Final Reflection - Fall

Being in this class feels like being chained to a rock like Prometheus, in exchange for bringing fire to the world, which is like getting the knowledge from this class, I'm stuck here for the rest of time, and every day a large bird comes and eats my free time away because I have to do homework. Eventually though, I am saved by Hercules, get a diploma from the school, and am let free.

Draft Stage 7

Body Paragraphs:
The first thing to look at is to see how people claim to be happy. For example, Montag's wife Mildred, despite overdosing on sleeping pills just the night before and being on the brink of death, adamantly denies overdosing and insists she is fine (Bradbury 19). Despite evidence that would convince any reasonable person, she still tries to convince her husband she is fine and happy. Another time a character is trying to put out an outward appearance of happiness is Mrs. Phelps, when she comes over to visit her friend Mildred. She, without being prompted by any suspicions of her unhappiness by others, just starts talking about how she is fine and not worried at all about being on her third husband, and her husband going off to war (Bradbury 94). Both Mrs. Phelps and Mildred, fairly average characters in the world of Fahrenheit 451, go out of their way to tell others they are happy.

However, despite protests of the thought of them being unhappy, people in 451 seem to be unhappy anyway. As Bradbury has Mrs. Phelps so casually say to Mildred, "[k]illed jumping off buildings, yes, like Gloria's husband last week," It shows she thinks it is a normal occurance, and speaks calmly of a suicide of her friend's husband just a week ago (94). The very same Mrs. Phelps who has a breakdown just minutes later simply because Montag reads a poem to her, showing her instability, not normally a sign of happiness (Bradbury 100). This is important, because it shows that characters in Fahrenheit 451 are not only unhappy, but trying to conceal that fact.

Draft Stage 6

I have been jumping around on my claim a lot, basically because mine was not so great. Here is my tree map:

Intro:
In the world of Fahrenheit 451, most people seem to be happy with their life. They spend their days around the television walls, watching exciting shows by themselves or with friends. They laugh, and they smile, and are all around enjoying their life. There are no problems to deal with, no stress, and they can do whatever, whenever. They also have everything one could need to be happy, they have friends and family that they spend time with, a house, food, and plenty of entertainment. It would seem from all this that this is a perfect society where everyone is happy, having a good time.

However, there are some problems that can be seen. Small slip ups, or at least the characters make it seem. People on drugs, overdosing, apparently is a thing that a medical team will fix "nine or ten a night," and they don't even send a proper doctor. (Bradbury 15). Parents hate their children, and their children hate them too. There are suicides. If people seem to be happy from so many obvious traits, why are there suicides, and why is this seen as such a normal thing?

One way to look at this would be to consider that people are actually unhappy, and are trying to cover it up by passing these bad things off as normal. By doing this, they are also trying to make themselves feel better about it too, and for many of them it works. They submit themselves to their wall for distraction from being unhappy. They get sucked into it willingly to escape. Looking at it this way could let us see the characters differently, not as happy people with a few crazy ones, but many unhappy people trying to hide it and escape from it.