Fahrenheit 451 Pt. 2

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury connects to Divergent by Veronica Roth. In Divergent, people are being controlled. They are forced to mindlessly do what they are told because of a mind-control serum in their blood. In Fahrenheit 451 the people are also mindless, but not because they are directly being forced. There is no serum controlling them, but they are led to have no desire to really do anything or think about anything. 

In both stories there are people that can rise above the control and think for themselves. They are different. Fahrenheit 451 has people like Montag. These people are not content with the "normal" lifestyle. They want to think for themselves, read, and learn. I don't know how these certain people become aware, but few do. In the other book, people who are not influenced by mind-control serum are called Divergent. This includes people like Tris. 

Both of these groups of people are constantly in danger. The government does not want anyone to be different or to know what is going on. Both Tris and Montag are hunted and they are often close to being killed. The two books have many parallels. 

Montag is not happy with the way he is living. But are there some that are happy? Mildred, Montag's wife seems happy. She is content with staying at home. She sits and talks to the tv's that are covering three of their parlor walls. Mildred would rather talk to the fake people on the walls that to her husband. She is a perfect model citizen, very against books and any conversation, law abiding and quite average. And she seems very happy. The only thing that brings her distress is when Montag starts breaking the law and reads books. 

So are these laws actually for the best? If Mildred, and most everyone else can be so perfectly happy when they are distracted from real life, distracted from any worries, why isn't this a utopia? Is thinking really a good thing if it brings so many other unpleasant things with it? 

We need thinking. We need it because, even if it brings some bad things, it also brings good. You can sit and think about whatever you want, choose to think about war and poverty or choose to think about freedom and the miracle of human existence. That the thing, you can choose. Because when thinking is taken away from Montag's world, they aren't just taking their thoughts. They are also taking away freedom and individuality. 

"I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough. it'll make sense."

Even if you have time to think of bad things, you can't have good without bad. Mildred may think she is happy, but what is there to compare to? Nothing will ever bring her any real emotion. The only thing she can really ever feel is ok. There will be no heart wrenching sadness, but there will also be no glowing joy. The sadness we experience just contributes to make the happiness feel that much better. 

"Stuff your eyes with wonder... Live as is you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such and animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down all day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass."

Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the world is much different than it is now. Everyone is mindless. They are constantly watching their giant, room-filling TVs, or listening to their earpieces- feeding them constant music or news or just noise. All to distract them from real life.

I think this lifestyle was originally made to make everyone happy. If they are constantly distracted, they have no time to think about anything, let alone anything wrong with the world. In fact, sitting and thinking are almost outlawed. There are no longer porches, gardens, or rocking chairs, all places where people like to think. No one is allowed to talk to one another for the sake of talking, have a real conversation. If you want to converse you are considered an oddity and are kept watch on by the government. All so that you don't think, or discover that there is evil in the world .

"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names or state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change."

Because the people are being kept from knowledge, they are also kept from books. Owning books is a crime, if you are found in possession of one, the 'firemen' come and burn your house down with the books inside. This makes most people think that books are some great evil, an elusive force that must be kept far away. They think that the books have power, but the power is in the knowledge that the books contain. 

"This is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

Within the mindless society there are a few that are 'aware'. They don't really go along with everything. They actually think. Montag is one of these people. What I wonder is what makes a person able to resist the messages everywhere telling them to just go with the flow and stop thinking. Are there certain people that are stronger and are able to see through the fake society? Or do they all need help? Montag is aware because Clarisse showed him how to slow down. Clarisse has her family to show her what to think. Does everyone need someone else to help guide them?

But it is dangerous to be like them. The government does what it can to lock them away. When they find someone who owns books, they take that person away. If someone has too many ideas, they might mysteriously disappear. So these people hide. 

"With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual', of course, became the swear word it deserved to be."

Montag is just realizing how to be alive himself, maybe he can still become strong enough to help others think, and be alive too.

Julius Ceasar

Julius Ceasar needed to be killed. At least that's what it seemed like most characters in Julius Ceasar  by William Shakespeare would say. Ceasar was plotted against from the beginning of the story. But why was he so hated?

Many call Ceasar weak. And he was very weak, physically.

Cassius- Ceasar said to me, "Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood
And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow. So indeed he did.
...
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!"
...
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How did he shake. 'tis true, this god did shake!
His coward lips did from their color fly,
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan,
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books-
"Alas" it cried, "give me some drink, Titinius,"
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.
(1.2. 104-133)

Cassius talks about how he had to save Ceasar from drowning. I think this is one of the reasons that Cassius, and some others, may hate him so much. Ceasar is very weak, but he has power, he has the power that Cassius wants. It makes Cassius mad that such a weak man could end up with more power than him, a strong, healthy man.

Cassius- Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Ceasar- what should be in that "Ceasar"?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
(1.2. 136-144)

Ceasar was also very self centered. He sometimes even referred to himself in the third person. This may have been another factor in why he was disliked. Because such a selfish person should not have control over so many. He would think of himself before he would think of his people. His overconfidence was a source of fear to some.

These growing feathers plucked from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness
(1.1. 72-75)

They were afraid of what would happen if Ceasar gained any more confidence. Some were so afraid, and loathfull, they wanted to kill him. But, others thought differently. Some worshipped Ceasar. They had nothing bad to say about him.

Antony- I shall remember,
When Ceasar says 'Do this', it is performed.
(1.2. 12-13)

Antony knew Ceasar better than some and he was loyal to Ceasar. But, even the peasants who didn't know Ceasar idolized him.

Three or four
wenches where I stood cried, "Alas, good
soul!" and forgave him with all their hearts. But
there's no heed to be taken of them. If Ceasar had
stabbed their mothers they would have done no
less.
(1.2. 268-273)

So feelings towards this man are varied greatly at two ends of the spectrum. People seem to feel very strongly about him, either good or bad. They either love or hate him. Want to kill him or would die for him. But, there is one in the middle.

Brutus- It must be by his death, and for my part
I know no personal cause to spurn at him
But for the general. He would be crowned.
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder
And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,
And then I grant we put a sting on him
That at his will he may do danger with.
Th' abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power. And, to speak truth of Ceasar,
I have not known when his affections swayed
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face.
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Ceasar may.
Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel
Will bear no color for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities.
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg-
Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous-
And kill him in the shell.
(2.1. 10-35)

Brutus sees good in Ceasar. Good that will soon disappear. He thinks that too much power changes people, and will change Ceasar for the worse. It will make him look down on everyone, and be a very bad person, and ruler. So they needed to kill Ceasar before that happened.

It is interesting how people can have such conflicting views on the same person. Julius Ceasar is one person but there are infinite ways he is perceived. As a cowered, a leader, a weakling, a hero. And which of these views are right? Maybe all of them, or maybe none.