Essay

Question: Read the paragraph for E.M Forster's 1936 essay, "My Wood". Define Foster's attitude toward the experience of owning property and analyze that attitude; consider Foster's word choice, manipulation of sentences, and use of biblical allusions.

Prewrite:
- E.M Forster has property and wants to know its effects on him.
- He believes that owning property changes someone's behavior.
- It becomes harder to move when you have such a big place with many items.
- You have to dust, which means you need a duster, which leads to having servants, which need        insurance.
- The "Wood" represents his land.
- Owning property is not as good as it seems.
- He feels like he always has to do something to make his property better.
- He uses biblical allusions to convey a feeling and help the readers understand.
- His word choice is advanced and his readers are most likely well educated people who will truly undersand his metaphors and biblical allusions.
- He says property creates men of weight, which could mean that men get more selfish when they acquire more and more things.

Essay:

     E.M Forster wrote the essay, "My Wood" after his recent purchase of a house and land. He believed that owning more property and having more things would bring joy to his life. However after his experience with all this new property, his perception of owning property quickly changed. Throughout his essay he repeats, "My wood makes me feel heavy", a few times to let the readers know that he is not happy with having so much property and that it was dragging him down. Overall, Forster has a negative attitude towards owning property and conveys this feeling through the manipulation of words, word choice, and use of biblical allusions.

     E.M Forster's goal was to find out what owning property does to someone and its psychological effects on people. He talks about how it becomes harder to move when you have property because you have so many things to take with you. Maintenance becomes more difficult since there are more things you need to clean. Clearly, these things would change somebody's behavior and view on owning property. Increasing maintenance could lead to hiring servants which could lead to the person becoming lazy and expecting others to do their work all the time. In Forster's experience he was never satisfied with his property. Even though he owned it there were public paths that went through his land. He felt like the land wasn't fully his. You can tell Forster has changed because now he wants the property all to himself. He feels like he deserves to have it all to himself.

     Forster's choice of words is advanced and he uses objects to symbolize other things, such as his land which he refers to as his "wood". He says his wood makes him feel heavy. This could mean many things such as not being able to move around easily with all his stuff, becoming a selfish person, or even feeling like owning all this property is completely changing him. He believes that as he acquires more things he becomes heavier and heavier. He is becoming a man of weight. Instead of writing that he is a man who is buying more and more things, he writes that he is becoming a man of weight. He uses these words to symbolize that all his property makes him heavier.

      Forster's intended audience is for more mature people who will understand his vocabulary and use of biblical allusions. In one part of his essay when he talks about wanting more and more land he says, "Happier Alexander" which he could be referring to Alexander the Great who conquered a lot of land when he was a king. He could also be implying that people who own a lot of land feel like they are kings and that they should be respected. This could lead to people becoming arrogant and an increase in ego. Clearly these allusions help the readers understand in a deeper meaning what Forster is trying to say. Forster's allusions support his opinion on owning property.

     Forster's essay is informative and his purpose is to let people know that they should really think about what they're going to buy. He talks about his experience and how he felt himself changing. His manipulation of sentences help the reader get a better understanding of what he is trying to say. He mentions a bird that is on his property yet it is not his. He uses this to prove that he is not satisfied with his property and that it is not enough for him. Overall, Forster has a negative attitude towards owning land and doesn't want his readers to become the  men of weight which he describes in his essay. He supports his argument with allusions and personal experience.

   

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Option 1

     Ray Bradbury's tone towards Clarisse is somewhat opposite to his tone towards Beatty, he wants to make Clarisse seem more affectionate and like someone who steered Montag's life into a better direction while Beatty wanted to stop Montag from heading in the wrong direction by reading books. Bradbury makes Beatty seem like someone who wanted to prevent Montag from changing. In this novel, conformity is one of the main issues in society. Everyone does the same things and they don't really pay attention or question why they are doing what they are doing. They sort of just follow the crowd and go on with their lives.

     Bradbury makes Clarisse seem like the outcast, however she impacts Montag's life greatly and shows him that not everything is as it seems. Clarisse's main role was to change Montag's perception of society and show him how much the world has changed. When Montag meets Clarisse, he realizes that she is not like everyone else and that she thinks for herself. Bradbury's tone is supportive and shows us that Montag's life may change for the better because of Clarisse. As Montag's life goes on he realizes that he has not seen Clarisse in a while. He asks Mildred if she has seen Clarisse recently and she says that Clarisse got ran over. Montag gets sad and wonders why things happen. Clarisse's death makes him want to read books in order to find the answers to his questions.

     On the other hand, Bradbury's tone towards Beatty shows us that Beatty isn't someone great and that he was doing the opposite of what Clarisse had done to Montag. Clarisse had changed Montag's perception however Beatty was trying to show Montag that it is not worth risking his life just to read books and think differently. During this time, it is considered illegal to read books. When people were caught with books, their books were burned and the person was arrested. Although it seems like Beatty was trying to help Montag not get arrested, he wasn't doing him a favor either by preventing him from thinking for himself. However, it's a bit weird that Beatty knows so much about books, maybe he used to read them secretly in the past and doesn't want Montag to waste his time. Clearly Bradbury wants the readers to know that Beatty is both good and bad towards Montag, depending on how you view the situation.

     Overall, it can be argued that Bradbury's tone towards Clarisse is much more supportive and helpful than his tone towards Beatty, the person who tried to stop Montag from thinking for himself and burned his books. His use of diction and syntax allows the readers to interpret what he writes in certain ways. He makes Clarisse seem like a sweet young girl who lit a spark in Montag's mind while he makes Beatty look like the mean antagonist.

Fahrenheit Questions Part 2

1. In this scene, Montag wants to continue reading books and believes that the answers to everything are in them, while Mildred wants to stop reading and watch tv. Mildred isn't interested in discovering something new.
2. The bombers flying over show how the people of the city don't pay much attention to them like if it happens regularly. It also creates a feeling of suspense and mystery.
3. Professor Faber used to be an old English Professor. Eventually most people stopped reading books and he didn't have a job anymore. Montag came to him for advice on books.
4. After watching the commercial Montag begins to question whether he should read books or stop reading and be like everyone else. This is a turning point because whatever he does will affect his life and view of the world. The commercial was distracting him from reading the Bible.
5. Faber believes that the books have answers to problems in your life. You can learn a lot from reading books and apply it to your life.
6. The "small green metal object" is an earpiece which Faber and Montag can communicate through. Faber gives it to Montag so that he can hear and tell him what to say.
7. The White Clown show leads me to believe that society is very childlike. Clowns are meant to be funny and  playful to kids however here there are adults like Mildred watching this show.
8. Mrs. Phelps cries because of the poetry. She hasn't heard anything like that in a long time and doesn't know how to react other than to cry.
9. His destination is his home because they are going to burn his books. Beatty drives there after the fire alarm rang.

Fahrenheit 451 Questions 1-15

1. I think Bradbury begins the book this way to show how Montag enjoys burning books instead of reading them. In this period of time it is rare for people to be reading books and it might even be seen as something bad. Montag believes he is doing something good by burning those books.
2. I believe the books are compared to birds because birds are living things and he wants to give life to the books. As the books burn they turn grey and eventually into ashes which can fly up into the air just like a bird.
3. Montag is a firefighter and his job is to burn down things instead of stopping the fire. His live is gloomy and dull compared to Clarisse's. His relationship with his wife isn't so great either. Clarisse is more energetic and happy. She likes to laugh and see everything different. Her home is full of laughter and conversations. Compared to Montag's life, there is definitely more excitement going on in Clarisse's life.
4. I would say technology is affecting Montag and Mildred's relationship in a bad way. Since Mildred is always watching television, she never really talks with Montag. They don't really show how much they love each other.
5. I believe the narrator introduces us to this point in Montag's life because it is the turning point of his life or maybe something big will happen and change his life. Clarisse has changed his views on life and how he feels about himself. The previous years of his life may have been a routine and boring but now some action is going on.
6. The author may have introduced Clarisse before Mildred because Clarisse is different than everyone else and likes to be happy, while Mildred is just as boring as all the other people around.
7. All the houses are fireproof so that when the firefighters burn some books, it won't spread to other houses. It will keep the fire from spreading throughout  the whole city.
8. Mildred requires emergency service because she overdosed on sleeping pills. She tried to kill herself but Montag was able to find her in time and save her. Some technicians saved her with a machine.
9. The mechanical hound is sort of like a robotic dog that kills people who disobey the law. Montag feels like it is staring at him in a bad way like it wants to hurt him.
10. The people consider Clarisse antisocial because she is so different than everyone and likes to talk with others. She also doesn't use technology as much as the others
11. The woman with the books lights the match because she would rather die with her books than go on living without them. She believes she can't live without her books, it's like they're a part of her.
12. Montag and Mildred's relationship isn't so good, they can't even remember when they met. Being married for ten years may have become boring for them and now they aren't so much in love rather just living together because they're married.
13. Beatty visits Montag to make sure that he is still focused on his job and isn't thinking about quitting.
15. Montag feels fat because he is hiding books. He is keeping something which is seen as bad in this society. His job used to be burning books and now here he is hiding them instead. He feels guilty for what he is doing.

Fahrenheit 451 Reflection so far

As we read through some of the first pages in Fahrenheit 451, I realized some things I hadn't seen the first time. One part ties in with the short story, "The Pedestrian". As Clarissa walks with Montag she says her uncle was arrested for simply being a pedestrian. This is so similar to what happened in the short story. I also noticed that Bradbury wrote about things that didn't exist at the time, such as headphones and flat screen TVs. It appears that Clarrise and Montag are almost the opposite of each other. Clarisse lives in a house full of light, laughter, and love while Montag lives in a gloomy, dark house. She brings happiness to Montag's life.

What I See in Literature

One of the main themes in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is time. He talks about how he is growing old. He says, "Time to turn back and descend the stair, with a bald spot in the middle of my hair.". He wants to approach the women he loves but he begins to question himself. He worries about being rejected and doesn't have the nerves to talk to her. His chance of talking to her has passed and now he is just an old man. Time changes all throughout the poem, at the beginning he is a young man who is in love while at the end he is a lonely old man.

Gatsby essay thesis

The American Dream is that every person should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity. Gatsby's desire for success is clearly evidence of the American Dream and obsession. Gatsby is determined to rekindle his love with Daisy no matter what or who gets in between them. He believes that his money can get him anything he wants. I do believe Gatsby symbolizes our culture and desires because all of us want something but sometimes we just can't have it. Even though some people may have money they still can't get all they want. It's like the old saying, "Money can't buy you happiness."