Friday, March 15, 2013

Fishbowl #5: the end of F451

Wow!  What a huge improvement in the blog questions and comments.  I'm so impressed...with one exception.  I am uncomfortable with you guys jesting with one another.  Even if you guys are friends and are joking, the tone you take with one another sometimes makes me uncomfortable.  I invite you to challenge one another's ideas, but keep in mind the difference between criticizing and challenging.  Also, leave the teaching of grammar and spelling to me.

Seriously, though, great questions and well-supported thinking.  I loved seeing more people involved on the blog.  Let's keep the same discussion expectations as last time:  provide the quote that inspired your thinking and support your ideas with textual evidence.

Let's have one last great--and non-snarky--discussion of Fahrenheit 451.

61 comments:

  1. Who do you think the men standing around the fire are?

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    1. The people who montag meet are various intellectuals. This is exposed when Bradbury writes, " You might as well know all of us, now. This is Fred Clement, former occupant of the Thomas Hardy chair at Cambridge in the years before it became an atomic engineering school. This other is Dr. Simmons From U.C.L.A"(150).

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  2. Can a book like Fahrenheit 451 prevent itself from happening? Could this reality be prevented from taking form?

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    1. I think think that a book like this one can prevent itself from happening because you can see how the people started to read the books and are now realizing what the past was like and they are realizing how they live now was different in the past

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    2. This is a fiction book and mostly all fiction books have a very unlikely chance of actually taking place in this world. If something like this could happen, this book could be a warning to people to not let this happen to society. If people keep their knowledge and thoughts, this could be prevented. People in our society are not very controlled so this could be prevented from hapening.

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    3. i don't think it will prevent it self from happening, but i don think it will make people more aware of this. It might have an opposite effect on people, and people might read more and take in as much info as they can in case this dose happen.v

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  3. Do you think Montag could have done anything to save his relationship with Mildred?

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    1. I think it would have to be Mildred to want to save the relationship because Montag seems to want the relationship especially when he tells himself that he is in love and seemed to think about Mildred quite often when he was worried.

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    2. There were things he could have done, but it seems like he would have to sacrifice his own involvement in the overturning of society. He couldn't have had all the books.

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    3. I think that Mildred left Montag because he was reading books and changing from the way he was in the beginning of the book. Maybe if he had stayed like the way he was, she might have stayed

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    4. I feel as if they both could have done things to save the relationship. Montag told himself he loved her and he thought about her a lot but i don't thing he showed her he lover her enough.

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  4. On page 147 the line "You'll stink like a bobcat, but that's all right," said Granger. Do you think this is irony and why/ what is Bradbury trying to get at this?

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    1. I think that it's ironic that he smells bad but is happy about it and I think that the smell was him being reborn in a way. This is because he said kerosene the smell never goes away but it did so when he finally smelled like a bonbcat he got ride of his old mistakes and is on the right path.

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  5. What is the main theme throughout the book? Is this theme apparent when Bradbury writes, " 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 goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them."(163).

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    1. It seems that there isn't exactly one, straightforward theme of this story. The last section of Phoenix contains at least three themes. For instance, "The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime" (157). This shows the theme that what you do doesn't count. What you change counts.

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  6. when Granger said "when people die you don't miss them you miss the tings they did" do you agree with that Why or why not?

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    1. I partially agree with this, If I lost a friend I know I would miss them as a person, but I think I would think of the things we did together more and miss that part more.

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    2. In some ways I think I agree because if they do something for you that's like an everyday thing then I would miss that exact thing they did, but overall I would miss the actual person because their presents wouldn't be in my life.

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    3. I would have to say i agree because that person did things you liked and you will miss those things. But i also disagree because even if you and that person didn't do anything you will still miss them, like if it was a family member you would miss them, if it was a friend you would miss the things you did

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    4. I agree with this because we remember the sport athletes that died for doing things that we will remeber.

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  7. On page 150 Granger says, "I struck a fireman when he came to burn down my library a few years ago." Do you think Montag was in that group that burned down the library?

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    1. Yes he was because he was in the fire squad for 10 years.

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    2. I think so because if didn't i don't think Bradbury would of put this in the book.

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    3. I don't know if he was their is no prof of that but Montag and Faber should hate each other but they don't. This in my opinion is the biggest irony and their relation ship is the reason montag could escape.

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  8. Why do you think when the government killed that innocent man when they couldn't find montag?

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    1. Maybe to say that they found him so that the people don't freak about how the mechanical hound failed at finding Montag.

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    2. I think they killed him to maybe show that they are serious, and just the slight hope that Montag would find out that they killed a guy, and maybe he might give in.

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    3. The man was killed because the government has to always give its audience a show. Bradbury writes, " They're faking. You threw them off at the river. The can't admit it. They know they can only hold their audience only so long. The show got to have a snap ending, quick!"(148).

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  9. I think they really didn't have that much of a real relationship to save. I mean, Mildred didn't have much of an opinion about anything, and therefore didn't really have a mind of her own so there wasn't really much of a person there to know. Let alone love. I think though that she may have been able to save it if she had trusted him a little more and tried to understand him, have faith in him. Although, since she didn't really have much to believe in before you can't really blame her.

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    1. this is in reply to Madison's ? of whether Montag could have done more to save his relationship or not.

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  10. Why was it that when the bomb hit, the first thing Montag thought of was Mildred?

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    1. I think because she was the only real person he ever had some kind of feeling for or toward. She WAS his wife after all. Maybe he liked her more than he knew he did.

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    2. I think it was because he missed her and he still cared about her, he could have also been sad she left.

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    3. He spent a lot of time living under the same roof as her, when you live w/ someone for a long time, you tend to not help but care about them in SOME way.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. How is the government going to cover the extinction of an entire city up from the world of people that have got to hear, see, and know something about it?

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    1. The same way that people today would find out: the media. They're merely going to distract people from the bombing of the city.

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  13. At the top of page 154 it says, "He began throwing dust ans dirt into the fire........ and Montag helped and there in the wilderness, the men all moved their hands, putting out the fire together."

    Is this the way Bradbury symbolizes Montag changing his life?

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    1. This shows change. It shows how Montag has changed and is no longer going to go with the ways of the society anymore. When they did this, it showed how that finally know what has been happening is bad and they are changing it. I think that when they put out the fire, it is symbolizing stopping the old ways and letting new, better things come to be.

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    2. I never thought of it this way but that's a good thought. I think it is possible because this opposite of what he has done his whole life.

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    3. This shows how Montag is starting to realize how fire is a bad way to end things. He is actually doing something to end this terrible society. I hope he keeps fighting the government because there are probably more people who don't like the way they live.

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    4. Yes, Montag finally realizes that fire isn't just for destruction, and he puts it out to finalize this thought. He first thinks this when Bradbury writes, "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."(145).

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    5. I think its more like a symbol of how he is starting to change himself as a person, not just his life. Because before hand he didn't really interact with people like friends and familly, he didn't even know such REAL and GOOD things existed. Now he does, and he's chosen to be a part of them. He himself is changing his person as well as his life.

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  14. Do you think that nuking the city was the only way to stop the war? and if not what should they have done?

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    1. Maybe by nuking and destroying the city, people might want to rebuild it from the ground up and start over and have a fresh new beginning

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  15. In certain parts of the book Bradbury uses grammatical errors. Why do you think he does this? Is Bradbury trying to point out something?

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    1. Yes he is trying to show that the English language has decreased as a whole grammatically. He mostly does this when characters speak and not when he is narrating.

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  16. Do you think that our society can break the cycle of the phoenix or will the circle never end?

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    1. I think that we are to hooked to it and wouldn't want to change to something that we dont know

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    2. I think they can. They changed so many things through out this book, and if they can change everything they could stop the cycle.

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  17. So when Montag remembered where he met Mildred 10 years ago,

    is that when he realized he loved her?

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    1. I think it just shows that he still remembers the good times they had together

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    2. Yes because it states "The first bomb struck. Mildred!" (page 159) This showed to me that even though Mildred left Montag and even when he left the city that she still loved her, even through what he has been through with her

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    3. I agree completely with Ben. That quote defiantly shows that he still loved Mildred.

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  18. Montag, without a doubt, is the protagonist in the story. But the way the story ends, it is blatantly apparent that he isn't the hero. What other theme could be embedded in Montag's lack of heroism?

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    1. Regret and shame. He knows what he did was wrong he sill feels regret for his actions he's ashamed of the society.

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  19. If everyone in the society was asked "Are you happy?" like Clarrisse asked Montag in the beginning of the book; how do you think others would react/respond?

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    1. I think they would be confused with the question just like montag was, and they woukd totally wonder why your asking it.

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    2. I think that the people would start to really think about if they were happy and would think about their lives and what they have done

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    3. I think that they would react the same way as Montag. They would say yes but in they would think about it and then change their mind.

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  20. Did Montag commit the crimes out of rage, or revenge, did he do it for Clarisse?

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