Long reads 1

http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/printthis.php?file=feature2.php&issue=2012-01-01
I read about the death of a boy named Andrew Burd. Andrew was a foster child who was adopted by the Burd family. The mother was named Hannah and the father named Larry. They were very religious and Christian and spent a lot of their lives helping other and going on mission trips. The adopted Andrew and he began to show odd signs. He would always be hungry no matter what and ate and ate. He threw tantrums and became very violent to himself when he wouldn't be fed. The family says multiple times, they refused to give him more food and he would go to the bathroom on the floor and rub the feces all over himself and the house in anger. One Andrew became very ill and started throwing up. He ended up dying the next morning, and the cause was food poisoning. They said that he had 3 times the average amount of salt in his system. The mother was convicted of child abuse and murder. They found bruises on his body, his nose, brain damage, and blaimed it on the mother. Hannah had never hurt a child and never broken the law. The only bad part about her past was her father, who murdered a 16 year old boy. After being in jail, they appealed the case and found that there was insufficient evidence, and a salt poisoning expert thought that is was most likely an accident.
I think that Hannah did it. She seems to have done many missions where she helped kids, but I think it hurt her to know that she couldn't help Andrew. He was out of control, and it seems that she abused him. He had bruises on his body, and bruises on his nose which could show that she held his nose closed while she forced him to eat. I think she could have forced him to eat out of anger of him always being hungry. Also she knew that he had a possible eating disorder, and yet she continued to not let him have seconds or more food, causing him to throw fits where he would rub his feces all over the house and himself. I think this is poor parenting to let her son hurt himself and do that to himself.

Sheppard

Evan Ratliff decided to disappear from society and see if anyone could find him. A group of people ended up finding him in September of 2009. I can relate Evan Ratliff’s experience with Chris McCandless and his travels from the book “Into the Wild”. Chris McCandless left his home and decided to go off radar and into the wild. No one knew where he was and he traveled as he pleased. This connects to what Ratliff did because he also decided to disappear and travel around. They both stayed in touch with humans at the same time though. Chris would make friends along the way and even send them letters after he left their area. Ratliff would meet people too and even stayed active on twitter. Also I think their motive for disappearing was different. I think McCandless left because he was disgusted with how society acted and held different values then the average person. He wanted to experience the outdoors and leave his footprint all the way up to Alaska. It seemed like Ratliff was stressed and felt a huge weight on his shoulders that he couldn’t carry anymore. He needed to find out who he was and his true identity. Also he faked his death, while McCandless simply just left.

Reflection

The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was an extremely interesting and compelling story. The story follows a man named Guy Montag who struggles to fit societies ideal citizen, and he begins to think “radically”, and this gets him into trouble. I really enjoyed the story and found it to be very original. The setting of this novel is in an almost opposite world, where human relations are very limited and most people are fake. Technology takes over most people’s lives and they lose much of the values that we have today. This novel was written in the 1950’s and I believe was supposed to be about a futuristic society, and we are in the future now so it is interesting to see certain things talked about that came true. I would definitely recommend that others read this book. It was suspenseful and very thought provoking. Ideas about technology, human relationships, and censorship are what the book revolves around and anyone can relate to these. Even though it is old, it is still easy to read, and it is easy to follow. The only thing I didn’t really like about the book was the ending. I don’t want to reveal the ending, but I didn’t think it was very creative or original at all, and I wish that more time was put into it. Besides that the novel was very good and I would recommend that others read it.

Prompt 16

One idea that Fahrenheit 451 related too was how people can be fake. When our class read The Great Gatsby, we talked a lot about how people act fake or pretend to be things that they aren't. Gatsby created a totally fake mask with his wealth and personality, when he really grew up poor. Also we saw Mrs. Wilson acting fake and taking on the role of a wealthy person when she really wasn't. In Fahrenheit 451 Guy realizes how fake the whole society is. They are taught not to have ideas and have personality. After talking to Clarisse and seeing her personality he sees how fake is life and people around him are. His wife Mildred just lives in her own little TV world and he realizes that their love and relationship is fake. When Mildred has her friends over Guy unplugs the TV and tries to make them have normal conversation. They are silent and there is lots of tension and awkwardness between them. This shows how things such as human relationships are even faked in the book, because they barely talk to each other.

Prompt 18

The title of the book I read is Fahrenheit 451. This is the name of the book because 451 is the amount of degrees needed to burn a book. The main character in the novel is a fireman and instead of putting out fires they cause fires. They burn books because in this time period it is against the law to read books. This becomes controversial because Guy starts to wonder why and question it. He finds that the reason is because books cause individuality and new ideas. Their society is supposed to have no disagreements or fights so they don't want people getting any ideas from books. Guy realizes that burning books is wrong and decided to try and save the books. This becomes the main plot of the novel. That is why the book is named Fahrenheit 451. If I had to chose a title I would probably keep it the same because this title is very interesting and creative. You have no idea the significance of it until you read the novel.

Prompt 3

Recently I've learned a lot about the characters in the book. I noticed a lot about Guy's wife Mildred. Her actions towards Guy show no love or emotions of a true relationship. She showed no sympathy for him when he was sick, doesn't support his interest of books, and almost exposed him in front of his boss. It almost seems like they are just a two people living together, and not actually husband and wife. Even more interesting is what I learn about Mildred and her friends when they hung out. Guy turned off the TV and forced them to actually have conversion. It made Mildred and her friends extremely uncomfortable and they didn't know how to react. This shows me the lack of normal human emotions and relationship skills of Mildred and it seems the majority of society. Guy's character is developing though. He sees the importance of books now, and seems to be pushing for a more meaningful and thought provoking society. He wants conversation, he wants disagreements, and he wants knowledge. This character development of Guy really reveals the flaws of others in the story and moves the plot along well.

Prompt 14

A key quote that I found in the novel is when Guy states, " When it was all over he feel like a man who had been thrown from a cliff, whirled in a centrifuge, and spat out over a waterfall that fell and fell into emptiness and emptiness and never - quite - touched - bottom - never - never - quite - no not quite - touched - bottom ... and you fell so fast you didn't touch the sides wither ... never... quite.. touched ... anything. "( pg 45) This quote talks a lot about falling and while falling never actually hitting or feeling anything. I think this description of Guy's feelings is a metaphor for the internal conflict he is facing throughout the novel so far. Guy feels this emptiness inside and feels like he is lacking happiness and emotion. He wants to feel and touch these things, but in the society that he is living in, these things aren't normal. He starts to realize what he is missing when he meets Clarisse and when he starts to feel bad for the people and books that are burned. He begins to have the urge to really feel and understand and not just do. This quote does a good job of explaining is feeling of emptiness inside.