F451 Questions

1. Bradbury was connecting the Heart and the Salamander to Montag. In mythology, the salamander is a fire lizard capable of starting and putting out fires. Montag's job is a firemen and he starts the fires to burn the books.
2. The reader can make assumptions about Guy Montag through the first line that he enjoyed burning. It would be understandable if he loved his job of burning and putting things on fire.
3. This is negative imagery. It’s good imagery but it describes something negative. The great python is used to described the fire hose as something fearful and powerful.
4. The number 451 stands for the temperature at which books burn.
5. Clarisse McClellan is described oddly. She didn’t enjoy activities like watching the “parlor walls” or speeding the “beetle” which was very strange for Montag.
6. The name “Guy” is significant because it means sensible just like him. He wants to live and do things. Clarisse is significant because her name means bright or gentle just like her. She’s an optimistic person and fights the rules.
7.  She questions him by asking “Are you happy?” Which makes him question and think about that.
8. We learned that in that society that books are burned, people drive really fast and recognize by colors of the blurs, and that Clarisse’s uncle got stopped by the cops for being a pedestrian.
10. Montag realizes that he truly hasn’t been happy and he has been missing happiness from his life for quite sometime.
11. Seashells are ear devices which are “earbuds”. They bring noise to your ears and Mildred uses them to make her fall asleep.
12. After Montag meets Clarisse, he realizes that his marriage is basically dead and that he knows nothing about his wife. He describes their bedroom as a mausoleum which is building storing tombs. He describes Clarisse as out of the ordinary and optimistic.
13. Mildred needed a special machine to mend her from her overdose. The people used a machine that has an "eye" which they insert into her body to clean her. This machine basically represents the government or people keeping a close eye on you and being able to watch everything you do.
14. He realizes that technology is taking over and there's no way for people to know each other, other than a screen.
15. Montag describes his home as a tomb and dead which doesn't show love that a family should have. Unlike Montag, Clarisse's home was radiant and bright just like the love the family had for each other.

The Right to Read

Dear President,

                        On behalf of the American people, we have questioned your decision to outlaw reading. There is many people in this nation who benefit from reading. Reading can help people through many things. For example, learning the English language, developing new understandings, creating new ideas are some things that come from reading. People also use reading as a therapy and a pass time. Our concern is simply, why? What caused your impulsive mind to decide this for everybody. Reading has been around for a long time and it's a big part of the intelligence of many. Yes, we have technology but that is no where near like the peace you get from reading. We certainly argue you reconsider your idea of outlawing reading.


                                                                                   

F451 and Me

This book so far has shown various connections my life and the world around me:

1. The book has predicted in some way the use of technology today. Televisions, parlor walls in this book, were created and allow people to stay inside causing less interactions with others. I've definitely had experiences where I'd rather stay inside and watch TV than go out with my friends. Seashell Radios are today's headphones or earbuds. In the story, Mildred uses them to help her sleep. I'm always have my earbuds on listening to music. When I'm feeling anxious before sleeping, music helps me fall asleep.

2. Honestly, I can relate to Guy Montag. I relate through the questionable happiness. Some days I'm totally fine and happy, nothing bad on my mind. Others, I'm so down and depressed. One of the worst things I've experienced is definitely faking a smile and happiness. I was so sure I was content with my life so far until things happen I began to realize I'm not.

3. This book is based around burning books. The title "Fahrenheit 451" is the temperature at which books burn. In the book, reading, books, basically knowledge is not 'permitted'. Some sort of connection to modern America is that the amount of people who enjoy books and reading has definitely decreased. Technology has been a huge factor in this. Technology drives people away from the nature of reading and book knowledge. 

F451 Summary Part 1

           So far in the book we have learned various things. First of all, we learned who some of our characters were: Guy Montag, Clarisse, and Mildred. They are all distinctive from each other. Montag is a firefighter, who is married to Mildred. Clarisse is a person who is happy and has a good relationship with her family. We also learned that the title of this book " Fahrenheit 451" is the temperature at which book burns and that is Montag's job.
             Montag is a firefighter who, job is to burn books, but he is a depressed man who thinks he is happy until Clarisse comes along and questions him. She asks him "Are you happy?" That's when he begins to question himself and his happiness. Through Clarisse we learn that her family actually talks to each other which was not usual in their society. Our now called televisions are called parlor walls in their society which take away their ability to talk basically.
             After their encounter, Montag returns home to fin his wife, Mildred, unresponsive because she has overdosed on sleeping pills. She has Seashell Radios in her ears which are headphones that help her fall asleep. From this scenario we learn that overdosing in their society is quite frequent and an ordinary thing that happens. There's machines that were created to 'fix' this problem in such little time. This incident with his wife causes Montag to realize that he doesn't know anything about his wife. He only know how interested she is in her "family" which is the images on her TV.

A Story of My Life

September 6. I had just gotten home from school and went to bed for my daily after school  nap. I got woken up by sharp pains in my abdomen. At first, I paid no attention to it and told myself the pain would go away. I went downstairs, said hello to my mom, and to get some food. At this point, the pain was no regular pain. It would go away and come back but it was really painful. I rushed to the restroom because I felt like letting everything out orally. But nothing happened it was just excruciating pain. I finally decided to let my mom know what I was feeling. As my mother she quickly made me tea, gave me medicine, called my aunt for remedies, and other stuff. But the pain was still there. The pain was horrible, breaking me into tears and frustration because I didn’t know what was happening. After 4 hours, I was rushed to the hospital. The pain I was feeling was making me lose a sense of everything. With tears running down my face, I was finally admitted into the emergency room. They asked questions, but I couldn’t answer because I was in pain. The nurse did and said “ You’re either pregnant or you have appendicitis.” I quickly responded with a face of fear and tears. I was scared for either one, even though one was not likely. So many thoughts rushed through my head. The main was not good as it was my biggest fear. Dying. I thought “If it is appendicitis, that means surgery, but what if something goes wrong. What if my body gives up?” I was so scared and after getting medication to calm me down, I forgot everything about going into surgery. The doctor came back with the results and in fact it was appendicitis. I was moved upstairs into a bigger room which kind of triggering my fear even more. I hated it. I spent a total of 21 hours with tears down my face and excruciating pain. I prayed as I went into surgery because I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t know what it felt like, I had never been through that. There was no words to described what I felt going into the operating room. Long story short, my surgery went great, but little did I know my mind wasn’t going to be good. I spent about 4-5 days in observation and it was the worst days of my life so far. I felt enclosed with needles in my arms, tubes up my stomach, 3 sets of stitches, and continuous pain. I know people have much more worst things going on in their lives, but this was mine at the moment and it was not fun for me. Things that are unexpected are crazy and can definitely change your life quickly. For me, the unexpected brought the unexpected. My unexpected surgery brought so many unexpected mental feelings and emotions.

My Author, My Hero

Rupi Kaur is a poet. She writes my favorite type of literature, poems. She inspires me with her powerful words. She got her fame from her instgram in 2015 because she was a young controversial voice of feminism. In a couple of years she has published two best selling poetry books. “Milk & Honey” and “The Sun and Her Flowers”.  She is from the Indian race and it’s not common seeing a woman of race speaking up at such a young age. Her poems are powerful to me. I can relate so much and I can tell she pours her heart and soul into making these poems as good as possible. Her short yet very raw poems cover so many different topics from abuse, immigration, depression, relationships, hardships of both men and women. She’s inspired to one day hopefully write a poetry book of my own. It’s one of my goals but it seems unrealistic to me because I think no one will read. She showed me that it’s possible because she has 2 best selling books in 3 years at 24. Her personality and her voice inspire me to be a better person. Through her words on paper she has showed me that hard things will happen in life but you can’t give up because of that. You can accomplish anything if you get through a rough time.

In Thoreau’s Words

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
The world, your life, is going to be what you make it. You decide what happens and where your life goes. The decisions you make lead you to where you want to go or want to be. Nothing can stop you from doing so. The world is here to make it whatever you want it to be. 


“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
This relates to the quote above. Do what YOU want to do. Don’t let anybody get in the way and especially don’t be influenced by society. Be confident in what you want to do in your life and the dreams you want to achieve. 


“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.“
When you’re at place when you don’t know what is going with your life you get lost. Your mind and thoughts are all over the place. It takes getting lost within one’s self to find and understand ourselves. It’s like a sogn from out mind or conscience is trying to tell us something. There’s definitely something there and if you listen you’ll find yourself.