Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 to make a strong impact on his/our society. His point was to reflect an image of how our society works and how it could become. The society of Fahrenheit 451 was, in my opinion, rather superficial, materialistic, "blind" and dependant on the media and technology. When people read Fahrenheit 451 they most likely think of Montag's society as a fictitious place but don't realize that our society is on it's way there.
In the book, people were very superficial. A great example for this is this quote from page 97, "...Fat too, and didn't dress to hide it. No wonder the landslide was for Winston Noble. Even their names helped". This quote is from a conversation Mildred had with her friends, they were, supposedly, talking about politics. Their opinions only revolved around the winning president's good looks and the bad looks of his competitor. It supports my claim because it clearly shows that their society didn't care about intellect, they cared about looks.
Montag's society was materialistic without a doubt. People bought things, people owned things- that was their whole life. There was poor education and no books allowed, all this people had were hi-tech objects and lots of entertainment. "How long you figure before we get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? Its only two thousand dollars", this quote from page 20 supports my claim because its about Mildred wanting another TV parlor even though she had three already. It proves that their society was pretty materialistic.
When i speak of Montag's society as "blind", i mean that the people thought no further than what they were told. They were so unaware of the world around them that they had no idea about the war that would later on kill them or about the conditions of other countries: "Is it because we're having so much fun that we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are?" (pg. 73). Montag told this to his wife asking her why people never question the helicopters hovering above the city at all times. It states that the nation in the story was kind of separated from the world, like they created a separate happy little world for their people and the people were so comfortable there, that they forgot there was an actual world around them, they became blind to anything unrelated to their shallow lives.
In conclusion, Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 to show us how the world could become one day, he wanted to raise awareness and let everyone see how far we've come. He did this by creating a superficial, materialistic and ignorant society.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What book are you?
If i lived in the society of Fahrenheit 451 and decided to join "the book people" i would choose to become the book "The vampire Lestat" by Anne Rice. This book is the second of "The vampire chronicles". I would choose this book, first of all, because it's my favorite book so far. The reason why i like it so much is because it as a little bit of everything, it has suspense, tragedy, mystery, romance, terror and even a little bit of comedy. I also love how Anne Rice writes, the lines are beautiful and very descriptive, it's like reading poetry. The plot is very interesting and has lots of exciting moments. There are unexpected events that leave the reader mouth-opened. And lastly, I fell in love with the characters.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...Time may change me
Over my two month vacation i read Fahrenheit 451 as an assignment, but there was a short passage in the book that changed my perspective about life. In the passage, Granger; one of the characters, told the protagonist (Guy Montag) that we all must leave something behind in our lifetimes because when we're not in this world we will be remembered in the things we made. "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said... and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there" (pg 156).
This inspired me to always do my best because now i know that even if our time on earth is short, our essence will remain in the things we created.
This inspired me to always do my best because now i know that even if our time on earth is short, our essence will remain in the things we created.
Extra Credit: song by David Bowie, title "Changes"
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Persuasion: Michelle Obama
Subject- The democratic National Convention and Obama's Campaign
Occasion- Democratic National Convention 2008. Denver CO, August 25th
Audience- Democrats, citizens of the U.S
Purpose- Persuade people to vote for Obama , to gain people's trust and to motivate democrats.
Style-Formal
Tone- Hopeful, Inspiring and Joyful
Speaker- Barack Obama's wife, also a democrat
Michelle Obama uses the following rhetorical devices: repetition, great diction and parallelism
For example she mentions the American dream a lot and talks about her children, she also repeats how her parents raised her and her brother.
The speaker did an excellent job because she had a great body language and eye contact. Her volume and pace were very good and lastly, she knew how to mange her tone. An example of this is that she sounded sad when speaking about her father and she sounded hopeful and confident when she raised her voice to state that her husband would make a great president, and the crowd would go insane.
In this speech, Michelle Obama appeals mostly to ethos. she also appeals to pathos but not as much. And i didn't really notice an appeal to logos. She appealed to ethos when saying that Barack would make a great president because he believes that every single person is capable of great success no matter their background. And she appealed to pathos when talking about her father, brother and daughters.
I believe that this speech was in fact effective because the speaker did a great job delivering the speech and because it turned out to be very persuasive thanks to the constant appeal made to ethos. The response of the audience shows how effective this speech was.
Occasion- Democratic National Convention 2008. Denver CO, August 25th
Audience- Democrats, citizens of the U.S
Purpose- Persuade people to vote for Obama , to gain people's trust and to motivate democrats.
Style-Formal
Tone- Hopeful, Inspiring and Joyful
Speaker- Barack Obama's wife, also a democrat
Michelle Obama uses the following rhetorical devices: repetition, great diction and parallelism
For example she mentions the American dream a lot and talks about her children, she also repeats how her parents raised her and her brother.
The speaker did an excellent job because she had a great body language and eye contact. Her volume and pace were very good and lastly, she knew how to mange her tone. An example of this is that she sounded sad when speaking about her father and she sounded hopeful and confident when she raised her voice to state that her husband would make a great president, and the crowd would go insane.
In this speech, Michelle Obama appeals mostly to ethos. she also appeals to pathos but not as much. And i didn't really notice an appeal to logos. She appealed to ethos when saying that Barack would make a great president because he believes that every single person is capable of great success no matter their background. And she appealed to pathos when talking about her father, brother and daughters.
I believe that this speech was in fact effective because the speaker did a great job delivering the speech and because it turned out to be very persuasive thanks to the constant appeal made to ethos. The response of the audience shows how effective this speech was.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Speaking Like
Mary Fisher- "A whisper of AIDS"
1) The pace is slow and stays like that throughout the speech. The speaker makes a few long pauses that do make people think and they usually come after the speaker says something that appeals to emotion. Its is somewhat boring since it's pace is always slow.
2) This speech is quite easy to hear and understand. Mary Fisher speaks very clearly and at an appropriate volume, and she also marks her punctuation very well. The volume however, doesn't change which makes it boring. She uses a very strong and convincing diction that appeals mostly to pathos, some examples are: rejection, prejudice, danger, ignorance, courage and shame.
3) The speaker sounds serious and formal but at times she does change her tone to sadness when she appeals to pathos. She also uses the following tones: hopeful, determined, encouraging, strong and loving/caring.
Lyndon Baines Johnson- "The great society"
1) The pace of this speech is quite slow but it also changes, sometimes it's faster and other times all the more slow. The speaker makes long pauses very frequently and they're not always to make people think so it is sometimes annoying.
2) The volume changes, it is slow when saying something sad and louder when the tone is demanding. The words are pronounced clearly and so is the punctuation. I think that the diction being used is mostly used to give a sense of hope.
3) The tone changes throughout the speech. Some of the emotions that Lyndon Baines uses are: sadness, hope, demanding, determined and a bit upset at times.
I think that in order to make a speech appealing and effective, the speaker should speak clearly and with an appropriate volume. The diction should be chosen carefully according to the purpose and the audience. To make it interesting there should also be a change in pace, tone and volume. Body language and eye contact are also very important.
1) The pace is slow and stays like that throughout the speech. The speaker makes a few long pauses that do make people think and they usually come after the speaker says something that appeals to emotion. Its is somewhat boring since it's pace is always slow.
2) This speech is quite easy to hear and understand. Mary Fisher speaks very clearly and at an appropriate volume, and she also marks her punctuation very well. The volume however, doesn't change which makes it boring. She uses a very strong and convincing diction that appeals mostly to pathos, some examples are: rejection, prejudice, danger, ignorance, courage and shame.
3) The speaker sounds serious and formal but at times she does change her tone to sadness when she appeals to pathos. She also uses the following tones: hopeful, determined, encouraging, strong and loving/caring.
Lyndon Baines Johnson- "The great society"
1) The pace of this speech is quite slow but it also changes, sometimes it's faster and other times all the more slow. The speaker makes long pauses very frequently and they're not always to make people think so it is sometimes annoying.
2) The volume changes, it is slow when saying something sad and louder when the tone is demanding. The words are pronounced clearly and so is the punctuation. I think that the diction being used is mostly used to give a sense of hope.
3) The tone changes throughout the speech. Some of the emotions that Lyndon Baines uses are: sadness, hope, demanding, determined and a bit upset at times.
I think that in order to make a speech appealing and effective, the speaker should speak clearly and with an appropriate volume. The diction should be chosen carefully according to the purpose and the audience. To make it interesting there should also be a change in pace, tone and volume. Body language and eye contact are also very important.
Friday, August 8, 2008
What is propaganda?
In my opinion, Propaganda is advertisement that isn't always truthful.
One example of propaganda could be a festival to promote a radio station. I consider this an example of propaganda because it appeals to the audience by giving away free stuff, lying or exaggerating the truth and distracting them to convince them of something, in this case to convince them that they should listen to that radio station.
An example of Persuasion could be a speech about fast food at a school. This is not propaganda because it uses facts, credibility and emotional appeal while propaganda uses manipulation and maybe even lies.
One example of propaganda could be a festival to promote a radio station. I consider this an example of propaganda because it appeals to the audience by giving away free stuff, lying or exaggerating the truth and distracting them to convince them of something, in this case to convince them that they should listen to that radio station.
An example of Persuasion could be a speech about fast food at a school. This is not propaganda because it uses facts, credibility and emotional appeal while propaganda uses manipulation and maybe even lies.
Equality
Well i think that equality means having equal rights, as in being equal before the law so that there is no discrimination and that some people don't have special privileges. Some people might think that equality means everyone being equal to each other, i think this is completely wrong because we're all different and unique, that doesn't mean that some are better or worst than others and therefore we should be treated with the same respect. I came up with this definition by reading the story : "Harrison Bergeron".
Equality has a big value in society because society is build up by humans and no human wants to be treated differently than others for reasons like : race, gender, sexual orientation, economic class, etc.
I think that true equality is achievable because we're coming closer to it day by day. Now in our country women have the same rights as men, African-Americans have the same rights as white people and Latinos and Asians have rights also. We have taken big steps towards equality, and now more than ever we're not so far away from that concept.
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