Dover Beach

In Fahrenheit 451, Montag reads a poem to his wife and her friends called Dover Beach. This poem may not seem like a big topic of this book, but it truly is. One of the reasons for this is because it caused Mrs. Phelps to break down and cry, which is something people never do in their society. But why did it make her cry? What stuck with her and got her thinking? I think it made her think about the society in the poem, and the society in which they live in. I believe that she understands how messed up the society has become, and she cries. Then she says she doesn't know why she is crying, which could be true, but it could also be because she didn't want the others to know how she truly felt about the society. This could be interpreted in many different ways, but I personally think she was lying about not knowing why she was crying. I think she knew what the poem meant, and she finally understands.

     The book that we are currently reading in class is Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. He wrote this book to be set in the future, and some of the details are a little scary to think about, if they could actually happen in our future. The main idea is that books are no longer a good thing. The whole society is based around entertainment, and people are not supposed to think why things happen, but just to assume that these things are normal. They believe books will help people to begin thinking about why things happen, so they have made the roles of firefighters not to put out firers, but to essentially start them and burn the books that citizens may secretly have. This is scary to think about because we are taught to read books and learn about subjects like history, math, science, and english. In this society, however, they don't learn anything, they simply enjoy there televisions. I cannot imagine living in this kind of society.

     I believe Ray Bradbury wrote this book to send a message to the readers, encouraging them to not create this world, and continue learning new information. It is interesting too because he wrote this book in the 50's, and he didn't know about all the technology that would be invented until after publishing his book. This is cool because he predicted the world changing and evolving to the use of technology, and he was warning his audience to stay away from his, somewhat exaggerated society. I think this was a great way to send his message, through his book, showing the hardships of this society.