Fahrenheit 451 - 7

Mrs. Bowles, one of Mildred's friends, has had two children. She tells Mildred about them as if they are unimportant. She says, "I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when they come home three days a month; it's not bad at all. You heave them into the 'parlor' and turn the switch. It's like washing clothes: stuff laundry in and slam the lid...they'd just as soon kick as kiss me. Thank God, I can kick back!" (Bradbury 96.)

The culture they live in does not value family in the slightest. I believe our culture is starting to become like that. In my opinion, if you take on the responsibility of having kids, you must be committed enough to raise them into polite young men and women. I feel like many parents these days, are not instilling good moral values into their children or even taking the time to help them build character. They seem to be so busy with their own lives, that they don't take the time to raise their kids in a wholesome way.

Many children these days do not have very healthy lifestyles. One problem is fast food. So many parents are so busy that they don't have time to prepare or get a healthy meal for their children. It is so much easier to run buy a fast food place or food that carb-loaded and sugar-filled snacks. I believe my generation has a pretty big problem when it comes to diet.

Also, many kids have grown up in environments where family is not valued. As a result, they don't value family and because of that, they are lacking in parts of life that are vital to their mental stability. many kids have grown up with divorced parents or without parents, and that can have a pretty major impact on their future.

I believe that people need to start taking parenting more seriously. They brought the children into this world, so they need to take the time to slow down and raise their children in an appropriate way.

Fahrenheit 451 - 5

When Montag was thinking back about Clarisse, he remembered her specifically in a very good way, and he said to Millie, "But Clarisse's favorite subject wasn't herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I've really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted." (Bradbury 72.)

From what I can tell, Clarisse was a very genuine person. And people that are genuine and have good character stand out above everyone else. From what I have found, people that are like Clarisse with good character don't even try to stand out, they are usually very humble. But people notice when someone has an outstanding and blameless character.

Presentation is everything. If you go to a job interview and when the interviewer talks, if you don't act like you're listening and have an attitude about you as if you don't care about anything, then you most likely won't get the job. People like when people care. Just the fact that Clarisse truly listened to Montag talk made a huge impression on him.

I think that if people just took more time for others, things could be so much better. It really is not very hard to do, it just takes time and practice. As you can see, Montag was so moved by the simple thing of Clarisse looking into his eyes as she listened, that it stuck with him for a long time after. It is the simple things like that that can make such a difference in the lives of others.

People don't often realize it, but they really can make a huge impact on the world. That sounds like a seemingly impossible task, but really it is quite attainable. You simply just start small. You start by thinking of others more than yourself. Then you start listenening more and pay more attention to the lives of others. You help people out whenever you can and take every opportunity to show love to others. From there, you just every day focus on your goals and keep loving people as the Lord has loved you. Then, before you know it you are helping many people and it is not even a big deal to you. You just keep helping as many people as possible and loving as many people as possible, and before you know it, you have impacted the world.

Clarisse McClellen was Montag's neighbor. She was a teenage girl, yet she was not like any of the other teenagers that Montag had ever met before. There was something quite curious about her. She was unlike the others in many ways.

Clarisse would ask questions. Most people were going through life just trying to be happy and were not worrying about anything else. Bot not Clarisse. She questioned things. She also sat and thought about things. That was unusual. At times she would not do anything but think. Most people are kept so busy that they don't have time to think, but Clarisse made time.

Later on in the book, the reader finds that Clarisse was killed by the firemen because she was not normal. Upon hearing this, Montag says to his wife, referring to Clarisse, "And men like Beatty are afraid of her. I can't understand it. Why should they be so afraid of someone like her?" (Bradbury. 67.)

That is a very interesting way, that Montag looked at the situation, and it raises a good question. Yes, the only reason the firemen would have killed her is because they viewed her as a threat. So why would they be so afraid of someone like her?

Actually, men like that have a very good reason to be afraid of a girl like her. She is a threat. She is not a threat in any obvious physical way, she actually is very innocent. It is her own innocence that makes her a threat. She is a threat because she thinks. She takes time to ponder things and realize that the way the world is, is not how it is supposed to be. She, because of her innocence, has an advantage in seeing things for how they really are. She is not absorbed into her television. She does not speed around in a car. She takes her time and is observant. Someone like that is the biggest threat of all. However, she was young, so many people would not listen to her, which is why she survived under the radar for so long. It was thanks to Clarisse that Montag started his whole revolution and revival of his life.

Bradbury, Ray. The Hearth and the Salamander. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1993. 67. Print.

Fahrenheit 451 - 4

In the book Fahrenheit 451, a common theme has to do with the lifestyle that the people have. The people live so selfishly. All that they do is think about themselves and only worry about the things that affect them. An example of that is Millie. She Sits in a chair all day long and watches T.V. On the televisions, she watches "The Family". She talks about "The Family" as though they are really her family, however, they are just a T.V. show. I think that not only shows selfishness, but that shows the lack of a family life that the people then had. She did not even take interest in her husband, instead she watched her fake family on T.V. And to show how little the people valued family, Guy and Millie couldn't even remember where they met, and they had only been married for seven years.

Many of the youth in the book Fahrenheit 451 live even more selfishly than many of the adults. They cruise around in their cars, going hundreds of miles per hour, and not have a care in the world. They try to run over people on purpose and not think twice about it. Death in their culture is a very prevalent thing and is actually made into a game. On T.V. it shows people getting hunted down and killed. It is like they are animals, but they are people. Death in this society means nothing and killing people is a way of life.

On page sixty-six of Fahrenheit 451, Montag finally hits a breach in his lifestyle. That is when he realizes that there may be more to life than the way they have always lived it. Montag says to his wife, "Whether we like this or not. we're in it. I've never asked for much from you in all these years, but I ask it now, I plead for it. We've got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we're in such a mess, you and the medicine nights, and the car, and me and my work. We're heading right for the cliff, Millie. God, I don't want to go over. this isn't going to be easy. We haven't anything to go on, but maybe we can piece it out and figure it and help each other. I need you so much right now, I can't tell you. If you live me at all you'll put up with this, twenty four, forty-eight hours, that's all I ask, then it'll be over, I promise, I swear! And if there is something here, just one little thing out of a whole mess of things, maybe we an pass it on to someone else."

I feel like that quote from Montag explains a lot of his feelings about their lifestyle and is the begining of something new.

Bradbury, Ray. The Hearth and the Salamander. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1933. 66-67. Print.

Fahrenheit 451 - 3

On page sixty-four of Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag says to his wife, Mildred, referring to a feeling he has, "I want to hold onto this funny thing. God, it's gotten big on me. I don't know what it is. I'm so damned unhappy, I'm so mad, and I don't know why. I feel like I'm putting on weight. I feel fat. I feel like I've been saving up a lot of things, and don't know what. I might even start reading books."

I think this is a very natural feeling that everyone feels sometime during their life. I believe, unlike most, that it is very important to feel this way. Along with this feeling comes asking questions and seeking answers. Along with this feeling comes rebellion of normalcy and it promotes taking action against the ways of the world and it helps people find who they truly are and what they truly believe in. I don't think people truly grow up, until they hit this point in their life. This comes at different times for everybody, but is definitely a beneficial thing.

Yes, it may seem like a bad thing because it physically makes you feel bad, and emotionally you feel reckless and spiritually you feel confused. But overall, it is such a good thing. It helps you become an individual. It is not good to conform to the ways of others. Individuality is key. What would this world be without individuals? Things would not work. So i firmly believe that it is OK to feel that way, and honestly is a good thing. Everyone needs to find who they really are.

If people did not feel this way at some point, they would not stop and think what they are living for. That can be a very dangerous thing. It is so easy to get wrapped up in living selfishly and living impulsively for the moment, without thinking of our ultimate goal in life and where we want to be, what we want to do, and who we want to be.

When Montag was feeling that way, he was in a very crucial time in his life. He had major decisions as to how he wanted to live, and no matter what he decided, those decisions would change his life.

Bradbury, Ray. The Hearth and the Salamander. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1993. 64. Print.

Fahrenheit 451 - 2

As Captain Beatty was trying to explain to Montag why Clarisse McClellen was dead, he stated: "She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why. You ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at it. The poor girl's better off dead."

I think our society discourages asking the question why. That may sound like a senseless thing for me to say, but I believe it to be true. I think, however, that sometimes our society applauds when people ask the question why. Those cases are like times when scientists ask the question why and they are able to make a new invention because of it. It is also acceptable for somebody to ask why and then solves a mystery or something. Those are both examples of when it is acceptable to ask why.

However, I still think that asking why in a certain way, is very socially unacceptable in our culture today. I think people see it as socially unacceptable when people ask why to deep life questions, and when they ask why to things that cannot be answered by humans. It becomes unacceptable to many, when people ask why in a way that stirs questions within us and makes us ponder deeply.

I believe that when Captain Beatty says, "you ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at it", he is saying that you become unhappy because it stirs questions within you that cannot be correctly or incorrectly answered. Asking real questions that are deep can be a very gripping thing. It can lead to major soul searching. Asking why has lead to divides in things like friends, communities, churches, schools, and even families.

I believe, very much so, that our culture looks down upon asking why because many people believe that you don't need to ask life's tough questions; they believe you should just go through life trying to attain things like happiness and a good social status- two things that will never satisfy; when in fact, it is facing life's tough questions that actually gets you somewhere.

Bradbury, Ray. The Hearth and the Salamander. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. 60. Print.

Fahrenheit 451 - 1

On page 59 Captain Beatty says to Montag,

"Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these."


I believe our culture lives by this same aphorism, today. What people seek above all else is happiness. They say if they are happy, then they have lived a good life and that's what they are striving for. But what does happiness really accomplish? Does it help you in your life after you die? Certainly not. Does happiness ever actually get you where you want to go? Not that I have found to be true.


What absolute thing can happiness even help with? People justify that it makes you feel good and that it gains recognition of others. But what does it matter if others notice that you always seem to be "happy", if all you live for is some misconstrued, false sense of happiness that never satisfies. The metaphorical high that we seek from happiness will always let you down. Happiness has no bearings on reality, it is a lifeless thing which is completely inanimate. It will never satisfy as so many of us hope for. No matter how hard we try to grasp at happiness as our saving grace, it will never prevail. When we put all of our hope and faith into happiness, it will only leave us with an empty and unsatisfied feeling inside.


I believe that in all of our hearts, there is an intangible hole. There is something within us that is missing. We all try to fill that hole so that we can feel whole, as we should. Most people in our culture try and fill that void with happiness and pleasure. They fill it with things like money, and sex, and drugs, and friends. All of those things can seem so right and so satisfying, at first. But soon the alluring nature of these things fades and again, we are left unsatisfied and empty.

What is that hole, and what can possibly fill it so that we can be whole inside? I believe the hole that is in all of our hearts is a God-shaped hole. What I deem to be true is that every single person has a longing and desire for God in their heart. He is the only thing that can truly satisfy us and quench our thirst for the happiness we are seeking. He knows the desires of our hearts, and if we live as his children, he intends to fulfill those desires.


Bradbury, Ray. "The Hearth and the Salamander" Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. 59. Print.