Blog #6: Entry of my choice

I am a Zombie!

As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, it gave me the gigantic shock. I became a zombie of the media. Through this blog, I want to confess my addiction to media. This is my life. 6:50 AM alarm clock rings from my iPod, I take shower with music on. After, shower, I check my e-mail and eat breakfast. After the breakfast, I go to my grandpa’s car and go to school with radio on. In school, I listen to the music, text message (secretly), play phone game (secretly), and check my emails, and web surf. Even in class, media controlled me. 3:05 PM school ends, and I take taxi and go to hag won, with my iPod turned on. 5:30 PM, I go eat dinner, and my friends and I sit at the table which is closest to the TV. Some of them watch TV, some of them play phone game, and I watch TV and play game at the same time. Of course, only few conversations went on between us, before food comes out. When we are eating, we are absolutely silent. After we eat food, we go to studying room, and do our HW. In addition, my real addiction starts after all the academic stuff ends. 11:00 PM, I go home and since I do not have a television at Taejon, I download the TV programs that I missed. It is approximately three or four programs a day. I sit at the couch and bring one cup of orange juice, and watch it until midnight. Usually, programs are about an hour long. Therefore, after watching TV programs, I go to the face book and write comments on friends’ “wall”. Moreover, 2:30 to 3:00 AM I go to sleep. I know I am very addicted to the media. However, I did not realize until I read Fahrenheit 451. I found out my addiction grew very big. It is like a man smoking his cigarette, even though he knows it is ruining his life. I know it will take time, but now I want to declare that I will go against the ruthless media that ruined my life of 16 years. Additionally, I know for sure that it’s not only me that is addicted to media. I know YOU are addicted too but not recognized it. It is like cancer growing and growing, and still does not know you have cancer. People, media is ruining our life with fake information, what media tells you are not true. I thought it was but it is not. So, I strongly recommend you to stop before it is too late.

Blog#5: The passage

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries
In addition, comment on what you think about the passage.

“So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” (pg 58, line 29)
Captain Beatty spoke this quote when he was telling Montag why books are bad. Reason why I chose this quote is, the Quote from Captain Beatty appealed very strongly to me. As you see in the text, it gave unique symbol of the books, the guns. However, this quote gave me an idea about Beatty is a hypocrite. From this book, I can tell that Captain Beatty also has books and read it before. It is interesting that books are loaded guns. What do people use to wipe out all the guns? They use guns to wipe out the guns in the world. People carry handguns, to protect themselves from gunshots. What do you see on TV when there is a robber who has a handgun that can blow citizens’ head? Yes, police use gun to protect the citizens. Moreover, the quote from the movie Training Day clearly states, “to wipe out all the drugs, we the cops have to know the drugs and know how to enjoy the drugs.” Isn’t it so ironic that people use same matter to wipe out the same thing? So for sure, I know that Captain Beatty read books to wipe out all the books in their society. It is so ironic that, we have to use the “bad” objects to wipe out the “bad” objects.

Blog #4: The Mood

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you inany way? Why?

First, Mood is the emotion of the readers. As I read the Fahrenheit 451, the mood was very gloomy, and dark. From corrupted society, the society is controlled by technology. The scenery is very dark. Moreover, many people died. The old woman dies with books (which made Montag curious about reading), and Montag kills Captain Beatty. In addition, the mechanical Hounds are putting people to sleep which means to kill. As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, I realized that the society is also similar with society in the movie I-Robot. The quote the robots said was “if you guys are relying to us, you are controlled by us”. The people are just controlled by media and living like Zombies. The story saddens when Mildred stopped talking to the Montag anymore and watched TV. Because, I can see that the addiction to media can ruin one family and destroy one person. Moreover, I was shocked since, now the current society is becoming like Fahrenheit 451. The people are becoming zombies of the media. They go home, turn on the TV, and watch it for long time. In addition, it is true that communications between the families are getting lesser, and lesser. I felt uncomfortable after reading Fahrenheit 451 since it reflects current society. Even though, books about dystopia warn us, we just do not care about it and continue to live our life watching TV. Even though you do not want to admit, we are the zombies!

Blog #3: Climax

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

The climax of the Fahrenheit 451 was when Guy Montag killed Captain Beatty with the fire hose. This event is the climax of the Fahrenheit 451 since it was the point with no return. Guy Montag could not go back to time he killed the captain Beatty and save his life. Once he killed him, he could not remove his history of the murder. There was a fire alarm saying that the books had found. And the “fire fighters” went to the place where the fire alarm rang. However, the Montag’s wife betrayed Montag and turned him to the fire station. Mildred was so addicted to the media and thought the TV was her family that she turned him in to the government. In addition, after caught by captain Beatty, Beatty told Montag to burn his own house. However, Montag refused and had some conflict and Beatty punched Montag’s face and the green earplug fell off which the Faber was talking to him. Beatty held up the gun, about to pull the trigger, Montag sprayed fire all over Beatty. Beatty twisted like a squid and lay silently. I loved the quote he mentioned when he killed the captain. “You always said, don’t face the problem, burn it. Well, now I have done both. Good bye” (pg 121, line26) He now burned the Captain who was his problem. He killed him for his freedom. However, once he killed the captain, the mechanical Hounds were chasing after him and he could not go back to the city and live a life he used to live yesterday. That is why I chose the event for the climax. It was the point with no return, and point with highest tension. When I read the climax, I was very happy, since Montag got rid of his “problems” but somewhat nervous since he had to face other “problems” while running away from the “Hounds”. I know murder is bad but to get rid of the "problem" it was the good one ^^.

Blog#2: current situation

Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to thenovel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed anylight on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed”?

The ideal society in Fahrenheit 451 is corrupted and chaotic. However, Fahrenheit 451 is very similar to the society now. You will be very surprised after I say the similarities. First, bombs are flying over the city but people do not recognize it in Fahrenheit 451. In our society, bombs are flying over our heads too, but we do not care at all. We see news about war on Iraq but after few minutes we change the channel and found ourselves watching Comedy show and laughing like idiots. Second, I will first ask you one question. Can you describe the buildings around your house or the streets that you just walked by? I am sure that you do not even know the name of the buildings that is right in front of your house. Yes, people in the Fahrenheit 451 and we are living life meaningless. We are living our life so fast that we cannot even describe the buildings that we just passed by. Third, people are addicted to the media. People in the book watch the TV wall and communicate with them, and think that they are their family. You see what’s happening in our society? It’s becoming like the society in the Fahrenheit 451. Now days TVs are getting slimmer and soon will be the wall TV. And you know the seashell in the book? What do you that is? That’s the MP3s we are listening now. Yes, I know you got goose-bumps now. Now, you see what is our society going to be? Our current society is becoming just like the society that’s in the book. Therefore, the dystopia that is formed in the book is not so far from the society now. Ray Bradbury nailed what the world’s going to be in 1950’s. So, we should not think dystopia is far from now. Dystopia is waiting just right in front of us.

Blog#1: Theme of the book

The theme of Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Throughout the book, the idea of censorship is floating around reader's mind. The ideal government in the Fahrenheit 451 censors the idea of knowledge to make people equal. Therefore, theme of the Fahrenheit 451 is important to teenagers because even in the current society the idea of banning the media and the information is becoming an issue.
Most of teenagers are open to all the information on internet, books, and televisions. In addition, the society is trying to censor the “inappropriate” information on the media. Such as dirty and violent internet sites, dangerous weapon related books or movies, and music that have cussing words. However, don’t teenagers have the “freedom” of choice? The government in the current society is putting us down by censoring all the “information” that we wanted to know. It is good that they censor the dirty information, but if there is good information then for sure there will be bad information too.
If the government is censoring the information over us, it means we are controlled by ruthless society, and do not even recognize it. The government cannot make the world perfect by censoring the information on the media, but will end up being corrupted nation. For example, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was banned in school because of “N” word that humiliated black kids in many schools. However, if the government tries to ban the information on the media, then it will end up censoring all the information and become idiotic nation that does not know anything at the end.
If that's true thenTeletubbies should be banned since, the characters are all the minorities in the society. Twinky-Winky is representing the gays; blue (men) and red (women) mixed and make color purple, which means homosexual. Even though he is a big man, he carries the red hand back, which emphasizes that he is gay. Dipsy represents the African Americans because he has dark face, and Laa Laa represents women, and Po represents the babies.
Therefore, censoring the media over the nation does not matter because there will always be the “bad side” when there is “good side.” It is impossible to censor the “inappropriate” information. Just like Guy Montag, there are people against their government. In addition, It is important to respect teenagers’ opinion and not controlling over us forcefully.