. Our lives today are beginning to resemble the characters in the book because we are stuck on the path of desire. So far the book seems almost as if it is warning to every reader to step away from material wealth and instead appreciate the things they already have.