A major symbol of the story was hands. Hands represented both good and evil. The evil aspect was when the hands were used to burn the books. The books were the only representation of free thinking that still existed. And by burning them, individual ideas also burned out. The good aspect of the hands is that they also created things. At one point in the story, one of the men talks about his father being a sculpture and creating beatiful things and using his hands to the best of his ability. Hands also fall in the middle when it comes to killing and reading. The firemen sometimes ended up killing innocent people who were different in the society but at the same time, hands saved Montage when he killed Beatty. In this society, it is also bad to read or even pick up a book, but reading saved Montage life by making him realize the wrongs of the world he lives in. In the end, hands appear to have a mind/character of their own and end up being an extension of the owner-- feeding off the mind.I personally did not like the novel. I felt Montage's character was more of a coward and not a hero and that bothered me. Instead of Montage following his own thoughts, he listened to what others told him to do. And when their advice turned him into a criminal, he just ran away. He never once stood up for what he believed in. If Montage had been more of a leader then a follower, maybe I would have liked the novel better. The only good thing that came out of him being a coward was that he became more self aware. However this still did not persuade my opinion of the book.
I found this clip off youtube and it is a music video showing scene from the movie version of this book. I found it interesting that the way the movie portrayed the novel has a totally different perspective of what everything looked like from my own perspective. I pictured it more of a town that was always really in darkness and everything was super hightech or super fast. The house in the clip was very like todays modern houses and the firetruck did not impress me in any way shape or form. The only thing that matched with how I actually pictured it, is the scene where the firemen went inside the house to burn the books in it. The inside is the same way I pictured along with the way the events occured. If you listen to the lyrics, you'll see that they go along with the symbol of hands as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zilil5W7xxU
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2 comments:
I disagree about Montag being a coward, i mean i think its easy to see think that after reading anthem or even the handmaids tale. But Montag throughout his entire life never knew what thinking for himself was so think about a thirty year old going against everything he ever knew, i think thats pretty heroic.
Wow. That music video really reinforced my thoughts on the novel. I know there was relatively little obvious emotion present in 451 other than from Montag, but to see the expressionless and emotionless faces really backed up my thoughts on the novel. The only two people who showed emotion in the video was the woman burning and Montag. The woman had something to believe in and express emotion about; so much she was willing to die on behalf of that something. Montag's expressions were filled with confusion. He was attemting to understand how the woman could die for books, and everything books represent. I thought the video really coincided with the novel well (it was a great find). I also agree with the preconceived notions of how many of us thought of the city while reading the novel. I didnt expect the firetruck to look less modern than ones we have in real life. I also thought the quality of the video was taken down a notch on purpose to show the dullness and emotionless city in the perfect way.
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