Monday, December 15, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Fahrenheit 451
As soon as the call comes they are on their way. City lights fly by, tires screech to a sudden stop, and men file out of the car to complete their commands under the eerie watchful eye of superiors. The stench of kerosene fills the air. The men come running with the equipment, and among them are the tools to complete their mission. Grasping the fire hose as a child holds dear to his toy, they are ready. The papers are drenched and the flames are ready as they go in for the kill. In burning books, there were those who believed that they were saving such small minded people from the dangers that some from the perplexity of books. As insane as it is, such a world exists for a man named Guy Montag in the fictional novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. This darker, communistic America shows us that controlling the knowledge of your people will not control your people, and in doing so, the opposite of what we would consider control could kick in; such actions would only lead us to obtain a state of ultimate intervening terror and a contagious crisis, spreading like wildfire -- impossible to impede.
The number 451 is worn on their clothes, their helmets and their gear. The number 451 is precisely the amount of degrees Fahrenheit which the firemen need to complete their job. The number 451 is the temperature at which books will burn -- a number so vital to the existence of the firemen. A new breed of firemen, ravenous with the hunger to burn, a species of firemen quite different than the one of those we are used to. The government is using the firemen as a hammer -- a mere tool. This hammer pounds it in to the brains of everyone, if you have books you will die, your books will die. The hammer will try to keep everyone straight -- on the right path -- but the hammer also burns. Burns the lives and dreams in books, the existence of books is a threat to us all. The government will tell you that they are protecting you "you don't face a problem, you burn it," (pg. 121) but really here, the government, this dictatorship is the problem; the government's only enemy is itself. For tell me what dangers come with the knowledge that books have to offer, the correct answer is none. Yes, some things are better left unsaid, but we cannot be afraid to face the problem at hand. The government has messed up and now the people pay for the government's insecurities. Controlling their knowledge affects the people only in a negative way, and people committing suicide and breaking out in war is not something to be considered as control. Even Montag, a fireman, a hammer, agreed "our civilization is flinging itself to pieces."(pg. 87) Where did the government take a serious turn for the worse? Communism, and if it works nowhere, why would it work in the country that stands for all that is free?
These acts of burning are really belittling people and their intelligence in general, for there are very few times when danger comes in books. The government wants them to know as little as possible; they want people to forget the war-torn world they live in and go sit and chat with "family" and stare at the walls of televisions that completely surrounding them – an overpowering, yet false reality – acting as an enclosure around them. The people are under the government’s complete shield, but it is only a shield of knowledge, shielding them from what they really need to know. The government cannot shield them from the results of this dictatorship, and all are affected by the raging wars and constant catastrophes that take place on a daily basis. If they ever did find the time to figure out what is right, it would still be too late to change what has already been done. So, instead of learning from things in the past, they continue to carry out the same actions, they continue to commit the same mistakes. The people will never know the truth, for it is burned with the books, and those who thought they knew the truth once, now never know what to believe. They would rather be consumed in their own world and pretend like they don’t notice the fire outside and the beady eyes that seem to be everywhere. Beatty owned a pair of those eyes; he was one that altered and disfigured the way to look at books. He spun a web of confusion around Montag as he had with anyone else who had the slightest idea of keeping a book, but Montag was too strong for him; the temptation was stronger, and Montag broke away from the firemen, the lies and destruction. But what had made Montag’s temptation this strong? He had been around books for years and years and it had never bothered him before. “What we resist persists,” quote Carl Jung, and what Montag has always been around is going to be the hardest to forget.
Clarisse was of the smallest chapters of Montag’s life. She was in and out in a hurry but left the biggest footprints in his heart, and she taught him the greatest lessons. She had initially sparked the idea in Montag’s head of breaking away from the burning of books, but she wasn’t the one who really got him to turn away from the firemen completely. One night on the job changed his whole life; the woman that died with her books. What was it that made those books so special that you would die with them? He was sick with that thought – the image – ever since a significant fire and a significant death that lead to a significant up rise, for Montag, against the firemen -- against the government. So whatever it was that was so special contained in those books, contents to die for, Montag was going to find out, and not even Beatty was going to stop him. Yet their world was so horrible, that during Beatty’s last moments of life, “Beatty had wanted to die.” (pg. 122) They both for what they wanted, but that didn’t stop the world from falling apart like they knew it would in the end. But the world didn’t have to die this way; it was a premature death.
At the end of the chaos, smoke and dust collide in the air leaving little room for you to rise from the safety of the ground. The taste is significant as it clings to you tighter than the particles thick in the air; not a foreign taste to you. The aroma feels of another storm yet to come, and this sensation brings you to another realization. Like the storm yet to come, this war is not over, for the age of the firemen have yet to die. They will die out one day, when the rest of the world comes down with it, or when the rest of the world is already gone. “People are often like torches, blazing until they whiff out,” (pg. 11); torches have a short lifespan, so we will too if a communism breaks out like this one in America. And if you were to attack the problem Montag’s way, he would say, “If we have to burn, let’s take a few more with us.” (pg. 122)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Memories
A cloud of
confusion 
scream out
but no one
can hear
you here
the sun
may not
be seen
dark grey
white and
black all
color
drawn
away
steps stay
steps and
no wind
to blow
away out alone with nothing but our memories the good and the bad with no one to make new memories and no wind to blow away the permanent.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Great Expectations Essay
Of all the ways to love, the characters in the book, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, distort and twist love until it becomes something else – almost unrecognizable. Although not all of the characters fail while trying to pursue love, most here have failed miserably, but when their faults have been identified, it was already too late. They could not ever make up for what they had done in the past, but one thing could relieve them from their suffering, if they only had known of this one term. Forgiveness, the one word that could have solved their problems, eased over the conflicts and could have had power to repair the past, but they knew not of such a thing. They all were sure they knew exactly what they were looking for, and all searched in different ways, but without forgiveness as a torch to lead your way and brighten your path through the darkest of nights, you are lost, and that pure love is impossible to find in the murky shadows that will cloud your way.
Forgiveness was apart of Joe’s everyday life, something he would never think twice about, because that was who he was. No one ever knew a kinder or gentler man, and innocence was written all over Joe as well. There was no one that Joe wouldn’t forgive, no matter the man’s wrong doings or reasoning. A criminal had eaten his family’s Christmas minced meat pie, but Joe was the farthest thing from upset, “We don’t know what you have done, but we wouldn’t want you starved for it… would us, Pip?” (Pg. 38) Purified by the fires of the forge, he knows how to separate good judgment from bad, divide the just from the unjust. Like a crucible works, separating the good gold from the scraps of metal and dirt that try to mix in. Joe stands for good Christian morals and a family love; Pip isn’t his own child, but he treats him like a son, the sweetest care and a most pure love. Pip doesn’t know forgiveness like Joe, even after living with him for 15 years he doesn’t know the meaning of forgiveness. If Joe, easily once, found room in his heart to forgive a criminal of his evils, then Pip should have no problems with coming back to Joe and asking for forgiveness for his stubbornness. Pip just doesn’t understand what forgiveness is. He could climb up to Joe’s door with just the clothes on his back, bottomed out broke and completely homeless and Joe would welcome him in warmly, but instead Pip chooses to suffer by himself, hoping the payments will all be made and hoping he will make it through the harsh winter, now alone, by the dying fire.
Herbert stayed with Pip as long as he could, but eventually he had to leave him. Building not only a sweet and charming love with Clara but he built a strong and steady brotherly love with Pip. Herbert was able to withstand Pip’s dreadful attitude; he stayed as the ultimate friend to Pip through thick and thin, keeping the gates on the bridge of their friendship open and the beams secure. Pip overlooked this bridge. He never found its full meaning, for he was too focused on what lay below the bridge where Miss Havisham and Estella were summoning him down. This image was what Pip was always edging towards, the one below the bridge, and always overlooked the opened gates leading to the bridge itself.
The path that led to Estella was a long jagged cliff downward, but Pip couldn’t see any of those aspects in his journey to her. He only saw the bright shining light that was beckoning him down, like a moth is attracted to a candle. The moth will always fly to the candle, for it wants the fire. Though the moth knows that the candle can do no good to him, he flies on anyway and the results are always the same, a burnt moth like the burnt heart. None of this is done by accident. It is sick to think that someone would purposely play with so many people’s hearts, and without the gratification of Miss Havisham, Estella would not be the woman she is today, and without Estella, many more men’s hearts would not be shattered and their positions in such disarray. Miss Havisham had Estella to get back at men, so Estella was just her shining star that was supposed to solve all her problems, all her angers, mend all her heartbreaks, but the whole plan led to more disappointment and broken hearts because Miss Havisham is lingering in the past. She knows not the phrase, “forgive and forget”, and she is still waiting for the one who broke her heart to come back and beg for her forgiveness, but the reality is, that after all this time, that will never ever happen. Staying hidden from the sun and the truth of this reality will not help her in any way, but she hides just the same and waits each day in a hope for the man to come, and still refuses to move on. Her dry wedding cake will stay dry and rotting, her deteriorating yellow wedding dress will stay yellow and deteriorating, and her negative approach will stay negative and possibly worsen, but all this waiting will amount to nothing; she’s stuck in these ruts forever until she changes or until she dies. Years and years have gone by wasted, and now in the blink of an eye, her life is close to ending, but she cannot forgive an age-old mistake and a scheming young man. With Estella’s actions from Old Havisham’s teachings all she will end up with is more broken hearts, formed the same way her was made. Learn from Havisham’s mistakes; if we are not especially careful, we can become the thing we utmost despise. Miss Havisham is the ideal example. “Sharper teeth than the teeth of mice have gnawed at me.” (Pg. 87) But by doing what she has done, she has just created a whole other set of teeth that have gnawed at the hearts of many, many men. Her actions here have not only ruined her life, but have soiled the lives of others – especially Estella.
Estella is a victim in Miss Havisham’s dying little hands, and was raised in such an unloving circumstance. Whatever anyone grows up around is what they are going to be when they are older, so now that Estella has walked this cruel path for so long, she knows no other way. If all one can do is break hearts, relations with people in general can never be good. Estella had no friends, she had no love, she had no life; she had Miss Havisham, but Miss Havisham was all she had. Havisham always worked through Estella. Estella had no choices in her life; she was barely her own person. “You should know I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame, take all the success, take all the failure; in short take me.” (Pg. 305) Estella by now had thrown her life away because of the mistakes of another. If Miss Havisham could have learned how to forgive earlier than she had, this all could be avoided. The conflict that she had forgiven was much less complex than the one on her wedding day, but she learned her lesson far too late. At least she wasn’t ridiculously oblivious to the fact that forgiveness existed like Pip, though. Pip was never able to forgive himself. He is his own enemy because of his past mistakes and his insecurities. Forgiveness is truly the hardest concept of all for Pip, and he knows, “my life has been a blind and thankless one.”
Blind is correct – ever so blind to the obvious in front of him. Pip’s whole life he had Biddy there with him, but he chose to chase after the money, the beauty, the heartbreak. Beauty, money and power only shadow an ugly soul for so long, but Estella had a crippling hold on his heart, and Pip never wanted to escape it. Biddy on the other hand was the opposite of Estella. She had not the money, the power or the infinite beauty that Estella possessed, but she had a beautiful soul that could always show through her rougher exterior. Pip knows Biddy is a better woman and that Estella should be nothing to him, but he is convinced that no matter how hard he tries he will never be able to leave Estella out of his life. There is no persuading the “love”-struck, for they will not follow your guidance. Pip believes he is in love, yet he should know that he doesn’t know what love feels like, for he hasn’t gotten a taste of it all. His whole life, he has only liked one person. He even once confessed that he should love Biddy, and years later when he finally makes the decision to settle for Biddy, it is too late. Now the only two women in his life are married, and Pip is lost and has lost all meaning to his life, alone in a cold reality of realization. Nothing was ever his and he will never belong to anyone. At such a low point one thinks, “What is there left to live for?”
Apart from Joe and Biddy, and Herbert and Clara, the characters in this book had really made life hard for themselves. Miss Havisham has wrecked many people’s lives through a beautiful girl with the highest of expectations. Those expectations are now crashed with her own broken heart, after breaking so many others. Pip had Biddy all along, but he kept her waiting and waiting. She could have belonged to him, but he stayed blind to the evident love waiting for him, until many years later when the opportunities had passed and she was gone. It took him many, many years to see it – many, many years too late. Love is the foundation of life, something we long for and search for, grieve for and pray for, but love doesn’t come without forgiveness. When we cannot forgive another – or even ourselves – we can find ourselves lost in love’s maze, and in searching if one does not come upon the end soon enough, it may be too late. A true love will only come our way once in our lifetime, so make sure the disability to not forgive isn’t getting in the way of you and such dreams of a love to be fulfilled.
Forgiveness was apart of Joe’s everyday life, something he would never think twice about, because that was who he was. No one ever knew a kinder or gentler man, and innocence was written all over Joe as well. There was no one that Joe wouldn’t forgive, no matter the man’s wrong doings or reasoning. A criminal had eaten his family’s Christmas minced meat pie, but Joe was the farthest thing from upset, “We don’t know what you have done, but we wouldn’t want you starved for it… would us, Pip?” (Pg. 38) Purified by the fires of the forge, he knows how to separate good judgment from bad, divide the just from the unjust. Like a crucible works, separating the good gold from the scraps of metal and dirt that try to mix in. Joe stands for good Christian morals and a family love; Pip isn’t his own child, but he treats him like a son, the sweetest care and a most pure love. Pip doesn’t know forgiveness like Joe, even after living with him for 15 years he doesn’t know the meaning of forgiveness. If Joe, easily once, found room in his heart to forgive a criminal of his evils, then Pip should have no problems with coming back to Joe and asking for forgiveness for his stubbornness. Pip just doesn’t understand what forgiveness is. He could climb up to Joe’s door with just the clothes on his back, bottomed out broke and completely homeless and Joe would welcome him in warmly, but instead Pip chooses to suffer by himself, hoping the payments will all be made and hoping he will make it through the harsh winter, now alone, by the dying fire.
Herbert stayed with Pip as long as he could, but eventually he had to leave him. Building not only a sweet and charming love with Clara but he built a strong and steady brotherly love with Pip. Herbert was able to withstand Pip’s dreadful attitude; he stayed as the ultimate friend to Pip through thick and thin, keeping the gates on the bridge of their friendship open and the beams secure. Pip overlooked this bridge. He never found its full meaning, for he was too focused on what lay below the bridge where Miss Havisham and Estella were summoning him down. This image was what Pip was always edging towards, the one below the bridge, and always overlooked the opened gates leading to the bridge itself.
The path that led to Estella was a long jagged cliff downward, but Pip couldn’t see any of those aspects in his journey to her. He only saw the bright shining light that was beckoning him down, like a moth is attracted to a candle. The moth will always fly to the candle, for it wants the fire. Though the moth knows that the candle can do no good to him, he flies on anyway and the results are always the same, a burnt moth like the burnt heart. None of this is done by accident. It is sick to think that someone would purposely play with so many people’s hearts, and without the gratification of Miss Havisham, Estella would not be the woman she is today, and without Estella, many more men’s hearts would not be shattered and their positions in such disarray. Miss Havisham had Estella to get back at men, so Estella was just her shining star that was supposed to solve all her problems, all her angers, mend all her heartbreaks, but the whole plan led to more disappointment and broken hearts because Miss Havisham is lingering in the past. She knows not the phrase, “forgive and forget”, and she is still waiting for the one who broke her heart to come back and beg for her forgiveness, but the reality is, that after all this time, that will never ever happen. Staying hidden from the sun and the truth of this reality will not help her in any way, but she hides just the same and waits each day in a hope for the man to come, and still refuses to move on. Her dry wedding cake will stay dry and rotting, her deteriorating yellow wedding dress will stay yellow and deteriorating, and her negative approach will stay negative and possibly worsen, but all this waiting will amount to nothing; she’s stuck in these ruts forever until she changes or until she dies. Years and years have gone by wasted, and now in the blink of an eye, her life is close to ending, but she cannot forgive an age-old mistake and a scheming young man. With Estella’s actions from Old Havisham’s teachings all she will end up with is more broken hearts, formed the same way her was made. Learn from Havisham’s mistakes; if we are not especially careful, we can become the thing we utmost despise. Miss Havisham is the ideal example. “Sharper teeth than the teeth of mice have gnawed at me.” (Pg. 87) But by doing what she has done, she has just created a whole other set of teeth that have gnawed at the hearts of many, many men. Her actions here have not only ruined her life, but have soiled the lives of others – especially Estella.
Estella is a victim in Miss Havisham’s dying little hands, and was raised in such an unloving circumstance. Whatever anyone grows up around is what they are going to be when they are older, so now that Estella has walked this cruel path for so long, she knows no other way. If all one can do is break hearts, relations with people in general can never be good. Estella had no friends, she had no love, she had no life; she had Miss Havisham, but Miss Havisham was all she had. Havisham always worked through Estella. Estella had no choices in her life; she was barely her own person. “You should know I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame, take all the success, take all the failure; in short take me.” (Pg. 305) Estella by now had thrown her life away because of the mistakes of another. If Miss Havisham could have learned how to forgive earlier than she had, this all could be avoided. The conflict that she had forgiven was much less complex than the one on her wedding day, but she learned her lesson far too late. At least she wasn’t ridiculously oblivious to the fact that forgiveness existed like Pip, though. Pip was never able to forgive himself. He is his own enemy because of his past mistakes and his insecurities. Forgiveness is truly the hardest concept of all for Pip, and he knows, “my life has been a blind and thankless one.”
Blind is correct – ever so blind to the obvious in front of him. Pip’s whole life he had Biddy there with him, but he chose to chase after the money, the beauty, the heartbreak. Beauty, money and power only shadow an ugly soul for so long, but Estella had a crippling hold on his heart, and Pip never wanted to escape it. Biddy on the other hand was the opposite of Estella. She had not the money, the power or the infinite beauty that Estella possessed, but she had a beautiful soul that could always show through her rougher exterior. Pip knows Biddy is a better woman and that Estella should be nothing to him, but he is convinced that no matter how hard he tries he will never be able to leave Estella out of his life. There is no persuading the “love”-struck, for they will not follow your guidance. Pip believes he is in love, yet he should know that he doesn’t know what love feels like, for he hasn’t gotten a taste of it all. His whole life, he has only liked one person. He even once confessed that he should love Biddy, and years later when he finally makes the decision to settle for Biddy, it is too late. Now the only two women in his life are married, and Pip is lost and has lost all meaning to his life, alone in a cold reality of realization. Nothing was ever his and he will never belong to anyone. At such a low point one thinks, “What is there left to live for?”
Apart from Joe and Biddy, and Herbert and Clara, the characters in this book had really made life hard for themselves. Miss Havisham has wrecked many people’s lives through a beautiful girl with the highest of expectations. Those expectations are now crashed with her own broken heart, after breaking so many others. Pip had Biddy all along, but he kept her waiting and waiting. She could have belonged to him, but he stayed blind to the evident love waiting for him, until many years later when the opportunities had passed and she was gone. It took him many, many years to see it – many, many years too late. Love is the foundation of life, something we long for and search for, grieve for and pray for, but love doesn’t come without forgiveness. When we cannot forgive another – or even ourselves – we can find ourselves lost in love’s maze, and in searching if one does not come upon the end soon enough, it may be too late. A true love will only come our way once in our lifetime, so make sure the disability to not forgive isn’t getting in the way of you and such dreams of a love to be fulfilled.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Patriot's Pen Contest Essay
From the front line of war on land to refueling planes in the sky, from the submarines that soar below the water and the battleships atop the blue seas, veterans of all classes, all backgrounds and all ethnicities should be honored for serving our country. Decisions they have made not only changed their lives forever, but our lives forever, as well. Risks that were taken in battles and combats have made all of the difference in our lives today, some helped in ways we may never know. America’s safety would be all lost without their protection, the time that they offered should not be taken for granted.
Veterans have offered their time, and were committed to something all other Americans had chosen to stray away from. As Dick Cheney, our present vice president, once said, “It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.” All Veterans insure such liberties by protecting our free nation from outside forces. We can say we honor our country and care for all who reside in it, but all veterans do not seek the need to say so, because their actions speak louder than any words that could possibly be attempted. The works that veterans have done speak for their love for America and the noble stance they have toward their homeland. Honorable are all beyond what an award can grant. Their patriotism “is not short outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” (Adlai Stevenson).
Steady dedication was given and their dedication to their country still stands today. If you stop to take a moment while you are with a veteran, you can feel the pride and joy they feel for their country ringing within them, something hard to suppress or contain. “This nation will remain the home of the free, as long as it is the home of the brave.” Brave are the veterans, honorable are the veterans, gracious are the veterans, and free they have made us.
Veterans have offered their time, and were committed to something all other Americans had chosen to stray away from. As Dick Cheney, our present vice president, once said, “It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.” All Veterans insure such liberties by protecting our free nation from outside forces. We can say we honor our country and care for all who reside in it, but all veterans do not seek the need to say so, because their actions speak louder than any words that could possibly be attempted. The works that veterans have done speak for their love for America and the noble stance they have toward their homeland. Honorable are all beyond what an award can grant. Their patriotism “is not short outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” (Adlai Stevenson).
Steady dedication was given and their dedication to their country still stands today. If you stop to take a moment while you are with a veteran, you can feel the pride and joy they feel for their country ringing within them, something hard to suppress or contain. “This nation will remain the home of the free, as long as it is the home of the brave.” Brave are the veterans, honorable are the veterans, gracious are the veterans, and free they have made us.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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