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Ray Bradbury's controversial "Fahrenheit 451" follows a man's struggle to discover himself in a society that shuns individual thought. At the start of the novel, Guy Montag, the protagonist, is no different from any other man - he enjoys his job as a fireman, he is fond of his wife, and he has not a care in the world, and yet, he has no idea why he is burning books for a living, who his wife is as a person, and what this feeling of emptiness is inside. Before discovering himself, he must first experience an awakening. Upon meeting the eccentric, teenaged Clarisse McClellan, he questions himself - is he truly satisfied with his life? On page 10, she asks, "Are you happy?" and although he quickly responds that he is, he soon begins questioning himself and finds that he is not, in fact, happy. This is the first time Montag challenges societal norms – by thinking for himself. Throughout the rest of Part 1, Montag would begin to think for himself and form his own opinions and perceptions of both the world and himself. By choosing a point of view, Montag is discovering what kind of person he truly is. Previously, he would not have known what he would do if placed under a hypothetical circumstance because he had never pondered his own opinions before, only done and thought as he was told. Once he realizes what kind of person he is – by forming personal opinions, taking ethical standpoints, and questioning society – he can begin taking action, shaping his world (or at least attempting) into a place where he would be satisfied with himself. Ultimately, it is up to oneself how one is going to live, act, and stand amongst all the rest of the mundane world.

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Throughout Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the theme that develops through Part 1 is that sometimes change and self-expression is for the better. For example, before Montag met Clarisse, he always thought books weren't necessary in life. She helps him see the world differently and notice small details in their fast-paced society. "I tell them, I like to put my head back, like this, and let the rain fall in my mouth. It tastes just like wine" (23). "And then... he tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth" (24). In these quotes, Clarisse causes Montag to wonder about the taste of rain, and she continues to guide him to make other small observations and realizations about his surroundings. This makes him realize that there is more to the world. On the other hand, sometimes people refuse to change. For instance, Mildred doesn't want to accept other ideas that contradict the society's rules and standards. She likes to follow the norm of the society. "It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed" (20). This quote shows that Mildred has completely isolated herself from her husband with the parlor walls which contain her "family." Mildred is brainwashed by the technology in the society. She continuously uses the parlor walls and the seashell radios to make her feel content, but really, she is empty inside. Like the rest of the society, Mildred tries to be happy everyday and rarely makes any observations to think about why things happen the way they do. Because the society is so fast-paced and everyone tries to fit in with the society, there isn't much individuality. However, Montag begins to change his view on books and society, and to think and develop his own thoughts and ideas.

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Individual Self-Expression by Adam Mancini and Ryan Dang

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Individual Self-Expression by Adam Mancini and Ryan Dang

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Throughout the story "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, Montag is trying to find his true identity. The recurring theme of the novel seems to center around Montag feeling lost and not knowing who he is. Bradbury is trying to display to the audience that expressing one's own beliefs and ideals is essential and necessary for a working society. On page 58 of the novel, Beatty states, " We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. 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." He is basically speaking of the whole mindset of their society; that contradicting ideas lead to conflict between others, that questioning life separates us and happiness. But questioning life is what brings you to self-expression, to finding yourself and your ideals. If society takes away contradicting ideas and the ability to disagree, then society will not evolve and move forward because they are at a standstill with themselves. The ability to slow down from such a fast pace life and take time to simply look and acknowledge the world you live in is nonexistent in this society. The ability to not let technology control your thoughts or what you believe in, these are the traits that separated Clarisse and Montag from the others in their society. They were able to recognize that self-expression would free them from a society based on the suppression of individualism.

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Arwa Khan and Lan To: Knowledge Versus Ignorance

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Arwa Khan and Lan To: Knowledge Versus Ignorance

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The developing theme in this classic is Knowledge versus Ignorance. Throughout this novel, this theme is being expressed because for the intense tension between knowledge and ignorance.In our world, firemen save houses from being burt and we don't take that as ignorance. In Farenheit 451, the firemen burn the books and houses incomplete ignorance because they accuse books of being the cause of seperation between individuals. They usually don't even bother to se what they are doing or why they are doing it. An example of that is on page 36, when the old lady is quoting Latimer when she says, " Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." The old lady here, is practically handing out our knowledge and Beatty, wrapped up in his ignorance, slaps her.This shows that Knowledge Versus Ignorance is a developing theme throughout this story.

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By: Eliace Noory and Thinh Tran

The theme that is being developed in Part 1, The Hearth and the Salamander is that mindless pleasure-seeking and materialism make for an empty life. This theme is built and backed up with evidence from the text, such as,"He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing, now blown out" (Bradbury 12). This quote from the book explains that Montag lived a materialistic life, consisted of his only enjoyment to burn books to make a living. He was trapped in shadowy world where he was forced to make himself believe that he was happy, content, and pleased with life, but in reality he was truly unhappy and his life was purely made of materialistic things such as the smell of kerosene and the black birds that are burnt pages of the books that he burned. His life was a mindless pleasure-seeking one that leads him to realize that it lacks depth and therefore, is empty. He didn't realize that his life was empty until he encountered Clarisse, who opened his eyes and make him question his materialistic life :)

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The theme that is made clear in the novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is that lack of individualism in society can lead to monotone statues of what used to be people. "Not everyone is born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal" (Beatty 58). As most of the population in 451 are 'happy', many people choose to stay indoors watching their parlor walls and listening to their seashells, and only leaving the house every once in a while to travel somewhere or to watch a house being burned down in their neighborhood. Clarisse is an individualist, being colorful and bright, seeing the positive side to things and observing the small details, taking her time to look around while most people want to go faster, faster to the point in which everything they see is only a blur that they can assume is something else. "I sometimes think that drivers don't know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly" (Clarisse 9). This is why individualism is censored in their society because it spreads like wildfire and can cause anarchy when people realize some other person is better then themselves and this instigates much wars.

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Humanity is lost without communication and personal interaction

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Humanity is lost without communication and personal interaction

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by: Divya Seth and Verity Webster

When people don't interact with each other on a personal level, then they are not open to other people's ideas and perspectives. In Fahrenheit 451, this is primarily shown in Montag's aloof wife, Mildred. Mildred spends her entire days watching the parlor walls, and her nights listening to her Seashell radio. Her husband tries to interact with her, but because she is so preoccupied with her electronics, she does not talk to Montag. Even when she does talk to Montag, there is no real personal connection between them; it's just empty words. For example, on page 42 and 43, Montag asks Mildred where they met, and she doesn't feel that its important.

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SOPHIA ALCALA, ELAINE VO, DINNEH ESTRADA

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SOPHIA ALCALA, ELAINE VO, DINNEH ESTRADA

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The developing theme in this novel is about individualism. It speaks about being independent and not depending on others to find your own answer. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag realizes how important it is to be your own person and develop your own ideas. He begins to question everything from how he met his wife to why his society is so ignorant. He begins to break away from the society and tries to find his own answers.

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Andrew Pham (Fun Dip Lover) and Steven Bao "Discovering Destiny"

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Andrew Pham (Fun Dip Lover) and Steven Bao "Discovering Destiny"

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The theme is "In order to find your destiny, you must find out the truth." In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury portrays Montag as a hardened fireman who his profession, burning things. However, after the incident of the burning of the old woman (Bradbury 40), and the near-death of Mildred (Bradbury 16), he realizes he is not content with his current life. From these events, he is symbolized as the phoenix that is reborn to start his life over. Thus, he secretly stashes books in his house, even though he has lived against books his whole life. This demonstrates how he is creating his own destiny that goes against all he believed in his whole life. Through his actions, he is developing himself as an individual, like Clarisse, where the world they live in has been formed to oppose.

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What are WE? Where are WE? Who are WE?

November 27, 2354
Ladies and gentlemen of this monopolizing domain, in this year of 2354; Are you all happy? Let my partner $eth Martin and I introduce you all to one of the most, if not the most perplexing problems that this world has ever

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In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows that ignorance is bliss. Without knowledge, the people of this society are very much happy. They do not even wish to obtain wisdom or knowledge. With no one to speak up against the government or society, everyone is happy. "Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Sam's Cabin. Burn it( p.69)." The path to diversity and free thinking is taken away. If you don't like something, take it away. This makes all parties happy. It makes the people ignorant. Yet, everyone still continues to believe that they are in a state of happiness.

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Government Control? Good or Bad? Cory Huynh and Justin Nguyen 

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Government Control? Good or Bad? Cory Huynh and Justin Nguyen 

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In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows that government control without the people's acknowledgment is unconstitutional by presenting how society is restricted and fed lies. The government controls people to being equal and the same. In Montag's life, everyone lives the same lifestyle which is sitting at home watching the TV and not socializing. They are censored from the reality around them and hardly know anything accept technology and what the government feeds them. The government want everyone to be the same to give them a instant gratitude life by having everyone cooped up in their homes with their technology. Any new ideas are either made illegal by the government or not seen to the people. They have been so brainwashed by the government trying to control everyone and making them the same that social society is deteriorating. One day, Montag shows individuality and sees the light. He realizes what the government is doing and he sees that it is wrong. They shouldn't keep information from society and people should freely do what they want.

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In part one of Fahrenheit 451, Montag learns to express himself and find individuality in his fast-paced society. Clarisse opens his eyes to her world and realizing this, Montag starts to rethink his life and comes to a conclusion that her is not happy. Montag's first experience of internal conflict starts on page 13 "Montag was cut in half. He felt his chest chopped down and split apart." This obviously being a hyperbole since his body didn't literally split. He's just confused and torn to pieces with Mildred's suicide attempt. "He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other." Here readers can analyze the struggle Montag faces when finding his true self. He comes to a realization to quit his job of burning to explore new knowledge on his own.

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In the book Fahrenheit 451 , Ray Bradbury depicts a theme of censorship and knowledge. He shows how a society that has no sense of knowledge, is just a society without life. When Clarrise says she is 17 and crazy, it shows how she is a person with a point in life. Also, when Captain Beatty says "a book is a loaded gun and to ahead and take a shot," this relates to censorship by explaining what the book is, and it also represents knowledge by stating how the book is used and what it is for.

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Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Montag is conflicting with his society and trying to find the meaning of life. He thinks that he can find the meaning of life through books and understanding the meaning written in the books. For example,

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Sophia Alcala, Dinneh Estrada, and Elaine Vo

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Sophia Alcala, Dinneh Estrada, and Elaine Vo

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The theme of the story is to be

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The theme that develops throughout part one of Fahrenheit 451

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RYAN DANG AND ADAM MANCINI OF AWESOMENESS 

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RYAN DANG AND ADAM MANCINI OF AWESOMENESS 

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Throughout the story "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, Montag

is trying to find his true identity. The recurring theme of the novel

seems to center around Montag feeling lost and not knowing who

he is.

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The theme that develops through Part 1 of Fahrenheit 451 is that sometimes change is for the better. For example, before Montag met Clarisse, he always thought books were irrelevant.

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Self Realization

Throughout the novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag experiences events that lead to an epiphany about the society around him. Montag has become so attached to the books, he refuses to burn them even though he's a fireman and pleads to Mildred "We can't burn these. I want to read them, at least look at them once" (Montag 66). He also realized " I didn't like myself at all anymore. And I thought maybe it would be best if the fireman themselves were burnt" (Montag 67). Montag wants to learn about the knowledge contained inside books and wonders "where do you get help, where do you find a teacher this late?" (Bradbury 74).

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Self -discovery

Ray Bradbury's

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Symbols are used to create themes. Montag burns books but

like a Phoenix, Montag rebirths. Knowledge is permanent and

there isn't an end to it.

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Rebirth is a recurring theme in part one of this novel. Characters, especially Guy Montag, greatly matured through new knowledge and discovery of curiosity. For example, Clarisse makes him conscious of the little details in life such as dew on grass or giant billboards on the highway. Because of her surprising level of maturity, Clarisse really challenges Montag to think and ask questions. "And then, very slowly, as he walked, he tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth.." is a profound excerpt from the novel that illustrates change and curiosity beginning to consume Guy. As the storyline progresses, Guy resembles a phoenix, rising from the ashes, new and reborn.