Fahrenheit 451 - 11

As Montag left the city and looked back at it, he thought,

"What did you give to the city, Montag?

Ashes.

What did the others give to each other?

Nothingness." (Bradbury 156)

In looking back at the city, Montag was looking back at his life. He realized that he gave nothing to the city. He gave nothing to the community or to the people or to anything for that matter. He tealized that he made no impact. Things would be almost exactly the same had he not even existed. He lived for himself and nobody else, he might as well not have even lived at all. There were no traces of him left back in the city, and nobody would remember him by the next day. And he was not the only one in that boat, the rest of the city lived for themselves as well.

Granger, one of the men in the group that Montag joined, told Montag;

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said...

The difference beween the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching. the lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.

...Grandfather's been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me." (Bradbury 156-157)

As easy as it is to live selfishly without thinking of others, and as often as people do that, it is not often that we realize that everyone wants to touch somebody. Nobody wants to die and to be forgotten. It is actually scary to think of dying and nobody remembering you or caring that you are dead. With that said, it is quite shocking to think of the vast majority of Americans that live a life concerning themselves and nobody else. Many of us do not realize how precious life is and tht in an instant, it can be lost. We do not know hte number of days we will live. A quote I have heard before is "dream like you will live forever, but live as if you will die tomorrow". That quote should be the motto of all of our lives, but it simply is not.

Many people would agree with all of these things that I am saying, but few would actually plan how to accomplish living that lifestyle and even fewer would actually try to do it. There is just something in us now days, that is missing. Maybe it is a lack of urgency or that we live by the assumption that we will live forever. Whatever the problem is, that thought process needs to be changed. I am not just saying that because I want to sound better than everyone else or because I think it is a cute idea, but I truly think it is in the best will of overyone.

So please, take into consideration that you should live like you are dying.

Bradbury, Ray. "Burning Bright." Fahrenheit 451. New York:

Simon & Schuster, 1993. 156-157. Print.