https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451 Sarah A. 10H-McCarty: Block 1 en-us 2020-10-30 13:14:11 UTC 2023-03-18 21:34:20 UTC hello@padlet.com https://media0.giphy.com/media/10O4vXPCM3D1VS/giphy.gif are20898 https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451/wish/876285533 Hi! My name is Sarah Arellano and I am a 10th grader in at Niskayuna High-school. My interests are primarily in the arts—such as drawing, listening to music and, coincidentally, reading books. As we delve deeper and dissect the connotation and world of Fahrenheit 451, I'd like to further analyze our protagonist's, Guy Montag, development and burgeoning as character as he gradually rebels against the fallacious, dystopian society of he was once confined, and "content", with. Furthermore, I would like to examine the perilous aspects that affixes itself with the concept of censorship and authorianism, and how that produces seemingly brain-washed individuals. By exploring the book, I would like gain more cognizance; to visualize myself as character who resides in the book and how I would be affected. Would I possess the fortitude that consumes Guy to become of opposition, despite the uncertainties, or would I be an idle bystander?  (150 Words)]]> 2020-10-30 13:28:16 UTC https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451/wish/876285533 are20898 https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451/wish/900490332           As we further succumb ourselves into the world of Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to many symbolistic abstractions, through visually evoking scenes... such as with water, whether it be in a form of miniscule rain-drops to the prodigious, confining sea. Water is regarded as a force of nature that cleanses; that purifies, yet it is also considered as destructive force that drowns and erodes. With Montag, subtly, his world is constantly cascaded with the dualistic disposition of the symbolism of water.
          After the operators are completed with their task of aiding Mildred after her suicide attempt, Montag is beguiled by the house of Clarisse while he opens the window, as he discerns the sound of "the(ir) voices talking, talking, talking, giving, talking, weaving, reweaving their hypnotic web." (Page 14) Without realizing, he has become so entranced as to even venture outside of their house, with only a undemanding yearning to listen to their conversation. Listening to Clarisse's uncle, he begins to delineate that "Well, after all this is the age of the disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another, blow, wad, flush. Everyone using everyone else's coattails. [...]" (Page 15) Despite being such a peculiar analogy that is being mentioned, it has such a consequential resonance to Montag as the Uncle divulges that their society has mutated into one where there is a lack of genuine emotional and personal connection with one another. How individuals utilize each other for their own personal and emotion benefit, comparing everyone to disposable tissue that could be feasibly replaced.
          With this, the overwhelmed Montag returns home and begins to contemplate about the recent significant events that have occurred today, equating them to rain-drops. "One drop of rain. Clarisse. Another drop. Mildred. A third. The uncle. A fourth. The fire tonight. One, Clarisse. Two, Mildred. Three, uncle. Four, fire [...] One, two, three, four, five, Clarisse, Mildred, uncle, fire, sleeping tablets, men, disposable tissue, coattails, blow, wad, flush, [...]" (Page 15) Commencing as simple drops, and transitioning to increasingly repetitive and pelting rain; the rain has become "The storm. (With) the uncle laughing. Thunder falling downstairs. The whole world pouring down. [...] " (Page 15)  This shows how inundated Montag is with the abrupt transfiguration of his perspective on life; frantically questioning his being, as the world he is accustomed with is gradually deteriorating. He had just met the juvenile Clarisse "Only an hour (ago) [...]" and his "world had melted down and sprung up in a new and colorless form." (Page 14). Clarisse has tremendously impacted Montag and notably made him question whether he was truly content with his life, because he was someone who "wore his happiness like a mask [...]" (Page 9) Then subsequent to this encounter, he arrives to his desolate home of a "mausoleum" (Page 9) to discover Mildred, unconscious from a suicide attempt—only to be rescued by apathetic, callous medical operators. This is a turning point for Montag because as he begins to reevaluate his life, he realizes how dejecting his life is, with him senselessly burning books and the void house he inhabits, compared to Clarisse's. The raindrops, portraying these individuals and experiences, are seemingly cleansing Montag into a more conscious, cognizant slate, and cultivating him for renewal, as he doesn't "know anything anymore," (Page 15), showing that he's beginning to question everything and commencing his development towards individualism.
          The next morning—after his wife's suicide attempt—Montag and Mildred converse but the communication between the two feels frivolous  and disconnected, with their monotonous responses to one other and Mildred's denial of Montag informing her about her overdose on sleeping-tablets. But the atmosphere that encompasses Montag immediately shifts, as he leaves the house and joins Clarisse in the rain. Their conversation and propinquity, in contrast to Mildred, is zestful and compelling. Clarisse insinuates that Montag is no longer in love solely based on a dandelion and how she was assigned to a psychiatrist because of her peculiar affinity towards nature, displaying the drastic configuration of "being social" in their society.  But most importantly, she discloses that she relishes in walking in the rain and how "Rain even tastes good." (Page 19) that she just "let(s) the rain fall in my (her) mouth [...]", describing that "It tastes just like wine. [...]" (Page 20). With this, she questions Montag if he has ever attempted to taste the rain but she interrupts him from responding, and further canvasses him about his occupation as a firefighter. With this fragment of conversation, Clarisse further deconstructs Montag as an individual with her bombardment of questions such as how he decided on becoming fireman, despite the job not suiting him, and how different he is from other individuals because "When I (she) talks, you (he) looks at her. When I (she) said something about the moon, you (he) looked at the moon, [...]" (Page 21). Internally divided and perplexed, Montag advises that Clarisse "better run on to your (her) appointment, [...]" and "she ran off and left him standing there in the rain. [...]". Despite Clarisse's absence, Montag stays idle for a prolonged period of time but "very slowly, as he walked, he tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth..." (Page 21). This moment is consequential to the progression of Montag's character because despite him, presenting himself as indifferent individual, this shows that he does have hint of curiosity, and we will furthermore read that this inquisitiveness he possesses is taken on a more illegal manner.  With this particular scene, I visualize the rain as Clarisse's influence, and Montag is absorbing himself in the rain—like a plant—and allowing himself to transfigure into an individualistic character, rather than the brain-washed and deprived individual that his society materialistically constructs. ]]> 2020-11-07 21:19:54 UTC https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451/wish/900490332 are20898 https://padlet.com/are20898/fahrenheit451/wish/971257717          Throughout Fahrenheit 451, the mentioning of hands is a repetitive concept—crucially Montag's hands. The abstraction and symbolism of hands is consequential to Montag's character burgeoning; from the conformed, monotonous individual to the idiosyncratic reformer, advocating for the revival of distributing literature. Hands constitute to tools that we utilize on a daily basis to communicate with others or performing fundamental functions such as grasping, moving and manipulating objects. Furthermore, hands significantly portray messages of salvation or destruction—such as the fist. With Montag, his hands delineate his progressive ignition of rebellion, moral imperative and pursuit to acting on his own volition.
          We witness a pivotal moment in the book, involving his hands, when Montag possesses the resolve to steal a book during an operation at an old-woman's house. But despite this, he asserts that "(he) had done nothing. His hand had done it all. His hand with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger [...]" (Page 35) Rather than conceding to the fact that he had committed such a felonious, insubordinate deed because of his deeply entrenched feelings of temptation and dissatisfaction, he condemns his compulsive hands for his spontaneous actions and claims that he had no contribution, nor contemplation, to such theft. Later on in the book, when Montag arrives home, he surmises that "his hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms. He could feel the poison working up his wrists and into his elbows and his shoulders, and then the jump-over from should blade to shoulder blade like a spark leaping a gap. His hands were ravenous [...]" (Page 38) This said "poison" that is dispersed throughout Montag's body is depicting the lingering feelings of guiltiness and penitence from his earlier involuntary book-thievery, yet is also the feelings of temerity and noncompliance. These intermingled feelings originate from his hands, as his hands acted out the act of defiance, and entirely consumes him. 

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