U.S.+ Hound = Safety?

I think the United States would be much safer if we would have a such thing as a hound. If it would be like the one in the book it is very strong and powerful and can cause a lot of harm. I think people would think twice about committing a crime because they know what danger they may face. I believe we would be a much safer country, our citizens would respect the laws more, and their would be a lot less violence. The hound would keep people in tact, but if the people choose to break the law they might as well consider themselves a dead person. The United States would be a better place to live and I believe our crime rate would drop rapidly.



Jackie Moon
AKA Jack Moonshower

What Will Happen Now?

Montag ran and pretty much got away. He is with a group of different people down by the railroad. From my understanding these people are just like him, which is really good. Since he has been with them he knows what is going on with the chase for him. The police just found a random guy thats done nothing wrong and killed him. They did this and said it was actually Montag to the viewers so they wouldnt worry about him anymore. They also did it so the people wouldnt get bored with the show. Now that this has happened what will happen next? Will they continue the search for Montag or will they just leave it at that? I also am wondering since fabor was most likly watching the tv when all of this went down, will he think Montag is really dead? Will Montag move on from the group and keep going to meet Fabor? If he does end up going to meet Fabor will Fabor be shocked that Montag isn't dead? These are all the questions i ask myself when i wonder whats gonna happen next. Hopefully ill get all my answers in the last section of the book.

-Tiffany Pierce

It Requires No Thought

The citizens in Fahrenheit 451 never engage their minds, and they never think. Only a couple of characters, Montag, Clarisse, and Faber, actually use their minds and think logically. Clarisse was the character to get Montag to start to change. Montag wanted more information because he was changing, and he went and saw Faber, an old English professor. This added to his change, and in my opinion, helped complete his change. If Montag wouldn't have gone and seen Faber, Montag might not have gotten the idea to listen in with the earpieces and then plant books in firefighters' houses. Faber contributed greatly to Montag's progression of getting out of the mold that everybody lived in. Faber made a good statement when he said," I don't think things sir, I think the meaning of things." This statement shows that Faber is a thinker. Faber is educated and he has knowledge. I think this quote shows that Faber doesn't fit into society and he isn't in the little bubble that everybody else is in. This quote means that Faber looks deeper than what is on the surface. He digests books and other things and takes them in and really tries to understand what they mean. All of the other citizens in this society don't think about anything. The only thing they care about is their tv shows and being violent. They don't even care about their kids. Getting back to the quote, everybody and every person thinks. Some people just don't think of important things or anything that has any meaning to it. Faber thought deeper, and he thought about the important things. He could see what society was becoming, he just was too scared to do anything about it. Most of the people don't even realize that anything is wrong and they obviously aren't going to find ways to change things that, in their opinion, aren't broken or wrong. Faber saw that changes needed to be made and he actually thought about what was going on in society. Faber was a thinker and he wanted change, he was just too much of a coward to act on his beliefs.

Molly Gamble

Looks Can Be Deceiving!

The 1960 presidential election was won by John F. Kennedy. In my opinion, he won basically because most women thought he was very good looking. In Fahrenheit 451, when Mildred, Mrs. Phelps, and Mrs. Bowles were talking about the recent presidential election, it caught my eye. They were talking that the presidant they voted for was better looking than the other. I don't quite understand why people can just look at a persons appearence rather than their ideas to change the country to decide who they want to vote for. They also said that they didn't pick the other one because he didn't comb his hair. That, in my eyes, is ridiculous. It makes no sense to me. During that debate, they were more focused on his hairdue than what he was talking about. I think that is much like what our country is today. I believe that many americans voted for Obama solely on the purpose that he was black. We were looking for change, so we changed basically the color of our presidant. His ideas have done nothing to help our country. His stimulus package has worsened our unemployment rates rather that fix them. I think that we should take more time to look into different candidates instead of just looking at them. This proves that the government being run in Fahrenheit 451 can control the people. Since they didn't pay attention to the presidants ideas, he can do whatever he wants. He controls the peoples minds. He tells them what they can and can't learn or watch on TV. This is much like a Dictatorship. People have no rights, they can't read, only learn what they are told they can. It reminds me of John Locke's idea of survival of the fittest. People kill each other and themselves. For what reason? I don't think there is one. Maybe it's just for fun. The government does not care if they do or do not so why not do it. In the future, I can see the US going in this direction. We must change! This is what Montag is trying to accomplish and will hopefully succeed in doing so.

-Matt "Thee Cooch" Cucciarre

"To Truly Live" by Luke Brubaker

In my oppinion to truly live is to have a goal in life and strive to get it. Montag meets up with Granger and at that piont I think that montag is truly living. Through out the whole book everybody lives a life where they dont know whats going to happen ot them the next day and really don't care either. People live thier life just by watching T.V. and going to work and pretending that they are happy. Montag truly discovers happiness when he joins Granger's group. At this point in the book Montag has people who truly care bout him and what he does. Nobody else in the city really absolutely cared for each other even though they said they did. If someone died then they wouldnt really be upset and probably forget the next day. When Montag first walks up to the fire he feels a warm feeling for the fire. I think he was actually feeling happiness. He felt the warmth of love. Granger and his true friends are living for a mission. They want to sread the knowledge of these books that they memorized. They are striving to do this and know that they are going to die someday and maybe thier goal won't happen in thier lifetime but they still persist. Montag has a reason to live now. He knows at the very end of the book what he will say when he meets survivors of the city if there are any. He actually is excited to tell people what he has to say for probably the first real time in his life. The people in the city have nothing to live for except to be entertained. Montag is now not just living to be entertained. He has to think of how to survive in the wild and of what he can show the people. It is very hard to live life without being excited and happy or having something like a goal to look forward to. It is very hard for the people in the city to live even though they think that they have a great life. They kill each other and themselves sometimes not meaning to and end up not caring. Having true friends is also a key part to accomplishing goals. Without them I think it would be pretty hard to go though life. That is what I think to truly live is all about. Live a life to accomplish something. If you accomplish that go for something bigger and better. Your true friends should and always will be there for you.
-Luke Brubaker

A not so colorful world. -kaylee meyers

When Montag is running away from the city after just killing Beatty and destroying the hound, he is able to hear and see what all the news is saying by looking in people's windows of their houses. The news is able to track Montag through a new hound and helicopters. It's telling the people that he is a wanted man and to go look out their doors on the count of ten. While Montag is running he is imagining all of the people getting up out of their sleepy dazes and doing exactly what the people on TV are telling them to do because they are able to truly think for themselves. He imagined them going to their doors opening the doors and having thousands of Faces look out into alleys, streets, yards, and into the sky. All peering out to look for him and all of them the shade of gray. They were hidden behind masks and curtains almost with their colorless eyes and numb expressions as they did as they were told. It just amazes me how these people can go through the day just watching television and not really caring what goes on in the rest of society. They have no life to them. They just go through the motions without really thinking of their lives and what they are doing. They have no color to them or livelihood so the world around them is just as gray as they are.

-Kaylee Meyers

Sorry..

Sorry period 6. I'm still not good at this blogging thing... and I can't erase what I put on your page.
-Brittany Jurczyk

Absolutly Rediculous Entertainment

Starting at the top of page 148 Granger starts stepping Montag through what's happening on the television. The media cannot tolerate with a simple "we lost him" story. They, along with the law enforcement, will make up a story to satisfy the public. Keeping tabs on this "Montag" for years has finally benefited them by delivering a great news program. The innocent and probably lonely guy was just taking a morning walk for goodness sakes. Obviously that doesn't affect how the media handles this because they're pretty involved in getting the correct camera shot for their viewers. Why is the hound even going for this guy anyway? He has to "know" that this isn't Montag.
It's also really funny to me when I picture how people look as they watch this. To us, seeing this, would be a movie from Hollywood. To these people this is real life drama and suspense that is actually KILLING people. Also, the fact that after the announcer..well announces that the search is over and Montag is dead they go directly into "We now take you to the Sky Room of the Hotel Lux for a half hour of Just-Before-Dawn, a program of--." This supposedly is key for everything's all fine and dandy now so you can go back to your happy life. Do these people really take a sigh of relief from that? I just thought that this form of entertainment was extremely disgusting and wanted to share.
-Brittany Jurczyk

Post Ideas for the Uncertain

If you're stuck for ideas for posting, below are some discussion questions that relate to life and Fahrenheit 451. Connect them to the book as you choose and expand upon life in general since that is why we study literature: to study humanity.

1. What is reality and how is it constructed? What are the potential conflicts when one person's reality is another person's illusion?
2. What is happiness and what is the degree of importance in one's life?
3. Why does happiness seem to be so elusive for so many people?
4. What color are you? The people in the story are gray; what metapohorical color sums up your personality?
5. What is the relationships between freedom and responsibility? Along those lines, what is freedom and is it ever free? Is restriction on freedom ever a good thing?
6. How does conflict lead to change?
7. How does an individual's point of view affect the way he deals with conflict?
8. What is the relationship between decisions and consequences?
9. How do decisions and actions of characters reveal their personalities?
10. What does it mean to truly live? What kinds of things contribute to the quality of our lives?
11. What did Faber mean when he said, "I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I am alive"?
12.Why do you suppose such a low value is placed on human life in the story? Why is the society so violent in general?

Don't forget! There's a lot of imagery that can be discussed example by example. We are of no shortage for topics this week! Have fun thinking!

"Don't face your problems, burn them!"

In Fahrenheit 451, on page on page 121, Montag is thinking about what he had just done. He had heard people crying and shouting. He said that Beatty was no longer the problem. Montag said that Beatty always said "don't face your problems, burn them!' Montag had done exactly this. There are people today that don't like to face the problems. The real problem is that if you don't face them, it's just going to get worse. I know that there are times where I didn't want to face my own problems, but I have always found out that it doesn't make it any better. I found out the hard way by not facing my problems and just ignoring them. People today should not ignore their problems. They should do the right thing by facing the consequences that they caused.

After Montag had burned Beatty, he got to thinking. He had said that he felt like a fool and an idiot for his actions. He didn't know what to do about it, so he started saying the Beatty wanted to die because he didn't do anything to stop it. Montag caused a huge problem and didn't want to face it. He tried covering it up by saying that Beatty wanted to die. People today kind of do the same thing. If they do something terribly wrong, they try and make it sound like it wasn't such a bad thing. In the end, the truth will always come out, and it's just going to cause more problems for that person. I think if Montag keeps ignoring his problems, he is going to cause BIGGER problems by the end of the book. If you have a problem, just face it and then you won't have to worry about it anymore.



--Ashley Schnipke(:

Mindless Thills by Kenzie Renner

In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred (along with almost everyone else in the community) seeks mindless pleasure. One example of this starts on page 13 of the book. It's the first time the reader meets Mildred. When the reader meets her, she is unconscious. This is her mindless pleasure. She overdosed on her sleeping pills 'accidently'. Another example is her 3-Wall television. She wants to be entertained at an instant. That's how most of the people are in that community. She drowns herself in technology. On page 20, she gets a script in the mail, so it will be like she's in the movie. This is just a mindless pleasure. The show doesn't have any important content. A third example is Mildred's wreckless driving. When she is tense or mad, she drives around speeding and hitting animals on the road. She finds it fun, but the reader might find it bestial. The few reasons listed show how Mildred seeks mindless pleasure.

Sidewalks: Connecting People

In Fahrenheit 451, people are very closed off from each other. Nobody communicates and nobody exchanges ideas. One reason for this is because people do not leave the safety of their homes. They only watch tv and play sports. A simple way for them to get out and talk to each other would be through the use of sidewalks. In Fahrenheit 451 on page five it states, "unused sidewalks." That statement stuck out to me. People do not walk anywhere and they do not get to know their neighbors. Sidewalks connect people to each other. They give people a way to get out of their safety net and talk and exchange ideas. The lack of use with sidewalks also has to do with no front porches. The society does not want to talk and communicate because they don't want to take the the energy to think. Sidewalks connect people to each other and they get people talking and thinking.
~Molly Gamble

Life is....... fun?????

Hey its time for school! That's what i would think if my day was full of sports and watching "T.V. teachers." The truth is, though, after a while it would get boring. That's all the kids go and do at school in Fahrenheit 451. How would you like it if you went to school, played all kinds of sports, and sat in front of a T.V. that was a teacher who just fed you information? the information isn't even about important stuff. That would seem fun for a little while but you're not learning anything. Pretty soon the fun stuff becomes the boring stuff. what about you're future? The kids in the book already are not happy even though the schools are suppose to be fun. After school the kids go home and bully other people around. WHAT? I can't see the fun in bullying a person around. In the book that's all the kids have to do though. they don't know anything else because their lives are filled with too much fun. They are not sure what fun is anymore even though they think they do. I can maybe see America going in this direction. There are already smart boards in our classrooms. That's maybe might not be such a big threat though. I'm just saying that classrooms are being filled with more and more technology and kids are already doing dangerous things that could kill themselves for fun. I would hate to have a life as a kid in this book. In the book it talks about fun parks. I'm guessing that they are like amusement parks with rides like Cedar Point. I absolutely love Cedar Point and I would hate to get tired of it. What would a life be like if even Cedar Point got boring? I know a bunch of kids that like to talk and talk. I can't even imagine when kids don't talk anymore. In our time that's almost the only way for us to get anything done. I don't understand how kids can live their lives like this and not realize that something is not right. I think that kids have the most creative minds in the world. What an insipid life it would be to live as a kid in this time period. Never ever being able to enjoy life's simple pleasures. I'm glad we live in this time period. "laugh out loudly" This is all i have to say on this.
~Luke Brubaker~

The Dangers of Political Correctness. By- Austin Reichert

On page 58 Beatty talks about the issue that created book burning in the society. This issue that we deal with today too is political correctness. After all the books and school are dumbed down to make reading and learning fast and fun people became offended by books. Without the intelect to have an opinion, the people that were offended started to burn the books to make every one happy. Books that offended them because of their nationality were burned because noone stood up and said no. The scariest thing about this was that even companies could get books burned if they talked bad about their company. I see many of these same these same things in our society today. This is a scary though because people are always sueing people for racism and political correctness. People are always worried about what they are going to say and do because they could offend someone. As the book goes on I will expand this idea on this blog. If you have any examples of crazy political correctness please comment. -Austin Reichert

The Hearth and the Salamander

Some of you have your own topics you want to start discussing, which is fabulous. Here's a question to get some of you started if you're stuck. What is the significance of Part I's title: The Hearth and the Salamander? Do a little research and see what you can connect; put it all together in your own words.

Go beyond the surface and really explain what you think.

Welcome!

English 10CB students, welcome to our blog! Because so many colleges now have you post academic responses online, because you love to surf the internet anyway, and because I want you to continue to get practice analyzing and communicating in writing, I have created a forum on which we will share our ideas with one another and in response to one another as we study literature this year.

Our current topic: anything that has to do with Fahrenheit 451 and the world as it relates.

Your requirements: Post at least ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS. This can be a brand new post (make sure you include a title with the topic) or it can be a response to someone else's post (make sure you click COMMENTS and leave the response there. Be thorough; aim for a substance filled paragraph. Grammar counts!! :-)

NOTE: YOU MUST SIGN YOUR NAME WHEN YOU POST IF YOU SIGN IN AND CREATE A NEW POST! You may comment without signing in.