Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

15. Discuss the use of quotations from literature in Fahrenheit 451.  Which works are quoted and to what effect? Pay specific attention to "Dover Beach", the Bible, and quotes from Shakespeare.  Explain using specific examples from the text in your argument. 

Throughout the novel of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there were several allusions that connected to other literature.  Very well known authors such as Shakespeare, and Sir Phillip Sydney were tied into the story.  The Bible and ancient Greek stories were also involved.  The effect of quoting these works of literature improved the story.

Beatty constantly referenced works of literature.  "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm'd so strong in honesty that they pass me as an idle wind, which I respect not!" (Page 119)  This is the line he quoted right before Montag set him on fire.  This quote belongs to the play Julius Caesar, created by Shakespeare.  Beatty kept egging on Montag to kill him, because he was depressed, and like Mildred who (subconsciously or not, I'm not sure) hated their life and wanted to die.  At the end of The Sieve and the Sand Beatty tries to use circumlocution and many quotes while talking to Montag so that he will slip and say something he shouldn't.  "All's well that is well in the end." (Page 108) Beatty references Shakespeare once again- this time to the play of All's Well that Ends Well. Beatty may have possibly used to much Shakespeare because there are tons of Shakespeare's plays that were preserved from the Renaissance, and therefore they may have been in the houses that he burned. "Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge" (Page 105) This is another quote in which that Beatty tried to confuse Montag.  It was taken from a poem by Sir Philip Sydney.  Beatty references an ancient Greek myth in Burning Bright.  "Old Montag wanted to fly near the sun and now that he's burnt his damn wings, he wonders why. Didn't I hint enough when I sent the Hound around your place?" (Page 113)  Beatty tells this to Montag when they arrive at his house to burn it.  Mildred couldn't live with Montag anymore; she was completely done with him, so she sped off in a car.  Beatty is reffering to the greek myth, Icarus, when someone is told not to go near the sun with their wings, and they do anyways. Beatty had warned Montag about reading books, and now that he did, he's in trouble. In The Hearth and the Salamander when the fireman get a call to go to an old lady's house and burn it down Beatty tries to get the old lady out.  "You've been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come on now!" (Page 38)  The old lady doesn't believe in what Beatty says, and would rather die with her books without them. So she lights her own house on fire with a kitchen match.  Beatty was referring to the Bible in his allusion.  The 'Tower of Babel' was involved in a story from the Bible.  Beatty's constant references to book implys he has read books even though he is a fireman and shouldn't have. Perhaps Beatty wanted to die because he read the books, and he felt that all the vast knowledge went far beyond what he could of thought without them. 

Montag is also someone who uses quotes of literature.  "Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here s on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night." (Page 100) Montag read the poem Dover Beach to Mildred's friends.  After hearing it, one of them started crying.  The poem has several lines that refer to the way the women are not acting.  The friends of Mildred don't understand love, or being true to one another, or really understanding what's happening around them.  They really are 'ignorant armies.'

The use of quotations enhance the story.  Since Beatty always references books it made you think of some sort of irony, because he is a fireman.  Since Montag was starting to read and memorize books it really brought out the theme of defying society.  Shakespeare, the Bible, and other ancient stories brought out a feel that there was still a lot of intelligence within the book.  Overall without the allusions to other books Fahrenheit 451 wouldn't be the same.

TU Tuesday - Local

The article I read was about a new bill being passed. This bill makes it so that "the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [has] to standardize drug labels, laying out the drug's risks in easy-to-understand language." Five years ago a 15 year old boy named Cody Miller took his own life due to the prescription he was taking. His family did not recognize this sudden depression, and then 17 days after taking Singulair he killed himself. One of the main reasons people want this bill to be passed is so they can avoid tragic accidents like these. Apparently "most consumers don't realize that the drug leaflets that come with prescription medications are not regulated or reviewed."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is trying to get this bill passed. If it is, "the Cody Miller Initiative for Safer Prescriptions Act, gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services two years to create a standard format for drug labels that is scientifically accurate and written in plain language describing the drug's proper use, common side effects and most serious risks." If this passes people who take drugs may be able to save their own life.

Source:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Bill-Drug-labels-can-save-lives-3594022.php

50. Should women be allowed in the military?

Women should be allowed in the military because they're people too. Personally, I would never want to join, and I don't know why anyone would want to die fighting. So if someone actually wants to die fighting for the country, why not let them do so? It's a free country and that means people can do what they want. In the Declaration of Independence it says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Although at the time they said men, our country now believes women to be equal too.  The ideals of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (created by John Locke in the Enlightenment period) apply to women too.  Women work at jobs, they are mothers, and sometimes they're even stronger than men.  Why shouldn't they be allowed in the military?  There is no reason they shouldn't be allowed in.  If they want to die for this country, I say let them. 

Sources:

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

http://journalbuddies.com/journal_prompts__journal_topics/journal-writing-topics-memorial-day/

What is Crippling Us?

John Taylor Gatto tells of how public school is ruining children through an essay.  "Throughout most of American history, kids generally didn't go to high school, yet the unschooled rose to be admirals,...inventors,...captains of industry,...writers,...and even scholars,...In fact, until pretty recently people who reached the age of thirteen weren't looked upon as children at all. " (Against School)  He says how school is ruining maturity of kids, and their responsibility level.  Somehow kids aren't growing all the way up. "School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children. Again, this is no accident." (Against School)  He basically claims that school turns kids into servants of society.  "Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can." (Against School) Children who are public-schooled must have someone with them at all time, they lack the ability to be alone.  

This can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because Mildred, along with several other adults of this town, require the constant attention from the "parlor."  Mildred sits all day in the parlor, with the special converter that replaces a blank audience's name with her own, and talks to the three panel TV.  "'Will you turn the parlor off?' he asked. 'That's my family.' 'Will you turn it down for a sick man?' 'I'll turn it down.'" (Fahrenheit 451, page 48) Mildred can't even get herself away from the parlor.  She is so attached to an inanimate object, she can't be without it.  Just as the children who need the constant companionship who go to public school.  Ray Bradbury tells of how society is discriminating against those who are intelligent, or those who surpass everyone else by using dialog.  "We must all be alike.  Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy; for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against." (Fahrenheit 451, page 58)  Beatte tells Montag about how books are bad because they cause problems.  In this futuristic society it is believed if you don't read books, you are happy because you don't think about a made-up world that someone wrote that will contradict your thoughts.  People can not be offended, and that's why the fireman burn books.  

I am not persuded by John Taylor Gatto to think as he does because there are always the few exceptions to public school.  For example Jay Leno went to Emerson College to get a degree when his high school counciler told him to drop out of High School. He is famous, and he still went to school, he is not a servant to society.  I am sort of persuaded by Ray Bradbury because his futuristic view of the world is kind of true in a way that people gasp when you mutter the wrong thing.


Sources: 

• http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm
• http://www.collegecrunch.org/fun-stuff/famous-people-the-schools-they-went-to/
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Tried and True

If I had to spend the rest of my life in a library, museum or a zoo, I would pick a librabry.  Museums don't contain anything but artifacts, and small little boxes of information on the object.  It would get scary at night; I'd be afraid the things would come to life.  It would be lonely.  There would be no food.  Living my whole life in a zoo would be scary too, I'm terribly afraid of snakes and other reptiles.  It would be cool hanging out with the penguins though.  I love penguins. If I got hungry I could eat from a snack bar or kill and roast an animal.  It probably smells bad in a zoo too because of all the animal's poop.  Living in a library would be the best.  The smell of old books, and new pages is wonderful.  If I got bored I could watch a movie (they have a bunch of movies at the library for some reason), or listen to music, or I could get abosrbed into a book.  There is unlimited entertainment at the library.  There's also computers there, so I would be set for life.  Perhaps there's a small cafe in the library, if it was really fancy (like there is at Barns and Noble.)  That way I wouldn't starve to death.  So overall the library would be where I chose to live for the rest of my life.

Prompt from: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/post/17477297690/my-28-most-tried-and-true-writing-prompts

TU Tuesday - Commencement Speech

Wise words are spoken, that touch your soul in commencement speeches.  Amy Poehler told Harvard's graduating class of 2011 "[w]hat [she has] discovered as a person in this world. And that is this: you can't do it alone."  I completely agree with her.  "[B]e open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own."  This statement holds true to the show Mrs. Poehler stars on, Parks and Recreation. "Daniels noted the mock documentary style of the series takes into account improvisation and the actors always give the editors so many choices to work with." (Inside Parks and Recreation) In the show all the actors and writers work together to create a wonderful show, without everyone's ideas and input, it would not be what it is today.   

Mrs. Poehler also expressed how she felt making good friends was a huge important part in life.  "Listen, say yes, live in the moment, make sure you play with people who have your back, make big choices early and often."  I agree with this because you do need people to have your back, so when you're down and in the dumps, they can rescue you.  Big choices lead to big responsibilities, and big responsibilities don't come easy without help.  "Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don't know about. "  I agree; If you speak your mind on everything, sometimes you'll get rejected and end up getting hurt.   You need friends to get you through life. "When you feel scared, hold someone's hand and look into their eyes. And when you feel brave, do the same thing. You are all here because you are smart. And you are brave. And if you add kindness and the ability to change a tire, you almost make up the perfect person."  Without other people influencing your life, you aren't who you are.

Sources:
http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0095-poehler.htm
http://www.paleycenter.org/fall-2009-inside-parks-recreation

  

1. How I Use Facebook

I use Facebook as a way to talk to people who don't have a phone/are grounded from it every once a month or so.  The "chat" feature is annoying.  I don't like Facebook.  I used to like it when I first got it back in middle school, but now I don't.  I used to use it for Farmville; I got to like level 35 and stopped because I realized it was stupid and I was wasting my life.  Sometimes when I log onto Facebook I will scroll down my news feed and literally start making rude comments at everything people post.  Or sometimes if I'm in a bad mood I scroll down and realize how stupid everyone is and tell the screen that I don't like that person, then I laugh to myself.  For tennis this year, me and the other team captains used Facebook as a way to get tennis messages out.  For example, our laser tag party that never happened.  Facebook is inefficient and stupid.  Sometimes when people posts things like "It's wednesday!" or "It's snowing!" it makes me get angry because I think that society is going downhill and the future generation is doomed.  Facebook used to be for college kids, then other kids got to it, now I believe a ton of parents use it, and now it's just dumb.  I use Facebook for pictures.  I want to delete my Facebook, but I don't want to because if i deleted it all the pictures would be gone.  In conclusion I use Facebook only when I have to. I'd much rather waste my life on the computer on Tumblr or playing video games.


Blog idea: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/100-blog-topics-i-hope-you-write/