My Very Awkward Formula

Q:Why is it that the government can use the walls so effectively?

T:Everyone in the city of F.451 that we've come across when studying the book that actively watches the walls seems to think the same thoughts, do the same things, and seem to not even question the information given from the walls.

SQ: As humans we all have different personalities, thoughts, and insights.

Claim: The government can use the walls so effectively because they have become the only access of knowledge and is a common use of entertainment to citizens now that literature is banned

Exploratory Draft

Proposal: Whoever the higher authority is of the society in F.451 destroys books and makes television the only source of knowledge. Therefor the society believes what the authority wants people to.

Automatically I stare at my proposal and I wonder where I went wrong with such a wackjob topic. I do have somewhat multiple forms of evidence to support it but they’re not nearly as strong as I want them to be. Considering that nowhere in the book do they even mention someone with political power such as presidents or mayors. But the only thing I do feel that I have is that not only are people dedicated to the walls but they also believe whatever is heard from it. But I feel that my only source of evidence for this topic is through Mildred considering the book gives most details about the numbness of the walls through her.

What I know about the authority of the society of F.451

• It isn’t directly defined
• Mildred and her friends place their support based on the looks of the candidates
• Page(34) the book claims that the firemen were established in 1790 by Benjamin Franklin

I’m panicking. I understand that the point of this is to be able to work around our problems like Mr. Kiley did whith his topic but I can’t find any loopholes in mine. Maybe because it’s too narrow but that’s the point of a proposal. I also don’t think it’s alright to change my topic because the entire point of this assignment is to power through this. Iv’e hit the wall, very hard.

Ideas That I’ve had:

• The point of burning books is to create an equal minded society that all thought the same there for there would be no superiority over anybody. But with the burning of books come those that refuse and will continue to read until their death( the woman in her library w/ her books). In that case not everyone is equal minded and defeats the purpose making the society do what it can to make sure that everyone is. This connects to Clarisse’s death, Fabre’s Fears, Montag’s secret, and Beatty’s deathwish.
• If the society manages to believe that Montag is dead despite the many holes in their evidence that he is, the society must have full trust and belief into what they watch. Basically whoever runs what’s on the walls control what the minds of people think.
• Like Mildred people must see the walls not only as projections but actual live people that they consider family that they feel they must watch which is of course hidden behind such a shady government.

But why is the government so shady? Throughout the entire book we hear barely about them. Even with the war it would seem as if the views of the government would seem significant but it isn’t. Perhaps the government isn’t really a government at all just people who hide behind the walls? For example:

• They would rather lie to the people than admit that they have no clue where Montag is
• Their congressmen are all voted upon their appearance instead of their morales and views.
• They make sure that the walls are needed by burning books and other forms of writing.

Even with the insights I’m making now I still cannot claim anything because they are all hypothetical. I’d like to give up this topic but then I would just feel that I’ve failed the task.

Facts:

• Almost everything that seems educational (school, philosophies, grammer, languages, etc.) one all forms of literature begin to fade.
• Firemen arrest those who have books on strict orders and at some moments actually burn the person without any treason whatsoever.
• Police seem to only worry about  books instead of speeding teenagers

Examples on how the walls have control over people:

• The walls manage to get people on a manhunt simultaneously
• According to Clarisse and Mildred it is the only thing people worry or talk about
• The walls even use the name of the user for “attraction”
• The goals of people (according to the behavior of Mildred) is to get all four walls
• Despite it’s intensity people have no idea about the war and seem to still be arrogant of until the demise of the city where it seems that everyone has died. Why didn’t the walls warn the people about this? Is this something they didn’t want people knowing about?

Maybe I do have something here but I cannot see it. Maybe it’s not the society I have to worry about but the walls themselves. Maybe if I alter my topic to a much broader subject I’ll be able to recieve much better evidence which was my downfall in the Malcolm X asighnment.

Weekly Reflection

   This week in class we finally began to look into F.451 deeper that I expected to. It's as if every choice the author made in his book is for a purpose. From word choice, and the length of sentences, to descriptions and details we managed to find what seemed to me like secret pieces of information through what was described as close reading. At some point it confuses me because I'm not sure what to assume from the smallest details that Ray Bradbury provides. It's as if everything that he states in the book has a secret symbolic meaning to it. For example, when reading the description Bradbury gave for the hound it seemed to me that he simply managed to capture the terror behind it as well as the fear Montag has for it. But after close reading it we realized that Bradbury used the precise wording that he used to make the hound symbolize Montag. It's something I feel I would have never picked up on no matter how many times I were to read that section. From this week's classes I now feel like I understand the importance of close reading and the purposes it has specifically in F.451 but yet I fear of making conclusions from close reading  because they don't always seem "affirmative." I'm excited to see what we will continue to do with F.451 and the little bits of information Bradbury leaves between the lines.