guymontag

[guymontag]

This piece of art is called Hope by George Frederic Watts. It is a painting of blindfolded female playing a lyre with only one string and sitting on a globe. This image represents blinded Hope, sadness, and emptiness. This is comparable to me, Guy Montag, and my character in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For example on pages 7-9, Clarisse, my neighbor, asks me if I am happy: “ ‘Are you happy?’ she said. ‘Am I what?’ … Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?… [I] was not happy.” When Clarisse first asked me if I was happy, I didn’t think about the question. I didn’t think about what she actually meant when she asked. I didn’t realize that she was asking about me. The more I thought about the question, the more I realized that I was not happy. In fact, I felt empty and sad, just like the female figure in the artwork above.

[guymontag]

This is one of my favorites! This song represents me in the society that I live in, especially with these lyrics: “Will I be known and loved? Is there one that I trust? Starting to sober up Has it been long enough? Will I be known and loved? Little closer, close enough I’m a loser, loosen up Set it free, must be tough”. Here, Kevin Parker is explaining how he is paranoid about not being loved by anyone or known by anyone. He is scared that there is no one he can trust in LA. I relate to this song because I also feel like a “loser” in this society. Everyone is glued to their “families” and they can’t even think for themselves as individuals. For instance, on page 78 of Fahrenheit 451, I was over Faber’s house and said: “Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense.” I feel like I can’t be myself in a society that doesn’t even know who they are as people. They don’t ask questions to get to know each other and they don’t truly think things through, much like the war that is going on in the country that nobody is talking about. I feel as though there is no one in this society that I can trust (besides Faber because he’s someone that thinks for himself rather than what the government makes him think) and there’s no one that actually wants to get to know me, no one that cares about me or even cares about other people. Clarisse has been the only one that actually tried to get to know me for me, however, she died and my wife, Mildred, did not think to tell me.

[guymontag]

This is a picture of me! All firemen basically look the same. In Fahrenheit 451 I even noticed that all firemen are the same: “Had [I] ever seen a fireman that didn’t have black hair, black brows, a fiery face, and a blue-steel shaved but unshaved look? These men were all mirror images of [me]!” (Bradbury 30). That day, I walked into the firehouse and realized that all the men sitting there had the same average look. That was when I noticed that I was thinking for myself, rather than just going with the flow of things.

[guymontag]

This is a song that I really relate to. In the song, Matt Shultz sings about how their relationship is just a “puff of smoke” and can dissipate at any moment and he’s ready to let his relationship go: “Times I wonder, are we just a puff of smoke? Yeah… I’m ready to let go”. To me, the relationship is me with the society that I live in. I feel isolated from everything and everyone. All they care about is themselves and they don’t try to think for themselves. This is song relates to me because I feel as though I am ready to let go and break apart from society (which is basically what I did by the end of the book). In Fahrenheit 451, I felt disconnected from everyone and that this “relationship” had disappeared: “I don’t know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help” (Bradbury 78). Just like smoke slowly disappears in a few seconds like it was never there, my relationship with society was slowing going away the more I wanted to break free and read books to gain more knowledge about life.

[guymontag]

This is a fire salamander. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the “salamander” is the name of the firetrucks. They are also on our uniforms as firemen: “putting on [my] badge with the orange salamander burning across it” (Bradbury 17). In the novel, salamanders are a symbol of fire and are the symbols of the firemen. Salamanders in folklore are known to have an affinity with fire. According to Aristotle and Pliny (Green philosopher and Roman author), salamanders can resist fire and even extinguish it. Some say that this myth began because of their fire-proof skin, while others say it was started when salamanders were seen living in charred remnants of fire logs (The Environmental Literacy Council). In the novel, salamanders are the symbols of the firemen because they can resist fire, and the firemen burn books. Salamanders were thought to be able to extinguish fires as well, and on page 31 in the novel, I asked Captain Beatty of firemen used to prevent fires rather than start them.

[guymontag]

The title of this is The Fear by Corneliu Baba. In this painting, one can clearly see the fear in the faces of the figures. In the book Fahrenheit 451, there are many instances where I have fear because I am afraid that I will get caught for having books. At the beginning of part three Burning Bright, I burned down my own house and Captain Beatty told me that it was my wife, Mildred, that had turned in an alarm. “[I] could not move. A great earthquake had come with fire and leveled the house and Mildred was under there somewhere and his entire life under there and he could not move. The earthquake was still shaking and falling and shivering inside [me] and [I] stood there, [my] knees half-bent under the great load of tiredness and bewilderment and outrage, letting Beatty hit [me] without raising a hand” (Bradbury 112). At that moment I realized what I had done. I had burned down my house. My house with all my belongings and my whole life in there, including Mildred’s. Before this, I had planned on planting books in other houses and turning in alarms to burn their houses down, but then I was burning my own house down. I had ruined the whole plan. In the painting above, those figures were scared and in this part of the novel, I was scared of what was going to happen next.

[guymontag]

[guymontag]

[guymontag]

[guymontag]

[guymontag]

Fahrenheit 451 page 151: “ ‘Run! [I] cried to Faber. To Clarisse, ‘Run!’ To Mildred, “Get out, get out of there!”

Lyric: Are, are you ashamed? What are we supposed to do with our hearts? Love is not a game I’m just here protecting all that I own

[guymontag]

[guymontag]

[guymontag]