1. What did you expect and/or hope to experience through reading it?
I hope to get more useful information about Ray Bradbury's thoughts and hopefully end the book thinking it was awesome and have gained yet another great book-reading experience. I like reading books other people pick and seeing why they were drawn to them, hoping I'll enjoy it as much as they did.
2. What kept you reading past the first ten pages?
What kept me reading after the first ten pages was the fact that I have to read it because it was assigned but as a beginning of a book it wasn't too bad, it wasn't a torture to read so I hope the rest of the book ends up being mentally simulating like many people say it is.
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel set in the year 2053 in a futuristic and dystopian society which the author, Ray Bradbury foreshadowed in a creepily accurate way. The protagonist, Guy Montag is an ordinary fireman in this estranged era whose life is turned upside down when he meets a young girl who makes him question this twisted society's idea of censorship and his profession. In modern day time, firemen set out fires created accidentally but in this novel firemen set fire to people's homes who are found to be hiding books, as books are illegal to read and possess. Many would say this book is about censorship but what it's really about is the importance of books, not the books or even plots themselves but the ideas and questioning we get out of them. Bradbury fulfills his purpose of the novel by his well thought out/written thesis within the plot.
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of Fahrenheit 451 is, like I stated above, is the importance of reading, not necessarily books themselves but the ideas and questions we form when reading these books. The information they give us has the ability to make us think in ways that test our critical thinking (If you do it right, that is). Our human intelligence would be virtually dead without any type of reading, which is the direction we are heading in and that's exactly what Bradbury foreshadows in this book in particular.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
I would describe the author's tone as being pessimistic towards the future. The whole book foreshadows the future to be a gloomy, dark place where people live for their parlor walls, don't communicate with their family and jobs that include burning down people's houses are highly approved.
-"It's like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time--did I tell you?--for being a pedestrian. Oh, we're most peculiar." Being a pedestrian was frowned upon along with many other things we deem normal now but one day things may change and make the world as twisted as this book. Pages 9-10
-"There are billions of us and that's too many.Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take you blood. Good God, who were those men? I never saw them before in my life!" Page 16
Montag talks about the doctors taking care of Mildred when she has to go to the hospital when she overdoses. Bedside manners were very different when this book was written, you knew your doctor and a lot of the time they came to your house if you needed them.
-"The first time we met, where was it, and when?"
"Why, it was at--"
She stopped.
"I don't know," she said.
He was cold. "Can't you remember?"
"It's been so long."
"Only ten years, that's all, only ten!"
We can take from this text the theory that when the world turns gray as foreshadowed in this novel that relationships won't be as important like Montag's and Mildred's page 43
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)
SYMBOLISM- Fire is used as a symbol for transformation in this novel. Add a little kerosene and something burns and transforms into ash. Just like Montag transforms during the book.
ALLUSION-From the first page up until "He turned the corner" page 5 He turns both physically and in his life as he grows new eyes, if you will. He now feels uncertain and out of character.
HYPERBOLE- "Kerosene"... "is nothing but perfume to me." page 6 He exaggerates to cause shock and make the statement jump out at you.
OXYMORON- "They walk in the warm-cool blowing night." page 6
SIMILE- "Her face bright as snow in the moonlight." page 7
ALLUSION- "Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner.." page 8
He's talking about burning the works of these authors, not the authors themselves.
PERSONIFICATION- "...put his hand into the glove hole of his front door and let it know it's touch, The front door slid open." page 10 Like the door recognizes his hand and let's him in as it has a mind of it's own.
SYMBOLISM- When Montag hears the jets fly by over head on page 14 he initially knows there's war coming as well as war in his own relationship with his wife,
FORESHADOWING- "So it was the hand that started it all . . . His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms . . . His hands were ravenous." page 41 You can tell that Montag is thirsty for more books, this "poison" is his guilty pleasure.
METAPHOR- " With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head..." page 3
ANALOGY- "A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it."
CACOPHONY- " Trumpets blared. Denham's Dentifrice...shut up, shut up....A fierce whisper of hot sand through empty sieve. "Denham's does it." ...tapping their feet to the rythm...Denham's Dandy Dental Detergent..one two, one two three, one two, one two three.."
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION-"Her face was slender and milk-white, and it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity. It was a look, almost, of pale surprise; the dark eyes were so fixed to the world that no move escaped them.....the white stir of her face turning when she discovered she was a moment away from a man who stood in the middle of the pavement waiting."
"The girl stopped and looked as if she might pull back in surprise, but instead stood regarding Montag with eyes so dark and shining and alive that he felt he had said something quite wonderful."
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION- "And in her ears the little Seashells, he thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind. The room was indeed empty."
"She was an expert of lip reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear thimbles."
When we are first introduced to Mildred, Montag's wife, he always explains her as having her headphones, like she is closed off from the world and Montag feels lonely in their empty house.
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION- "I want to stay here"..."you can stop counting," she said. She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of the hand was a single slender object. And ordinary kitchen match.
Bradbury doesn't explain the elder woman's characteristics but we can tell by her actions that she is a very headstrong woman which brings great importance to the novel because she represents all the people who hide books in that time, they risk so much just for what they believe in and that is what Montag slowly becomes. He transforms into a heroin when he began as a clueless, coward man.
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION- "Beatty smiled his smile which showed the candy pinkness of his gums and the tiny candy whiteness of his teeth." ... "He looked like a flame"
The author uses direct characterization to give us a picture the characters in our heads while reading but uses indirect characterization to connect the characters to personalities. Some characters are better explained through indirect characterization and others with direct characterization.
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
When Bradbury talks about Clarisse they adjectives he uses are positive and magical as seen through Montag's point of the view but when he talks of the other characters his words become dark. I think it;s because Clarisse symbolizes hope in humanity whereas the other characters represent what's screwed up in the world.
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
I would describe Montag as being definitely a dynamic character. He goes through a lot of changes from the beginning of the book to the end, morally. His opinions change completely and what he sees as right and wrong are reversed as he slowly turns into the work fireman ever. He's complex and round.
After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
After reading the book, I can't say that I've come away feeling like I know these characters just because I didn't connect to the book as well as I can connect with others. I don't have much input.
No comments:
Post a Comment