Dystopia Essay - Warnings

The author, Ray Bradbury, uses Fahrenheit 451 as a vehicle for warning readers of the potential suppression which we may face in the future. According to Bradbury’s novel, suppression will be caused by a government or higher authority and will extinguish our individual freedoms. The following are some of the main warnings incorporated in Fahrenheit 451: the government has the preeminence to bully its citizens, and censorship has the potential to affect immense numbers of people.

The astonishing capability of government is the driving force in Fahrenheit 451. In this novel, a dystopian government practically erases hundreds of years of the past by doing just one thing - burning books. The obliteration of history is the source from which the human race is demeaned. Nearing the end of "The Hearth and the Salamander," Beatty quotes, "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... (p. 58)" By erasing the past, the government is halting the development of a culture and, in turn, is erasing the future.

The other main theme in Fahrenheit 451 is the vast effect that censorship has on people. The novel itself is a protest against the "brainwashing" properties of censorship. In the novel, society is run by prohibition. It is through a lack of freedom that the government tames the instinctive creativity and curiosity of its people. The most prevalent form of censorship as found in Fahrenheit 451 can be found through the burning of books. By preventing people from accessing knowledge, the government is ruling based on ignorance. But is the old cliche, "ignorance is bliss," accurate?

Dystopia Essay - The Blogging Process

Overall, the use of new belonging technology has greatly benefitted me this year. Essentially, educational belonging sites are virtual pools of opinion and information which you may give or take from as you please. They are sites which allow you to express your thoughts and rationalizations towards any given subject matter. Posting personal feelings and interpretations on these sites is not only beneficial to yourself, but to others as well. Considering how your posts can be found on a world-wide medium (the internet), any individual person from any individual region of the globe may respond to your thinking via commenting. In my opinion, commenting is the most important aspect of online belonging. This vital interaction is what allows you to view similar topics from very different opinions and perspectives.

A specific example which demonstrates the beneficial use of belonging can be found on Lindsay’s page. Surprisingly, Lindsay and I wrote about very similar topics; however, the thoughts that were conveyed in each of our blogs were sometimes different. Reading Lindsay’s ideas allowed me to "think outside of the box" and broadened the horizons in terms of how I viewed certain aspects of the book. Lindsay’s character sketches (particularly those of Faber) gave me insight into how that character thinks and why he or she acts like she does. Her broad analysises about dystopian government’s dominion over its people revealed to me the true power and capabilities that our government possesses today. Hopefully, I will be privileged enough to use belonging technology in some of my future English classes.

Linking Blogs...

"What I want to know is how did the whole world become unaware of the changing elements within their communities? Wouldn't someone have questioned these changes? "- Lindsay

While reading through Lindsay's blog, I stumbled across two questions (typed above) which I had been continuously asking myself since the start of Fahrenheit 451. In my opinion, there is no possible way that an intent reader of Fahrenheit 451 could apprehend the first 10 pages of this book without asking similar questions. What is amazing about these questions is that there is no definite answer. Ray Bradbury leaves the interpretation of how the whole world became so oblivious to the reader's imagination. Personally, I believe that the government "brainwashed" its people gradually. Day after day, law after law, society and people's ways of life became more and more constricted. In a sense, this same phenomenon is happening in our society. Every single day, new laws are passed, and new codes are created. As time passes, the laws which initially seem "alien" become ingrained in what we do and eventually become a way of life. After being influenced by Lindsay's post, I have since formulated my own question: "Will our society become as oblivious to the changes happening around us as the dystopian society that Bradbury created?

Montag Questions Life...

"Every hour so many damn things in the sky! How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives! Why doesn't someone want to talk about it? We've started and won two atomic wars since 1990! Is it because we're having too much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we don't even care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed..." -Montag (p. 73)

From what I have read so far in Fahrenheit 451, I believe that this quote most powerfully displays Montag's newly discovered curiosity towards the world. I'm well aware that when you're writing, you should abbreviate long passages with an ellipses; however, I felt that if I was to leave out any portion of Montag's quote, I would take away from its deeper meaning and powerfulness. The passage above was spoken by Guy after reading his first few books. What I found amazing was how only a handful of books could effect a person's point of view towards the world. Now I can understand why the dictatorial government that rules Montag's society would want to ban the possession of books. Books stimulate our minds; they're what make us think. We take for granted what we read on a daily basis. Between newspapers, magazines, and novels, what we read becomes a part of us in one way or another. Without books, we could very well become the mindless, thoughtless society that Montag lives in...

How Do They Not Know... ?

In my recent reading of Fahrenheit 451, I am beginning to recognize how far the government goes to ensure society's ignorance and simplicity. The government takes away its people's knowledge, education, and worst of all - their individuality. It uses several distractions to divert people's attention to what seems to be constructive and important things. These so-called "things of importance" are nothing more than artificial pleasures which consume the mind in an almost "hypnotic" manner. Some of these distractions include the sea-shell radios and the television families. While skimming through an outside source, I read that "using these shells, people drift off to sea, so to speak, and lose sight of reality." Similarly, the "televised families" use a form of superficiality in order to mindlessly engulf the viewer's train of thought. In Fahrenheit 451, I believe that the government's essential goal is to provide its people with such a stimulated existence that those people forget to concentrate, to imagine, to question, and to live...

The Big Picture.....

"There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that's too many. Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out..."

-Fahrenheit 451 / Montag's thoughts - p.16

The preceding quote was narrated based on what Montag was thinking after his wife overdosed on sleeping pills. What had initially caused him to think this was the apathetic and laid back manner in which the blood-machine operators conducted themselves. Although this quote was intended to describe the absent-minded technicians, I believe that this quote touches on what will be the main ideas of Fahrenheit 451. In my opinion, the futuristic society, as portrayed in this book, is completely controlled by government or a higher authority. It seems that citizens of this subordinate society are required to live the eventless lives that they do by law. The humdrum lives that those people live eventually caused the erosion of social lives and the slightest sense of a community. Montag has finally begun to think. He is identifying all of the things in life which he has been rushing past (with the help of Clarisse). These things include the color of grass, the size of billboards, and even the taste of rain. Hopefully, the rest of Fahrenheit 451 will reveal to us if one man's thoughts (Montag's) can have a widespread effect on the commonplace society which surrounds him.

The Dangers of Blogging...

As common as blogging is nowadays, this technology can potentially exhibit numerous dangers. Some of these possible dangers include: the release of personal information to the public, the use of blog-sites as homes for cyber-bullying or hate-groups, and online interaction with people who are not who they seem they are (ex. - sexual predators). I personally believe that all of these concerns are legitimate matters to discuss. An article by USA Today writes about a very interesting danger of blogging - its large effect on the future. In this article, I read that if you were to hypothetically apply for a job, the employer could perform a background check, and your blog-sites will appear. If any vulgar or unethical information is discovered on your site, then the employer has every right to not employ you. A danger that was not emphasized in the three articles that I read is the potential social embarassment and humiliation that occurs as a result of some social blogs. Teenagers that use this innovative technology should keep in mind that the information posted on the internet can not only be viewed by your friends, but it can be viewed by millions across the globe.


Matt's 3 Blogging Rules.....

• Do not reveal any personal information (ex. - phone number, address, last name) that you would not normally reveal to any stranger.....
• Be careful what you blog, because, as I stated earlier, your profile could come back to haunt you in the future.....
• Do not plagiarize other people's work - This action is illegal by law.

My First Impression

My first impression of "Fahrenheit 451" is one of curiosity and wonder. In the future, will our society be mindlessly controlled by government? Will we still possess the right to carry out the daily activities and interests that we do today? The futuristic dystopia displayed in Fahrenheit 451 portrays a day and age where government rules over its people using the tools of ignorance and fear. The fireman, Montag (who is ironically a firestarter), holds the position of a "book-burner" and destroys the source of the common man's knowledge, the book. In my opinion, this "book-burning" is the government's way of subduing its people's curiosity and forcing them into an ignorance-driven submission. I'm very interested in how this story of the future will unfold...