Fahrenheit 451

Today I've been reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I read this book once back in high school, but don't remember much of it, so it's fun to read again. I often do this, read books again and again. As an English teacher, I find myself constantly telling my students that they need to read, re-read, and re-re-read a book to find more meaning in it. That's what I do. I quite often find new and interesting things in a book that I've read at least two or three other times.

Anyway, this book always makes me think about things in our world. Since I was a youngster, 9 or 10, I haven't been able to just blindly do something without question. I guess I sort of did when I was in the Marines, but I was thankfully never asked to do something that would require the kind of thought I'm talking about. The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, is a fireman who has the thoroughly horrid job of burning banned books. He just does his job without ever questioning the right or wrong of it and without catching the irony of his job title and description. He doesn't believe the young girl next door who tells him that, at one time in history, firemen actually would put out fires. He just does his job without complaint and never questions why his wife tries to kill herself on multiple occasions. The society he lives in is so adept at technology that they can save her from an overdose of sleeping pills in 30 minutes and it only costs $50. I believe that there are too many Guy Montags in our society. People who just do their job without ever questioning the right or wrong of it. Too many young people are told to know their place and never question authority. How many times was I told this very thing? Too many to count. I just found it impossible to not utter that inevitable question of "why?". As a teacher, I tell my students to question authority, even mine. I like it when a student has the guts to question me about something he/she deems as being unfair. This is not to say that I encourage my students to argue with me, but to intelligently question. That is what I want from you, dear readers. Question, question, question. Don't just take the "because I said so" approach. Figure out why it is that way and see if you agree. If you don't, take steps to change it. You never know what could come of it. Laters.