Thursday, May 9, 2013
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.
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You're right - in the end, Montag, like the other characters, is "rescued" from the society which he has so strongly criticized. Perhaps Bradbury wanted a more definite message, one which would not be misinterpreted!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting connection between all of the books! In "Brave New World" the main character can not be saved and ends up taking his own life, and the other main character ends up going back into society like nothing ever happened. I think that while the ending of "Brave New World" was satisfying because John no longer had to deal with the civilized people, it was also unsatisfying because there is not that same mystery in the end of whether the people end up with good people or bad people. Admittedly at the beginning of this course, I hated that sort of ending, but now I have grown to like it and think that it is appropriate because nothing is ever certain or what they seem in any of these books. "Fahrenheit 451" sounds very interesting and think that the ending sounds very good because he does end up quietly rebelling against the society in which he finds himself.
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