F451 Assignment #10

"I remember. Montag clung to the earth. I remember. Chicago. Chicago, a long time ago. Millie and I. That's where we met! I remember now. Chicago. A long time ago" (Bradbury 160). Montag was finally realizing the importance of remembering things. Because of the belief of all books being bad which led to no means of keeping records, those who had already had this revelation trained themselves to be capable of memorizing and being able to recite large amounts of information. When it came to the hobos he met on his journey, some of them had even memorized entire books. Not one, but multiple. Montag would have to train himself at this skill and it started by simply piecing his life back together in his brain, starting with the return of the memory of where he and Millie had first met. Not only were these hobos more intelligent than almost all of the people Montag had encountered throughout his entire life when it came to memorizing, they were also a lot more aware of other important aspects of their lives: "There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up...But everytime he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing over and over, but we've got one damn thing the phoenix never had...We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we'll stop making the goddam funeral pures and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation" (Bradbury 163). These hobos knew what we being done by burning books and the damage that it had already caused and that it would cause in the future if it were to continue. They were so aware of this because they also knew how great books truly were and how important they were to the growth of mankind. The fact that they were familiar with these ideas and were planning on taking action in order to be sure their knowledge continued to spread until books were to come back onto the scene proved that although not many believed in the kind of knowledge that they had anymore, it really was the knowledge that would be everlasting.

F451 Assignment #9

"One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago. Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads, any way at all so long as it was safe" (Bradbury 141). Montag was finally realizing the actual importance of history being written down, and the importance of the firemen becoming aware of the damage they were doing. By burning books, they were burning all memories and events that did not exist anymore other than in these books or stories. Montag was beginning to believe that the fact that he had helped to destroy all this evidence of the past would continue to haunt him throughout his entire life. In order to avoid this, he was going to be sure that this destruction of the past did not continue and that people began keeping record of events that took place again. Later that same night, we saw the first example that Montag's previous job may have begun haunting him: "He saw the fire ahead. The fire was gone, then back again, like a winking eye. He stopped, afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath...That small motion, the white and red color, a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning. It was warming...He hadn't known fire could look this way. He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take. Even it's smell was different" (Bradbury 146). He was looking at this fire in a completely different light than he had only a few days earlier. He was now aware that fire was not only meant to be used to destroy, but it could be used for good. It could be used for warmth and light, it could even cause happiness rather than feelings of loss of knowledge and even death.

F451 Assignment #7

Beatty and the majority of people in Montag's day were extremely rule oriented and did not tolerate people attempting to step out of the box that society had put them in. We see this when Beatty is telling Montag about the dream he had involving a debate between them over books: "And you, quoting Dr. Johnson, said 'Knowledge is more than eqivalent to force!' and I said, "Well, Dr. Johnson also said, dear boy, that "He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty." Stick with the firemen, Montag. All else is dreary chaos!" (Bradbury 106). Beatty clearly believes that by letting his curiousity get the best of him, Montag was "quitting a certainty for an uncertainty", simply because he was putting his steady job as a fireman at risk to simply feed his desire of learning why some people were so fascinated by books. Because of this, Beatty tried to talk Montag into stepping back into the box that he and the majority of society lived in: "What traitors books can be! You think they're backing you up, and then they turn on you. Others can use them, too, and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor, in a great welter of nouns and verbs and adjectives" (Bradbury 107). He had hoped that this would make Montag realize that books really did cause more harm than happiness, therefore he would lure Montag back to believing no good could come from books. Once this happened, Beatty would be able to return to his everyday routine and feel satisfied that all of his men believed exactly what he believed and followed the rules he had set.

F451 Assignment #6

"It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books...There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe into one garment for us" (Bradbury 83). The fact that books were being burned every single day in this society was not what was harming the citizens, the loss of history and knowledge to be learned through reading these books is what caused these people to be missing out. Things that were once almost second nature to people due to how familiar they had become with certain texts and authors were now completely lost, leaving nothing more than the emptiness inside and love of the parlor walls as the factors that wove all people together in the garment of life. Without these factors it had become impossible for people to learn from eachother and grow in all aspects of life: "Those who don't build must burn" (Bradbury 89). Nothing in Montag's world was building anymore because the main building blocks, books, were completely melting away and disappearing from society. Because of this, people were becoming more and more useless. They were no longer learning or building, therefore they had no choice but to slowly burn out and be forgotten.

F451 Assignment #5

"But Clarisse's favorite subject wasn't herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I've really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted" (Bradbury 72). This quote explains why Clarisse had such a big impact on Montag in the little time they had known eachother. Due to the lack of true interaction and conversation between people of their time, Clarisse was refreshing to Montag. She was actually interested in talking about varieties of topics rather than herself and her monotonous everyday life. This brought Clarisse and Montag together immediately because he was astonished by how she carried herself and how she spoke to him. This was as shocking as it was to Montag because of his lack of experience with people like her. A good example of how most, other than Clarisse, acted towards Montag and everyone else they came across is represented by Mildred: "See what you're doing? You'll ruin us! Who's more important, me or that Bible?" (Bradbury 76). Mildred was the complete opposite of Clarisse in that she was not interested in her husband's curiousity in books and their importance. In fact, Mildred was not interested in much outside of herself and her "family" on TV. Because of this, Montag is currently beginning to question his relationship and happiness with her.

F451 Assignment #4

-Explain Beatty's idea that, "A book is a loaded gun in the house next door"(58).

By comparing a book to a loaded gun, Beatty is getting at how dangerous someone possessing a book could be to their society as a whole. Beatty is basically making a reference that makes it easier for readers in our time to understand the extent of how bad they considered owning books to be. In this case, when they get a call to go search a house believed to contain books, it is the equivalent to firemen or police officers being sent to a house believed to be filled with drugs or weapons. He is saying that those who own books automatically become a threat to them because they are capable of much more due to the knowledge that they had gained from reading. He also makes it clear how imperative it was that they do their job and make sure they empty all houses of such "weapons".


-Refute Beatty's claim that "If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none"(61).

This statement is saying that in order for Beatty and his firemen to gain even more power and for the people of those days to be happy, society must not allow them to think. They must give them no options in any aspects of their life. Beatty believed that if this happened, they would be happy with whatever they are given because they had never gotten the chance to know anything else. I disagree with this because I believe this is, in some ways, taking away free will that God has give all of his people. God created people so that they could think, feel, and make decisions for themselves. If men are allowed to do this, they are allowed the opportunity to be happy. If they are given no choice other than to do,say, or feel what society and the people in charge tell them, in no way will they lead normal and happy lives.

F451 Assignment #3

-Why do you think Bradbury incorporates the scene with the woman? What is this woman supposed to represent?

I think this woman is supposed to represent the damage that is really being done by Guy's job. Before this, Guy had never realized the importance that books might really have on people and what he was doing by destroying them. By burning these books, he very well might be taking away a part of these people, which is what he saw when he came across this woman. Because of this scene, Guy is beginning to realize that the actions that had become second nature to him are wrong and I think from here on we are going to see him question them more and more and start becoming more human as opposed to how robotic he had become because of his job.

-What does Guy mean by this quote, "Well, this fire'll last me the rest of my life. God! I've been trying to put it out, in my mind, all night. I'm crazy with trying (51). Try and relate it to another quote in the reading.

When Guy says this he means that usually he doesn't feel any guilt after burning a house down but, in this case, his eyes were somewhat opened to the meaning that books must have on people. He is baffled as to why the woman would have stayed in the burning house until he realized that she was a human being just like him and that means there must really be something in the books that causes women like her to fight for them. This is hard for him to rationalize the fact that his job is to simply burn these things that clearly really do mean something to people. He no longer saw his job as just burning books, but he saw it as burning people. This bothered him.

F451 Assignment #2

- What do we learn about firemen in this section? Both who the firemen are, and their history?

In this part of our reading we learn a lot about how the firemen actually feel about their job. We also learn that they all HAD to look the same in order to not come off as individual human beings to those whose stuff they were burning. When it comes to how they felt about their occupation, we learned that they actually enjoyed it and did not question their actions whatsoever. They were brought up on the fact that books should be burnt, therefore they felt a sense of accomplishment by doing so.

-Why does Clarisse not fit in at school? What is strange about the definitions she uses? Does that remind you of anything?

Clarisse doesn't seem to fit in at school simply because she is different from her classmates. She isn't the typical girl of her age and enjoys nature oriented things rather than doing what everyone else enjoys and trying to follow the other kids her age in order to fit in. She also struggles to fit in at school because of how smart beyond her years she is, which can also explain why the way she speaks is considered strange. When she speaks, it's clear that she uses her own, mature, definitions for things. We see this when she explains how she would define "social" and "anti social". Her definition of being anti social reminded me of society today and how many people act. Today, many people can believe they are extremely social when, in reality, they are too afraid to really talk to others and simply find themselves communicating through all different kinds of technology.