Columns!

After reading quite a few columns about everything from a history making hockey game to a 4 year old's birthday party, I've realized that columns cqn actually be pretty fun and interesting to read. What really grabs my attention witg columns is that they illustrates someone's view on a topic in what can either be a comical or impactful way - or sometimes even both! Another great thing about columns is that they are fairly short, therefore, the reader doesn't start to get bored throughout the piece or for the fact that you can simply read one without having to devote so much time towards it. This is great for me especially because I dont always like to have to devote so much times towards a piece of reading and so it's so easy to be ablento just pick up a column and read it without it extending over a long amount of time.

 But anyways, I bet the ladt thing you want to read about is my own reading habits, so I'll keep moving along and tell you some more about the columns I read today.




 Out of the many that I read, my favorite column was, by far, "What will Kate Middleton's wedding dress look like?" by Robin Givhan. This columnist used numerous amounts of rhetoric techniques,  such as figurative language, rhetorical questions, and sentence fragments. For example, in the third paragraph,  Givhan uses two techniques in this quote, "The detailed description is based on...nothing. It's pure conjecture. It's a game. Shall we play along?" This one little quote shows multiple fragments, which bring detail to this section of thw story, showing its importance.  Also, Givhan uses a rhetorical question at the end to bring the reader into the rest of the whole column, where she fantasizes about Kate Middleton's wedding dress and taking into accout every single designer that coule be used to make it.

 These columns have opened up new doors in my reading and I can't wait to read more and more!

Fahrenheit 451 Theme Project

Theme 5: People should take action rather than watch society falter and crumble

This theme is important to the understanding of the story because the book goes through Montag’s thought process of realizing how messed up his society really was; and when he does take action the reader can understand why. It is important for us to be aware of the theme because everyday we all see things that we know aren’t right, but most people aren’t able to take action towards it, so by studying this theme we learn that taking action does have a big impact.

In the beginning of the book, Montag is set to go burn down another house, but it turned out to be much different than the regular house burning.The  woman was standing in her home, surrounded by her books, and refused to move for them to burn the house. Montag watched as the woman was burned alive with her books, which first inspired his thoughts of rebellion and began to inspire him to take action. The following quote shows when Montag first started think in a different mindset; “Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?” (Bradbury 31)

At the end of part one, Montag admits to Millie that he has books. This was a big step for him considering that he is a fireman and should be burning books, not secretly keeping them. By showing the books to Millie it shows that Montag was ready to start making changing and to not keep books a secret.

During part two, Montag becomes friends with a man that really helps him get to know and understand books better. They help each other in the way that they both have a love for books, so they can relate in a new way. Faber really helped Montag through his whole process. Montag said the following quote to Faber when he really wanted to get a plan into action with books, “That’s the good part of dying;when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want” (Bradbury 81). This gives a really good perspective of Montag’s new mindset.

In part two, Mildred has over two of her friends to watch their favorite program, when Montag decides to shut off the parlor walls due to his frustration and bring out one of his books. He then reads the poem, Dover Beach, to them, which causes the friends to become upset with Montag and Mildred. Although this action was not intelligently planned out, this was still an example of Montag taking action to help save a society he perceives as crumbling by reading to them.

In the beginning of part 3, most everything Montag ever knew was gone; his house, his wife, his books. Beatty was to blame for it, so when thinking he was saving his own, and Farber’s life, he burns Beatty.

The book ends with Montag running away and meeting a group known as “The book people.” They take Montag in with open arms. They give Montag a taste of what will basically be the rest of his life because he was caught breaking the law. When everything sinks in for Montag, he does a lot more thinking; mostly into his book which is Ecclesiastes in the Bible, “To everything there is a season… A time to break down, and a time to build up… A time to keep silent and a time to speak” (Bradbury 158).

Montag in Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 was definitely an interesting and eye opening book. Although the entire plot was absurd and highly unlikely to ever happen, I still felt the same frustration that Montag felt when he realized that he was surrounded by people who were completely oblivious to the fact that there were things to be learned and knowledge to be gained. While I could relate to Montag and appreciate him as a character for this reason, I still was not a fan of Montag. I thought that he became very unreasonable and didn't think through his actions towards the end, which was frustrating as a reader because you knew that he was going to feel the consequences of his actions later, yet there was obviously nothing you could do about it. Montag began to feel invincible when he realized there was a whole world of literature hiding behind his eyes, but he was far from invincible. He acted as though the laws just didn't apply to him when it came to owning books and he was in for quite the surprise when he got caught and watched his house be burnt to flames.

So, now that you know how I felt about Montag as a character, it's time to back it up. And I have just the quote to do so, from page 113, where Bradbury writes, "'Why,' said Montag slowly, "we've stopped in front of my house.'" This was the moment went Montag realized that his house was about to be burnt by his own coworkers and, more importantly, that Beatty knew exactly what Montag was up to. I guess what annoys me about this is that Montag was so obvious with his attempt at a "revolution" that Beatty was able to find out about it. This forced his attempts at revolution to be unsuccessful, because he really didn't put the time and effort into devising a plan.