Fahrenheit 451 Theme Thinker Question
In the book, a small quote was “He was too late. Montag gasped. The woman on the porch reached out with contempt to them all and struck the kitchen match against the reiling.” Why is the woman ready to commit suicide to save her books and why is she so loyal to them? What could be a possible theme of this quote?
The woman was ready to commit suicide to save her books because she liked her books. A possible theme of this quote is loyalty, because she would rather die than give them up.
ReplyDeleteThe old women burns along with her books becasue she was dediceated to promting the real meaning and truth that these books obtained. This shows her dedication towards towrds her books, which gives Montag a glimpse that maybe books aren't what people told to be like. Montag gets annoyed with the old woman because she is not playing along -- he wants to do things the right way. The woman starts to talk about how she is not going to leave and she implies she's going to die with her books. This bothers Montag and he starts trying to persuade her to leave. Later when he get home, he is disturbed by what has happned and he has started to wonder if there must be something important about books .So the interaction with the woman really changes his thinking about her and about his whole society.The theme of this quote would be ignorance vs knowledge. The fireman’s duty is to destroy knowledge and promote ignorance in order to equalize the population and promote sameness. Montag’s have run ins with Clarisse, the old woman, and Faber which encourages him about this approach towards the books.
ReplyDeleteYour was response was very interesting. I like how you compared the situations Montag has been through to how he grows later in the book. I also wanted to add that sometimes, in order for a person to grow and learn in society is for them to take risks. An example of this is would be when Montag met Clarisse and she took the risk of speaking to him, a fireman, when most people were scared of people with this job title. She also takes the initiative to make him look at life in a different way by bringing up the fact she had known about fireman putting out fires in the past instead of starting them. Another theme for this could be Growth and Change.
DeleteThe woman decided to burn with her books because she couldn't face living without them. Her books was her only outlook into what life used to be, and was most likely a better time in the society. She would rather die than have to face the world without her safety blanket of the past which happened to be her books. "Montag's hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest" (Bradbury). This is another quote from the book which talks about devotion, specifically to the devotion to books than many of the people in this strange society feel. A possible theme that we can find from this is that devotion can trump logical thinking. This means that people often don't make logical decisions when it comes to losing a passion of theirs. For the woman her books caused her to probably not fully take into consideration the consequences about dying. Her commit to her books is shown in a large way when she refused to leave the fire. This is the first person who chose their books over life to make a large impact on Montag's way of life. She made Montag really think about how messed up their society had become and made him rethink what he would do to maintain his freedom to gain knowledge through books. I believe this was caused by Montag's recent conversations with Clarisse who was the first person who really got Montag to open his eyes to what people were doing to keep their books and in turn their access to knowledge.
ReplyDelete(disclaimer: i have not read farenheit 451.)
ReplyDeleteThe woman is ready to save her books because she feels that they are a part of her. Books are cool things and they can mean a lot to people. Books have the ability to transport you to a completely different world, or mentally immerse you in a process you may not be able to physically partake in. In short: books are really awesome. Reading teaches things. New, incredible things! Why wouldn't someone be passionate about books?
Books also help us gain a deeper understanding, which is awesome, especially for those of us who like to know how things work. Also, fun fact: books help boost imagination and creativity.
Which leads me into my next idea: the government in F451 wants people to be illiterate so they can easily control them (at least that's what I've gathered thus far). So the firefighters burn the books. No books = people cannot read and cannot learn to read. Illiteracy rates are high with no access to books, and the illiterate are easier to manipulate. Which is exactly what the government wants. A similar concept is present in my book, 1984. In 1984, Orwell employs this totalitarian government in which you can be punished for even just /thinking/ about doing something bad (by the government's standards of good vs. bad, of course). It's called thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime is described early on in the book and mentioned throughout the rest of the novel. The main character, Winston, had begun thinking about writing in a diary and knew that one day he ould be caught and punished for thoughtcrime. "The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed [...] the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it" (Orwell 19). Winston then goes on to describe how they always get you in the night, and then you are essentially vaporized. Every record of you ever existing would be wiped out. In short, the government in 1984 was pretty strict.
Great! I love how despite not reading the book, you still intuitively picked up a underlying theme and connected it to another.
DeleteI agree with Jennifer and Emily. I feel like she was dedicated to prompting the real meaning of books and if she couldn't do this then she couldn't live. I also agree with Carlee because, the books and prompting the truth they showed were a part of her and without that she couldn't live. Also, Josh brought up a good theme of loyalty. I feel like this is a very fitting theme for the quote as the woman is willing to die for the books due to her loyalty. Jaiana also brought up a good point on how in order for a person to grow and learn in society is for them to take risks. The woman was ready to take any chance to save her books. She was ready to risk her life to grow and learn. I also feel like after experiencing this Montag changed and his thoughts began to swirl. He became curious and it was vital for the woman to do this in order for the plot to progress. Though Clarisse made Montag open his eyes to books, this woman really showed him what people were doing to keep their books and their knowledge. A recoccurring theme in this book could be coming of age because at the beginning of the book he was naive and didn't know what was happening. After this event however, he matures and finds out what is going on around the world.
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