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2 to Jennifer
2 to Enoch
1 to Ji hun
1 to Richard

Post6: Climax

* what is the climax of this novel? what happens? how do the events of this novel make you feel?

The climax of the novel is when Montag kills Captain Beatty. After Montag realized that Mildred, his wife, called in the alarm, he had to burn his own house down because of Beatty’s command. Captain Beatty also threatened him with mechanical hounds, which Montag hates because those were gazing and trying to hurt him at the fire house. When he was done, Beatty told him that he will be under arrest. It was also tense when Beatty found the green buggy radio in Montag’s ear. Montag turned his flamethrower on Beatty and burned him like all the books he burned in the past. This event of this novel made me feel so relived and happy, because the bad guy went down. Also, it was an astonishment of Montag because it wasn’t an easy courage to kill his enemy. He wasn’t a coward anymore and stepped into the starting point where he can actually change the society and the world. He can spread out the truth of the books and the message to the corrupted world.

If I were to put myself in Montag’s position, it would have been very difficult, because I know that whether I kill captain Beatty or not, I would be in BIG trouble. I don’t know what I would do in that moment but it was obvious that he would get help from Faber. Farenheit 451 was overally very fun, and it was very intereting.

Post5: Current Situation

* Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

With no doubts, majority of people know that some communist countries limit of what people read. For example, China and North Korea are against some religions, so they banned some of the religious books like the Bible. I’m not sure if they burn them, but there are some serious consequences if you posses it, like in Fahrenheit 451. Some people might face death or severe punishment. This can relate to Montag who actually hid the book and almost got into trouble. With these unreasonable actions of banning books and limiting people’s will, countries are most likely to fail and corrupt. Without knowledge and help from other resources, how can a community survive? How would they know what is right and what is wrong in their lives? If you see North Korea, it is a perfect example because, they are trying so hard to isolate themselves and have a bravado that they will succeed without any advocacy. However, as time goes by, their reputation and dignity is going down below. This is because they don’t know the real world outside. They don’t know what can help them and know what life is really about. If they have some resources like books, they would gain more knowledge and realize that their actions are just stupid and filled with hubris.I have another thing that can relate to the book that is currently happening in this world. It doesn’t have to be about burning books, but the cause is very important. The cause of burning books is not clarified in this book, but the environment itself is so dependent on technologies. Mechanical hounds, electric-eyed snake, TV shows and more. It reflects on our daily lives where we are relying on Internet, TV shows and videogames so much that we do not care about reading books. Some people consider books as boring papers or a resource that can help them get better grades.Both of these problems can be resolved by believing of what is right and acting upon them. Are people telling you that books are bunch trash? Tell them that those trashes are going to be recycled and be in front of you. The more you try to get rid of them, the more will come up and affect you greatly. Investing more time of reading would be worth more than playing video games for 5 hours… NOT!!

Post4: Mood

* what is the mood of this novel? do you find this novel saddens you in any way? why?

The mood of the novel was sharp, confused, bitter and full of tense. It was a constant unfortunate events. Like, 0Mildred almost killed herself with large amount of pills, lack of cares of women’s husbands in war, ignorance of their own children, voting presidents depending on their physical appearances, and much more. It showed how the world was so corrupted and out of order. I asked myself, is this reflecting our real lives? It seems horrible in the novel, but I realized I shouldn’t be that surprised. People kill themselves or give up their lives so easily because of small circumstances.

Many people abandon their own family and neglect their own children. People judge other people with their outlooks and are interested in others who are popular. They never see the inside and don’t even want to try. This novel is exactly telling us what is happening. In my opinion, this story is not based on the future, but the author is showing us the real images through this novel in this modern world. Is there a person who is willing to change the world like Montag? Is that person full-hearted to change the mood of the world that is so similar to the novel? I hope so… I wish this is something that only happens in out imagination. Is it impossible? Is it too late? Will the world’s mood be the same? Sharp, confused, bitter and full of tense?

Post3: Theme

* What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The major theme of this novel is the ignorance of knowledge, but focusing on their satisfaction of joy. For example, people these days think their entertainment and knowledge are from TV shows, movies, and other Medias. In Fahrenheit 451, the fireman's obligation is to destruct knowledge and truth, but spreading paradox and brain washing them by burning all the books. Because of all these, people are afraid and began to have negative thoughts towards novels and books.

Here is a quote from the book: “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book.” Like this quote, the character is giving a strong reason why books give out unpleasant affects on different people.

This theme is very important to teenagers in 2007, because teenagers are so into new TV shows, fashions, web page, Internet, video games and much more, than reading and gaining knowledge from other sources. Teenagers think that books are just bunch of papers together and lecturing about what life is or a waste of time. They should know that there is great information that can help them. They can get advises, when they are having a hard time going through their puberty. I wish this project can help other students who prefer Medias than reading and analyzing. They can see other people's opinions and compare to their own ideas.

Post2: Characters

* Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

The main characters in the novel are Guy Montag and Captain Beatty. Guy Montag is the protagonist in this book. I like this character because he stands up for his faith and what is right. He isn’t necessarily a hero, a sage or a doughty man, but because he is a fool, he keeps his opinions and rebels against the society. Montag is a fireman. However, the bizarre thing is that a fireman in this story is not a person who saves people from fire, but starts a fire to burn the books. Later on, Montag realizes that there is something wrong with his actions, and becomes desperate to find the truth and a meaningful way to live. Montag can be compared to other people who learn and want to know more about his life and the society.

Captain Beatty is an antagonist in this novel who is filled with contradictions. He is a book burner just like Montag. I don’t really like him because he tries so hard to convince Montag about the negative things about books. He believes that firemen bring pleasure to people by destructing the books. In page 59, he said, “…People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all you life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.” He is a narrow-minded person, who is so against reading and strictly follows the law. In page 38, “You know the law,” said Beatty. “Where’s your common sense? None of those books agree with each other.”

Post1: Passage

* please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“I didn’t know that! Montage laughed abruptly.

“Bet I know something else you don’t. There’s dew on the grass in the morning.”

He suddenly couldn’t remember if he had known this or nor, and it made him quite irritable.

“And if you look”-she nodded at the sky-“there’s a man in the moon.”

He hadn’t looked for a long time.

This passage was significant for me, because it reminds me to take a time and look the environment around me. I have missed many precious things that looked so simple, because I was so tightened up with my school works and others. Dew on the grass and a man in the moon seem nothing. However, if we become like Clarisse, we can see the beauty of the raindrops, the feelings of the breeze in the middle of the winter, or the sound of the leaves of the garden trees rustling in the spring breeze. Maybe we were too ignorant of the beauty around us. It is amazing that Clarisse can find aesthetics in the middle of confusion and corruption. This is very meaningful to me and gives me a lesson that I should always be positive and thoughtful of what I have around me, instead of under estimating the world with negative statements all the time. During my break, I will try becoming my Clarisse and take time to study the beauty of nature and the society I live in.

Entry 3: DK WITH SUPER ABILITIES

If I could be any Greek god or goddess I would like to be an Eros who has an ability of flying. In addition I would also like to have an ability of throwing lightning bolts like Zeus the god of all goddess. This two amazing abilities will allow me to fly and throw lightning bolts at the same time. The main reason of desiring these abilities are because I can punish people who are self centered, greedy and bad. If I can get this abilities for sure; the first person to get strike by my lighting bolts will be Kim jung il the North Korean Dictator. I hate his way of treating people and how he controls them. However there are several more reasons why I want these abilities. First of all, ability of flying is very convenient, because I can travel to a place really fast and safe. For example, one of my biggest hates of being a dorm student is that I need to travel riding KTX. My first time riding KTX was fantastic and hilarious but after I got use to its speed it was no more fun and interesting. Therefore, when I get off the KTX in Taejeon station, I need to ride Taxi; I had no problems with riding a Taxi but taxi drivers in Tae jeon Station always seemed to have a problem with me. If I have the ability of flying I will never have to worry about riding taxi and KTX.
For my physical look I will choose Ares the god of war. In the Korean comic book about Greek Myth, Ares had the most amazing looking and he was once a boyfriend (kind of) of Aphrodite.

no citation used

Entry 2: Greek Monster

I decide to choose a monster related to Hermes. I researched about Argus. He is a giant with a hundred eyes, who was also called Panoptes. Hera put him to guard Zeus, because Zeus was making an affair with other gods and humans. But Zeus sent Hermes to kill the giant. This is now the interesting part how Hermes killed Argus. As I have mentioned before Hermes is very clever. So he decides not to attack Argus directly because he knew that Argus can see him from every side. So Hermes started playing his instrument to put Argus in to a sleep. After Hermes putting Argus into a sleep he cuts the head of Argus and that was how Argus got killed. After Argus got killed Hera feels sympathy for him and makes him in to a peacock. Argus was a really strong monster that even Zeus couldn’t kill easily. However the smartness of Hermes has successfully killed Argus. Before his untimely end, Argus went into the fight business. He had already killed a very tough ravaging bull and Echidna, although he had to hit her when she wasn't looking.

no citation used

Entry 1:Greek God

I researched about Hermes, the messenger of all gods. I decide to research about him because he was one of my favorites and I like the way he became god. According to the legend, Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Zeus had impregnated Maia at the dead of night while all other gods slept. When dawn broke amazingly he was born. After Maia giving birth to Hermes she wrapped him and went to sleep, however, Hermes free himself and went to the place of Apollo. This was where Apollo herds living. Hermes stole a number of the herd and drove them back to Greece. When he was on his way he caught a tortoise and made the first lyre. When he was back in cave he wrapped himself back into the swaddling bands and pretended nothing happened. When Apollo realized he had been robbed he protested to Maia that it had been Hermes who had taken his cattle. Maia couldn’t believe what happened because Hermes was still wrapped. As the argument went on, Hermes began to play his lyre. The sweet music enchanted Apollo, and he offered Hermes to keep the cattle in exchange of Hermes’s lyre. So that was how lyre became one of Apollo’s symbols and this is another reason why I like Hermes so much. On his age of 1 he started playing lyre and that was really cool and amazing to me. Zeus has watched all of Hermes work and decided to make him god. He gave him flying shoes; hat and staff, which eventually became Hermes’s symbol.

The personalities and character traits of Hermes and Hercules is very different, because the personality of Hercules is opposite of Hermes. Hermes uses his smartness to solve problems and he was extra clever. In addition, he was also very creative. Hercules mainly used his strong power to solve problems and he wasn’t that smart at all. After watching the Hercules (Movie) I have concluded that Hercules is dumb. However there is one thing that they have in common, they are both son of ZEUS the god of all goddess.

citation:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

Comments Info

2 comments to Ji Hun Jun

2 comments to Andrew Nam

2 comments to Sun Hoo Kim

they were the only three to post up their entries.
(we read Animal Farm)

Post 6 My Choice

My thoughts...

The book was hilarious and motivating it was also very educational. I think this book was fun out of the other book I read. It was really interesting. Also it was easier to see what kind of system and wrong human society we had. It made me think about all of the history and documentary movies I saw in Geography class (Miss Simpson!!), which I am glad that I watched through it and not slept through. Anyways it helped me to understand more about why people doesn’t like communism and why people tries to end them. This gave me a good picture of learning. This book was also very easy to understand because I understood the history of Stalin the Soviet Dictator. But if I understand and learn more about the history, than I might understand the true meaning of the book and open my eyes to more truth. I also got interesting information from other readers that the author’s name is not George Orwell. He faked his name so he doesn’t get caught writing about communism, believe it or not. However this book was miraculous and it was very significant because I usually don’t finish the book. I think I picked the right book for this time. It was exciting how animals are shown as viscous humanistic characters.

Post 5 Meaningful Passage

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“The Seven Commandments

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

3. No animal shall wear clothes.

4. No animal shall sleep in bed.

5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

7. All animals are equal.” (p. 43)

The seven commandments from the Animal Farm was the most unbelievable and wordless passage. I was speechless. I was irritated by the foolish act of humans. In our modern civilization, there are crimes everywhere we go. Killing and murdering are some of the main ones. I think that humans should consider changing their iniquitous image to a righteous image. Humans are worse than animals! What the HECK!!! (SRY)
Dirty, unjust, crazy are some of the words that can represent humans. In the point of view of animals they will think that we are incredibly awful. After reading the first two commandments, I thought that animals must have had a bad influence from humans to have such rules. What could humans have done to be enemies of animals? Putting the food supply reason on the side, I thought about other reasons. The rest of the commandments told me everything. In the book, the farmer was drunk all the time when the animals saw him. Because he was drunk, Mr. Jones often forgot to feed his animals. Every time he got money from selling his farm products, he used it for his alcohol enjoyment. Because selling pigs was what Jones did for their living, the animals thought of him as a murderer, separating family members of animals. I thought that the last commandment was made because humans treated the animals unfairly. For example, I hypothesized that the pigs were fed more because Jones wanted to sell them for money.Because humans showed sinful images to animals, animals have been influenced by creating rules to prevent what humans have done to them from happening. Us, humans should work on being on the “good” list of animals. No more killing! No more alcohols!

Post 4 Mood

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? Why?

Animal Farm has several moods, in the beginning; the mood was revengeful, full of anger. The animals were trying to put an end to Mr. Jones, who was the owner of the Manor Farm. Mr. Jones was an alcoholic, who drank every night before he come to his farm, and always forget to feed his animals. He had no pity for his unfortunate animals. After the animals have revenged to Mr. Jones, for a moment, the mood was quiet, yet hard-working. The animals under the “smart” pigs seemed to work. They ate plenty of food and they seemed like they are enjoying their life, but shortly, their life was back to exhausting labor again. During the process of making the windmill, the animals were quite pressured with hard work they had to do. The animals had work after another with a goal to accomplish the windmill. They wanted to show it off to humans and obtain those electrical things the pigs promised (such as heating). Towards the end of the story, the mood was extremely sad. During the fight with Frederick and his followers, many animals were killed. Two geese, a cow, and three sheep were killed; many other animals were injured too. On the opposing to the sadness that the animals were going through, Squealer, one of the pig leaders, wanted to celebrate their victory. What was even more depressing was when Squealer sent Boxer, the loyal horse, to Horse Slaughter’s. The animals moaned for Boxer. It’s was unbelievable…

Post 3 Climax

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

I think the climax of Animal Farm is when Napoleon kicked Snowball out of the farm. During Snowball was giving his speech about why he should be the leader, Napolean chased Snowball with his vicious dogs. In his mind, Napolean was scared that most of the votes would go to Snowball. He wanted to win so that he could rule over the animals. He wanted to control the animal farm. I think this was the start of corrupted pig acting like humans. Napolean disobeyed sixth and seventh commandments. First, He nearly killed Snowball and treated him with no respect. Napolean is self-centered and wanted everything in his way. After this incidence everything got worse. The commandments have changed and it was based on the pigs. The pigs allowed themselves to drink alcohol, sleep on human beds, and eat more food than laboring animals. I felt terrible for the unfortunate animals in the farm. I pitied the corrupt pigs for not having anything else to do but make animals suffer. If I were Napolean, I would have tried to negotiate with Snowball and create a better environment for the animals. But I wouldn’t even try to become a leader of any society because I know that human’s greed is a very dangerous thing. If I have power to rule over the people (Animals) I might become like Napolean, and I would never want to become a nasty leader.

Post 2 Settings

* are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? or disturbing? or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

I will pick the Farm as the main and the most unforgettable setting. It’s because everything happened in this setting therefore it was actually the only location that story took place in. Starting from where the owner mistreated the animals, until where the animals were destructing themselves, happened in this small community. Napoleon came along and started to rule the farm and it was a start of a big change. Many innocent animals died because they were in opposition to the government or being true. Snowball, who stood up against the government, was banished. The completion of the windmill and the all the sufferings that animals had to go through happened in this small society of the farm. If we compare this society to the world now we are living in, I don’t think there is a big difference. Rebellions and revolution still happens. If we compare the world and the community from the animal farm, we are equal with animal. Whole world is not ruined by a communist country yet, but we are living in a prejudiced world. We are living in a dishonored world where the leaders, who are supposed to be reliable and accountable, are destructing the place where we are living in.

Post 1 Theme

What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2008?

I think the major theme in animal farm is that word has a power to control people. In animal farm animals were to follow whatever Napoleon has regulated, which are the 7 commandments. They are like humans following their own countries laws. When they violates the laws or the 7 commandments, the penalty were either you get kicked out or killed. Those nasty words in the commandments restricted the animals. Napoleon has adjusted what all animals should do and not do also what to love and what to hate. At the end of the story Napoleon and Squealer changed the commandments in secret. All the animals were puzzled but they just decided to follow the rules. Squealer and Napoleon changed the commandments so that the other animals will give more rights and respect to them. For example, the sixth commandment, "No animal shall kill any other animal" changed to "No animals shall kill any other animal without cause.” Because of the last two words to the original commandment, Boxer died. Napoleon used the commandments to kill Boxer.

This theme is extremely important to the teenagers living in 2008, because most of the teenagers use the language to show their power. Some teenagers use violent language to hurt people and rule over them. The older kids use cruel language to scare the little kids. Language can be warm and useful, but teenagers should realize how powerful a word is. They also need to know that a one word from one’s mouth can influence the people around them, and how awful and ugly it could get.