Period 5
2-28-13
Pages 51-63
Summary: Montag tells Mildred he no longer wants to be a firemen and he can't live with the guilt of making that woman die. Captain Beatty comes to his house and they talk. Mildred tries to fluff his pillow and Montag is afraid of the book being found that is hidden under his pillow. The captain doesn't find the book and he tells Montag how things slowly receded from chapter books and classics, to tabloids and commics, and then to no books at all. He tells Montag that he has read a few books, and they mean nothing to him. Beatty says that they put theories and philosophies in people's heads that make them unhappy.
Quotation:"Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it " (58).
Quotation Significance: Beatty is saying that if men are all the same, then nothing will put them down and no one can judge them or make fun of their differences. Beatty says that books puts these ideas that cause diversity in people's minds. This in turn creates tension and judgement in society. To prevent this, Beatty thinks that burning the book is the answer.
Reflection: In this chapter, Montag is seriously doubting being a firemen. He wants to read books and find out what they are about. Clarisse has taught him all the little and different things in life make life worth living. Beatty thinks that diversity causes judgment and tension but in reality diversity creates a feeling of uniqueness and happiness to be who you are. Books cause diversity, so Montag wants to bring them back so people and be creative and think for themselves for once. Montag still has the book hidden under his pillow and it is almost discovered by Mildred. Beatty mentions also that is wasn't all the government's fault that books were unpopular and forbidden. Classics and stories were replaced soon by comics and tabloids over the years and the movies were replaced with violent and quick, flashy images. Then reading totally disappeared and the government started to ban books that were judgmental to one group some way or another. After a few decades, all books were banned and the firemen were put to use to burn the books they found. I think next someone will catch Montag stealing a book and he will try to rally the firemen to stop burning the books and he will start a revolution.
Discussion Question: Why is diversity and uniqueness important for our world and important to Montag? Why does Beatty disagree with Montag's philosophy?
60/60
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hear your views on how our society is like that of Fahrenheit 451. It's interesting to me, for example, that our culture isn't burning books, but book stores are disappearing since books are becoming digital. I wonder if this will lead to fewer and fewer people reading books as the years go by since it's a lot easier to watch movies on a screen than read... Could that lead us to a new "dark ages" since almost no one will have read any of the Greek or Roman classics or any of the Victorian novels or philosophical treatises of the 19th and 20th centuries?
This was very helpful in explaining the quote from Beatty.
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