Fahrenheit 451 - 8

In the book Fahrenheit 451, fire was used in a physical way. In thinking to himself, Montag finally realizes the danger of fire, and thinks, "Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you're a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practicalt." (Bradbury 115.)

In the book, the firemen use fire to burn down houses and people that are disobeying. But montag realizes that what they are really doing is burning down their responsibilities and consequences, until there are no more. They hide behind fire and people view the firefighters as the 'heros', but in reality they are the wimps. Instead of facing their fears or facing their consequences, they just burn them. They don't take any chances or take any risks, they instead, destroy the possibility of risks.

The communtiy is decieved. They think the firefighters are the impressive ones that they idolize, when really they are the most fearful and immature people in the community. The firefighters hide from their problems and they use fire as their safety net, so that nothing bad can touch them.

I think all of us, in a way, are like the firefighters. Everyone has fears and everyone has responsibilities that they do not want to take care of and has consequences that they do not want to face. I believe that many people are like the firefighters and they avoid their responsibilities and consequences and instead try to get rid of them or put them on other people. Although most people now do not take care of their problems by burning them, they still avoid them and have their own way of getting rid of them.

I feel like so many people in my generation do not face their responsibilites or consequences. There are so many things these days to hide behind, and so many easy ways to weasel your way out of punishments, that I feel like so many people do not have strong enough character to live up to who they need to be.

What it all comes down to is character. If you have the character, you will not take the easy way out. Instead, you will take the road less traveled. I believe there is currently a huge character deficiency in high schools in America, today. I also believe that is a problem that can be solved. It is up to each individual whether they will choose character over laziness. I think a big problem is that many people do not look at the bigger picture and realize that having solid character is actually the better option than not, it just takes a certain level of maturity to fully grasp that.

Integrity is vital if you want to live a life that does not put responsibilities and consequences on the back burner. If we start growing up a generation with integrity, so many things in our world could change for the better.