Post #6

Are there any settings in the novel you found beautiful?

Or disturbing?

Or memorable?

There were two settings that apealed to my thoughts in the story. The first one was the sidewalk, where Montag met Clarisse. I found that setting to be very beautiful and memorable. I had this kind of feelings towards it, because of what happened between the two and what opened in the mind of Montag, because of that. I mean Montag meets this stranger on a sidewalk and starts to talk to her randomly without any fear. Then, this stranger starts to talk about the past, the thing Montag was destroying in the first place, and how wonderful it was. I thought it was beautuful, because by Clarisse saying all this to him, he has the chance to open his mind and think true and deep about the world and its worries and wonders. I thought it was so memorable, because I mean if this could happen to Montag, couldn't it happen to anybody in the world maybe. One person might meet a random stranger on the sidewalk, and start to discover one huge fault of our society today, which might be the end of the world as we know it. I mean just thinking about the possiblities of what could happen in the world just today scares me, but also gives me hope. I fear the one thing I hope for, the future. Another setting that stuck with me along the book was the old lady's house, where Montag took the book. This struck me for two reasons, because this was the climax of the story, and this scene was disturbing to me. It was the climax simplay because it was the point of no return as he grabbed the book that came to him. The reason behind it being disturbing to me is much more deeper. I see it so disturbing, because of what the old lady had to end up doing. She actually sacrificed herself in order to not get the chance to see the books burn. She treated them as children, like when they say "I don't want to be shown the horror of seeing my children get killed before me". As she dropped that match into the kerosene around her, I almost turned away from the book, like a movie. I just couldn't and didn't want to imagine that sort of horrifying image in my head.

Post #5

What is the mood of this novel?

Do you find this novel saddens you in anyway?

Why?

The way I think it, I think the novel has many moods and many mood changes. It starts out as if nothing was wrong and it was just any old life of a working man. The beginning didn't have much of a mood. There might have been very moody and weird people in the beginning, but no mood for the first section of the story. I think the strongest mood came out in the middle, as Montag was discovering the ways of his mistakes in burning books. The mood in the middle becomes almost depressing, dramatic, and even sometimes suspenseful. He finally finds out about all the truths of the world he has been lied to about so many times over his life. He discovers that his life has all been just set up right in front of him. All these moods and emotions hit him so hard that he starts to wonder what else about his life is a lie and he starts to search for those answers. This books did somehow sadden me. I first didn't realize that I was sad or how it happened, but later I discovered that the book was actually making me scared and upset at the same time. I think that while I was reading it, I was thinking of my own future, and how it would turn out. I mean if the perfect little world we live in today can become a monstrosity like the one in the book, I mean what could happen to the fragile and such valuable life I have that God as given to me. I know that God will always love and protect me, but I was still afraid of something. I was afraid of forgetting who was the one who created me, like how there was only one bible left in the world. I was afraid that if I forgot, my life would go down the drain with no hope of ever coming back to the sane reality of it right now. I wish I could shake off this feeling of fear I have in me from this book to my future, but it's hard to just push it aside. So as I thought about it, I realized that if I truly believe in God, then he won't even let me fall enough to not know him or forget about him. I know that God has always wanted me to be there with him in heaven, so he will never let me fall under the pressure and temptations of the devil.

Post #4

What is the climax of this novel?

What happens?

How to the events of this novel make you feel?

I believe that the climax of this novel was when Montag decided to steal or take the books from the old woman's library. He sees the old woman just waiting there next to her books, as he's standing there burning the books in to ashes. They soon had to push her aside to get to the books, and thinking that she would get out of the attic in fear of the burning, they started to pour their kerosene. She still wouldn't leave even after being threatened to be burned with the books if she didn't get out of there. During all this happening and chaos, a book falls in to Montag's hands like a gift from heaven of something. He doesn't even thinks about what to do with it, and just slides it under his coat trying not to be detected by anyone. As Captain Beatty starts to light the books on fire, not caring about the old woman and her life at all, Montag tries to stop the captain, before he kills this woman. So, he tries to convince her to leave and not waste her life for these books, but soon later they have to decide to burn the books and the old lady and her pride in those books with them. As they were leaving in guilt of having to kill this woman, they didn't see well as the old woman lit a match herself. She threw the match down, burning all the books and herself with it. The whole house goes down as the firemen are forced to leave it. The firemen are left speechless, because they just witnessed the length of her pride in those books and how far she would go for them. As they returned to their station, they remained speechless and quite. I felt a little weird after reading this section. I was left speechless as well with the characters, after I read of the old woman and how she killed herself just for the books in her life. I felt partly sorry for the woman, because in the end she still had to see her loved books burn in the flames of death. I didn't know in the first place that the firemen would go as far as to kill someone to get through to burning the books as Captain Beatty almost did.

Post #3

Who are the main characters in this novel?

Do you like them? Why or why not?

What is special about them?

What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

Guy Montag: Main character of the story, who indeed is a fireman in the terms of the book, who burn books to destroy the knowledge of the history of the past. I like Guy, because when he discovers that there is an unknown section of the world he has not yet seen, he searches for it with all his might. His life starts to feel so empty, and he starts wanting to see why he was even burning the books of the past, and what was truly hidden in them. He's so special, because he stands alone, but strong with his independent mind, while others try to bring him back down to the fake world they are living in. He reveals that nothing can really happen in the ways you want it, unless you change it yourself, even if you are standing alone.

Clarisse McClellan: She is a seventeen-year old girl, who first meets Guy Montag as they are walking down the streets. I like this character, because she's so mysterious to Guy and to everybody, including her ownself. I believe that she is very special by being the one to actully get Guy to start wondering about that empty space in his life he had always felt, but never had done anything about. She reveals that random stangers can open up the worst, best, and unknown sides of you.

Professer Faber: He is the old professer, who Montag comes for help, after he has met Clarisse, because he can not figure out that empty space all alone. I don't like Faber all that much, because he's always putting himself down calling himself a coward, and blaming all of this tragedy on his cowardness, while he always proves that wrong by being so fearless and brave. He's special, because he owns some old ancient books already from the pasty, but wants more even though society denies of that kind of behavior. He reveals that anybody can be a hero by just helping others along their paths even if you do not think you are not worthy enough.

Post #2

Are there any current situations in the world that relate to the novel?

What are they?

How are they alike?

Does the novel shed any light on how the current situation could be resolved?

I believe maybe that the situations in Iraq relates to the novel. The theme of this novel is what I believe that connects these two situations. Others might not see it this way, and think that these are the farthest thing from one another, but they are alike if you look close enough. The theme of this novel talks about something that we need the past in order to be living as if we are at least sane. Without learning from the events from the past, we will end up just like in the book as none of us are truly happy inside of us. Well in Iraq, they have some people acting like savages around the country. They are unable to stay stable and constantly safe, because of all the dangers lurking around the paths they walk everyday. I could see that they were partly insane as I saw a picture of a small Iraq kid held up by two other Iraqi kids with guns up to his head.

Please don't be alarmed, but this is seriously the picture I found when I searched up about the Iraqi kids. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as I saw picture with kids holding so many guns. I knew that the people there were in poverty and desperate, but this just shocked me as I saw the frightened look of the small kid in the center. I believe that just maybe they could come out of this kind of desperation if they just looked at the past of the world. If they looked at the problems we had before and our solutions, just maybe they wouldn't have to go through things like the ones you see in the pictures. I'm not sure if the novel does actually solve the problems in Iraq, but I believe that it will help in some way or another. The novel shows that they should look at the mistakes of the past that strike close to home and see how they fought through it. Whether watching others fail or succeed, it will help your chances none the less.

Post #1

What is the major theme of this novel?

Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The major theme of this novel is very hard to detect. I believe the major theme of this novel to be that the future holds many things, but we absolutely need the history of the past to survive as humans and not like wild savages. This stresses the importance of books of history is the story. As the firemen keep burning away the books chained to the histories, Guy Montag starts questioning the idea of burning away history. This happens, when he meets a 17-year old girl, Clarisse McClellan, and she introduces to him the idea of the beauty of the past. He wants to believe that he is doing nothing wrong, but he realizes that he needs to learn more about what the girl has said, so he goes to Professor Faber in order to ask him questions about the books of the past.

I believe that this theme is very important to the teenagers of 2008, because it shows much depth in what teenagers have been neglecting. These books shows the importance of reading and of preserving history, while we, as teenagers of today, have been ignoring these concepts of life. Normal teenagers of this century would be acting as the firemen in the book act. They would be the ones just feeling as natural as they destroy important prints of everything in the past. We as a whole world these days have just want to look to the future and the best we could afford as we moved on to a new world order. We should really be looking at the past to make not the same stupid mistakes our parents had made before our time.