3rd Journal Entry

For this blog I read part 3, Burning Bright, of Fahrenheit451. This is the end of the book and goes a little like this... Montag and Beatty arrive at Montag's house to burn it. Beatty tells Montag that Montag gets the pleasure of burning his own house and then after he will be arrested. Montag engulfs the house in flames and destroys every book. Millie, his wife, leaves shortly before this happens and Montag never sees her again. Anyway, Montag finishes destroying the house and Beatty goes on rambling about books. Eventually, Beatty pushes Montag's wrong button and Montag sprays fire upon him to kill him. Then, Montag hears sirens in the distance, the police. He starts to run but is attacked by something before he gets to far, the mechanical hound. The hound stabs Montag's leg with a chemical and tries to kill Montag but can't. Once again, Montag sprays fire all over the hound to destroy it. Montag, weakened by the chemical limps away but struggles to get anywhere. His leg is asleep and hurts badly. Eventually, Montag's leg recovers and he manages to clean himself up. He is on his way to Faber's when he gets a devious idea to put books into another fireman's house. He does so and calls the firemen to destroy the house. Finally, Montag reaches Faber's house and Faber tells Montag about a plan for them to meet up in another city. Montag agrees and also tells Faber that war has been declared between the two nations. Faber and Montag both agree it is a bad time and talk for a little while longer. Suddenly, Faber sees on the news that they are releasing another mechanical hound out after Montag. Montag is so scared and Faber allows him to leave. Montag runs to the river and jumps in, escaping the hound and everyone in the city. The story continues and Montag finds a group of older men out in the woods. He finds out that they all were once English Professors or authors and that they all have memorized a book that was burned. They allow Montag to stay with them and Montag decides to remember the Bible as his book. In the last scene, the men watch as a bomber drops a nuke onto the city where Montag had lived. They watch as it blows across the sky and plummet to the ground. Then, the leader, I forgot his name, tells the men it is time to go, it is time to enlighten the survivors with their stories. The scene ends with them walking to the city and the leader quoting the Bible. Alright, that is what happened in the third part of the book. For the theme of this chapter, I think the theme is the government will never be able to make it's people do what they want. Although the government orders the firemen to destroy the books, people have already read them and memorized what they are about. Nothing is ever forgotten and knowledge can never be destroyed. Well, I guess that is all I have to say about that....the theme of this part is a little foggy for me, but I will look it over again.

1st Journal Entry

I am reading the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and I have completed the first part of the story. So far, I like how the story is written and I like how suspenseful it has been. Just in case you have forgotten what happened, I will refresh your memory. First, the book starts off with a man, Guy Montag, walking down the street. He encounters a mysterious girl that speaks of the past and how different life use to be. Guy is startled by her and walks her home, since she is his new neighbor. He goes inside and finds his wife, Mildred, lying on her bed, near death, due to a sleeping pill overdose. She is saved and the story continues. Guy is a fireman, he burns books, and goes to work a night. On one night, the firemen storm a house and find an old women with a bunch of books in her attic. They decide to do their duty and burn the books with the house. They inform the old woman to leave but she won't. Startled, Guy tries to help her get out but she does something else. She lights her own match and burns herself alive with all the books. Guy is sick after witnessing this and something ticks inside of him. He believes that books really must be good if the lady killed herself over them. He even managed to get one of her books too. The story progresses and eventually Guy shows Mildred all the books that he has collected while being a fireman. Mildred is shocked and wants to destroy them but Guy insists that they read them. That's pretty much as far as I got. Oh yeah, almost forgot, the strange girl was killed by a speeding car, so we won't be seeing her again. The theme of this novel is quite hard to figure out in the first part, but I see it as being the theme of life and death. I believe this because the old woman killed herself, the death part, and now Guy is enlightened and reborn into a different person, a person who wants books and wants to destroy the firemen. So far that is what I have got. Finally, I am still debating on what my senior study will be looking at so I don't have an answer to the last question....sorry.