Question 1

1) 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 about a world without adults. The isolated island with no adults but only young boys had to be ruled by the boys themselves. The boys, having not enough experience and not knowing a lot about laws and cooperation, struggled in the world that has no rules to organize them. The place they were living was a mess, and they ended up killing each other to survive. The book contains the story of people dividing into several groups because there is no law to make them unify. People have different values and opinions so they sometimes fight over things they think is true. However they need to try to cooperate to live in same community although they have different perspectives. If they cannot help suppressing it, there is a law that prevent them fighting, or there are some position such as adults, wise people who help the people who have trouble with others. The world without adults in this story is the same case. Ralph wanted to unify the group of boys by holding an assembly with his conch, he knew how to make them cooperate, and had them tell their opinions to maintain their community peaceful and prevented them from being dangerous. However, I think, his effort didn’t work well because they didn’t have basic law in their community and because they didn’t have it, Jack came out to rule the group by himself. I thought the world without rule was very dangerous and without law, we get ourselves into troubles. So if there is a community, there should be the law that maintains the place peaceful and safe. This is what the book tells about to us in 2007. I knew law was important, but I didn’t think that it would be so crucial in communities and it is what people, especially us, need to understand, because it will be us that will create out community to a better place.

Question 2

2) Are there any current situation 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 situation could be resolved or “fixed”?

The current situation I want to talk about is one of the problem is about teenagers. These days, the teenagers are one problem because of their inadequate behavior, opposite from the teenagers in old days. It is common because the social atmosphere changed a lot and the development of computer and television made the teenagers exposed to violence with violent television programs and movies. They also are exposed to it with violent computer games that they are easily hooked on. Also there are a lot of parents who both go to work during the day, and they do not have many chance to look after their sons and daughters. They do not even know what way their children are going to. They do not expect them to get crooked and spend time with dangerous friends because while they are in work, the teenagers might not be where they should be, and when the parents are present, they pretend they are working hard on their studies or things that appropriate teenagers do. So there are a lot of juvenile delinquencies happening around us, mere of severe.
I think this problem relates to the story I read very much because the increasing of juvenile delinquency is because there are not much guardians that look after their children and teach them in what way they should behave and act. There is not many parents that that realize that the way of their children spending time is wrong, and they don’t correct them. It is a same thing happening to the boys in the book that there was no adult to control them. Teenagers these days, even if there are some laws they are disobeying, need adults as guardians to teach them how to behave.

Question 3

3) 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?

Ralph- Ralph is a leader of the abandoned boys in the island. He is courageous. He knows how to make their community ruled well. He organizes well for the ruling of his group. He knows that they need some rules to makes them stay in the community and to stay safely in the island. He though uses Piggy’s wisdom for ruling. He cares about the group, and knows that he is responsible for them. He wants peace in the group without violence. He reveals the ruling in peace and in form of democracy.

Piggy- Piggy is innocent and timid. However he sometimes is very brave. At first, I thought he was nothing but an ordinary boy, but he knows a lot. He is the wisest and one of the most important person in the tribe. He shows respect to Ralph, and he also cares for the tribe like Ralph with some ways, using his knowledge. He reveals the need of knowledge and wisdom for ruling.

Simon- Simon is my favorite character because he seemed kind to me. He helps Ralph and Piggy with ruling their tribe. Simon can predict and assume things that might happen well, and he is also very clever like Piggy, too. Also, he has courage to find out what the so-called beast is at top of the mountain and spy on the others.

Jack- He is the most hated character to me. He is very selfish, full of pride, very violent, cold-hearted, greedy, hatred and very restless. He hates to be ruled, and he neglects people under him. He is a kind of s ruler of military system and an autocrat person.

Question 4

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

I think the climax of this novel is when Jack and his tribe killed Simon. Simon was at Jack’s tribe after Simon got caught when he was spying on Jack’s tribe. In front of Ralph and Piggy, he was beaten up to death by the tribe. After Simon’s death, Ralph and Piggy, got nervous and began to beware of them more because they knew Jack and his tribe would kill them too, because they were obstacle to the tribe. They get more scared of Jack and ascertain their violence. It was an event that everything could not be back as before since Simon was dead. Not only that, they had commited their first crime. I felt sorry for Simon for being murdered, and for the tribe boys that they had to do it to survive. The event made me think that Jack would kill every one of them and it was scary, even to me although I wasn’t in the story, to think about Ralph and Piggy being in greater danger when they found out how the tribe was more like savages when they killed Simon. It would have been far scarier if it was really happening to me. And it would be terrifying to see a friend being murdered. If I think about this, I wonder why Ralph and Piggy didn’t try to save Simon. I know they would be dead if they helped, but I feel a little sad that Simon couldn’t get a chance not to be murdered.

Question 5

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

The mood of this novel is dark, strain and tension for we do not know what would happen next and who will be murdered in any way. And it is more severely felt because there is no adult and there are only a number of boys who you don’t know when they will become more violent. If I think of this story, I see the color dark green, shaded and dull. I thought about color green because it is an island full of trees and leaves, but there is some dangerous elements exposed to young and old boys and I think it might be very nervous if I were in their situation. I both feel sorry for the boys and don’t feel very sad about this story. If I think about that it is natural of any person to be like the boys in the book, at least more violent and dangerous, if there are no adults in the place nor they do know much about importance of rules. Being only with people who are not fully grown, they had to become violent to survive and end up killing others while they became violent. And it is also why they started to feel fear in themselves and began to see objects as beasts in the abandoned place they alone are in without no one to protect them and encourage them. However, if they had known better about having more rules to protect them from changing and murdering, they wouldn’t have been killing each other. I feel sorry for them in this point of view that they had no choice to be under savage-like Jack and Roger to survive under strong position.

Question 6

6) 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 passage I am quoting is when the group of boys starting to visualize the fear in to beasts they saw and recognize them before they get parted. There were some short parts that some boys indicated that the beast they saw was not real; it was only an illusion, and that the beast they saw was a form of fear in them, which could be also mentioned as the characteristic of beast inside them. They started to recognize the beast that it was the real characteristic of savageness hidden inside them which was not shown but will be shown afterwards when they struggle to survive.

“ ‘We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s noting in it. I’m frightened of myself, sometimes; only that’s nonsense! Like bogies. Then, when we’ve decided, we can start again and be careful about things like the fire.’ A picture of three boys walking along the bright beach fitted through his mind. ‘And be happy.’ ” (pg. 82)
“ ‘Maybe,’ he said hesitantly, ‘Maybe there is a beast.’ … ‘You, Simon? You believe in this?’ … ‘I don’t know,’ said Simon.… ‘What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us.’ … Simon went on ‘We could be sort of. . . .’ ” (pg. 89)

These parts were when I thought Ralph and Simon were clever to scent out that the real beast was in them. I wouldn’t have thought that way if I were them. This part was meaningful that the beast were shown to them as a fear but most of them did not fear themselves and didn’t seem to realize that they were “the beasts.” And this is what I think we should be aware of that we do not know the severe problem in ourselves and we do not expect what is happening inside of us.

Question 7

7) 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 would say that the most beautiful setting in this novel is that there was Piggy and Simon beside Ralph to help him with his ruling the party. Ralph was not a great ruler, he wasn’t outgoing and he was afraid of things that might happen to them. He looked out for Jack’s influence to his party and he was afraid of that Jack might do away with him to rule the party by himself, so he didn’t work that hard for doing his job. However, Piggy helped him from the beginning of his meeting Ralph until his death. His wisdom and his advise could make Ralph a better ruler, and it was possible for him to stand aside Jack without being a coward. Simon didn’t influence Ralph as much as Piggy did, but he had great courage to look for the identity of the beast. He also could make Ralph realize the reality of the beast. It was more saddening than disturbing, but if there were a disturbing setting, it is the good friends of Ralph were all murdered. Also, what was saddening was at the very last part of the story. It was sad that things changed and they had to go through a war, and they were found a little late after things got worse and they changed. That time, nothing could be changed any more for they were found by the Navy at the war site.

Question 8

8) Entry of your Choice- Why did the author set the ending of the story as the boys rescued by the Navy? Why did he do it?

I think the author did it for aftereffect that the war in the island led to the bigger war and their severe change will not erase in their characteristic. He wanted to show that their small change to savageness was never going to disappear in their instinct. He would have made the story end like that way because he wanted to show more serious problem of the world without law. And I surely felt that there need something to control people and the public if there is a group of people of more than two. Unless they have something to base on, the world would be messy and make a big confusion. Ultimately, they would even have a war like it was in the book. I could guess that in the bigger part, wider limit of the world, there is a war and it is also because something was not settled between one nation and the other. From there, I felt the need of more organization and rule to prevent the collision of specific groups or nations. We still need more law to make the world peaceful and safe, for our sakes and for the world that should cooperate. This book tells us that we need law or our living will be very stable. I assume this is what the author wanted to find out. He shows us the effect of law a group of people need to hold on and I learned the importance of the law in our lives.

Question #8 Entry of your choice.

Question 8) Entry of your choice.


This book was boring and it was like a nightmare when I first read it. So I had to read it again because I didn’t know anything about the story and had too many things I didn’t understand. The second time I read this book was much interesting and did a lot of help to finish this homework. I marked some passages that I thought was important and had a same feeling as it. There are several passages that I particularly want to tell to the people. Assuming the real world we are living has the same corrupted condition of the society in this book, it is depressing to realize the following quotes. They are “No one has time any more for anyone else.”, “It’s been a long time since anyone cared enough to ask”, “There was a long time ago when they had things different. They believed in responsibility.”, “Nobody listens anymore.” They all talk about how the corruption of the society influenced and how it shows to individual people. The characters’ distressed confess toward it was sincere. If it is really happening now somewhere, and soon the community we live would be like it is in the book, it would be sad.
This book was hard to read because I read it without thinking anything. However as I reread it with interest to know what the author wanted to say to us, I could find the authors purpose easily. He wanted to acknowledge to the readers that books are important and relates a lot to the politics. To wrap up, I think the particular community’s development and its quality of people’s living depend a lot on whether and how much people use them to their community, and how much they are interested and caring for their community.

Question #7

Question 7) 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.


In this book, in the harsh corrupted society, the most beautifully set was the character who finds his way to enhance the world by books. It was Montag and his new friends: Clarisse, Faber, and the Book Community who lead him to it. But most of Montag’s helping friends, Clarisse had the most beautiful mind, so beautiful that she persuaded a man with a job of a fireman. Of course Montag was already different form other firemen, but Clarisse’s ability to seek truth behind all those reality, the world she was living in was rotten, and knowing that Montag is different was amazing. Her thinking was very pure and innocent, and she was much like a child than a teenager girl. She was even purer than a child in our real society, and it was like seeing a flower in a landfill.
A memorable setting to me was that there were people who wanted to read book, who possessed them secretly even if they were in danger. A woman also died burning with her books and shocked Montag; it was a big cause to Montag to learn to read books. She looked desperate, and she was an example of people who protested their community. In addition, there were Book People remaining, and they seemed they were not just an ordinary book community. Montag and the Book People camped and moved to hide from the police to discuss and read the books. It was a quite good ending because Montag met the Book People and he recalled the passage from a book he had forgotten in his mind. They enabled him to recall it.

Question #6

Question 6) Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into on of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.


I chose my passage form quotes of Faber in page 89, when Faber tells Montag about newspapers: “……I remember the newspapers dying like huge moths. No one wanted them back. No one missed them. And then the Government, seeing how advantageous it was to have people reading only about passionate lips and the fist in the stomach, circled the situation with your fire-eaters.……” In this passage, Faber talks about how newspapers were started to unpublished along with books. This is significant to me and also to other people, especially the Governors. Faber is right about the Government and the people. I can see that the Government’s not publishing the newspapers is initially by citizen’s unconcern toward to it and it is their fault that they gave the Government a chance to spoil their community easier, and more severely. Also, it shows that it was also the citizens’ responsibility to the communities’ corruption, not to mention the Government’s foolishness. In my opinion, governors have to be a model to the citizens and they are the people who have to suggest the pattern of thinking and living to them, but they are not doing like they are expected. It is truly happening now in some countries, and sadly, Korea is one of those countries. I hope that other people who read this book feel the same way as I do, and we should be aware that if we do not show that we care about that Government and their political act and we should keep interfere to their attitude. It is possible that a similar thing could happen to us these days.

Question #5

Question 5) What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? Why?


The mood of this novel is dark and sordid because it shows the governments’ irregularities and corruption and the citizens don’t think about what is going on and they don’t even care about it. I find this novel saddens me because ordinary people, citizens, are also corrupted; almost losing their ability to think are care about other people and things, no one having any time for anyone else, no one listens to anyone-they just mind their own businesses. The people in this story don’t know how to interfere or what interference means. Also, because people do not care or interest in others, the government got more relief that there is no one to criticize them even if they lead the nation poorly, and their state of mind of doing nothing but caring themselves lead to citizens not to read the books. The books and newspapers were gone is this story all because the government’s selfishness and fools that do not wanting or trying to fight them. It is sad that people are corrupted as they could be, and without books, the world without books and newspapers is messed up at the fact that there is nothing that lodges the social problem. After all, there are too much murdering and cheating in the society. I remember Clarisse mentioning to Montag that her friends killing each other, shooting, dying with car wreck, and people had to drive a car so fast, that driving slowly became illegal, which is very opposite to now. To think about it, I realized again how and why books are important and they could not be perished as long as people’s society lasts.

Question #4

Question 4) What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?


The climax of this book is the part when Montag brings home the book from doing his job and starts to think deeply about it, and makes up his mind to study reading and understanding it with the help of Faber. Beatty tries to persuade him but Montag refuses and risks to lose his job or even worse, arrested to study more of it. He has some hardship toward studying them, but he still tries to know what the book was saying. He had to hide, run off, and be almost killed to find his answer. The events were steady and not changing much. It is generally a story of a man trying to find the answer to the past and risking a lot of obstacles such as the government, his job, and the ‘wall’ for it. Montag goes through a lot of disturbance by Captain Beatty, some neighbors, his wife, and himself.
It was the most interesting part when Montag was running away from police trying to survive and find his way to live rest of his life without any disturbance of government and the society he used to live. I feel that in this part, Montag is desperate to find out what he is looking for, the ultimate reason for his work, and never giving up. I feel that it is sad and pathetic, in one way that a person has to risk all the danger to save the society from getting into deeper and severer corruption. To prove the past and enhance the quality of depressed society which was also a result of men, there was Montag and some other people trying to protest to the Government’s act.

Question #3

Question 3) 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?


Guy Montag is a protagonist in this book. Unlike other people, and unlike other firemen, even if he has a job of a fireman, he starts to get interested in books, and starts to put political problems in his point of view and judge them. He takes some books from other peoples’ houses he was setting on fire, and read them, and study. Faber who used to be a professor helps him study and understand the past, the literatures and the politics that are held that same time they are living. He gives introductions to Montag to know more. I liked Montag as I read this book because not only because he was different from others or wanting to know about the books, but also he tried hard and always doing his best by risking to lose his job and being caught to the police and go to jail. He sincerely wanted to know what was like in the past and was trying to defend the society of being more dreadful and ironic. Also, I liked Clarisse who led Montag to get interested in books. She knew that he was different, and was pure, innocent, and always saw matters or objects around her positively. She thought positively, and she was always observing them deeply even if they were so obvious and was no wonder to ordinary people. Both Montag and Clarisse wanted to know about the past, they were always curious and trying to figure out the universal human quality and the society’s quality. By book, they were heading to a study for general thoughts of human in their society in the past which was close to the universal human experiences.

Question #2

Question 2) Are there 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”?


The year 2006 was a hard time for many people in Korea. There were a lot of house price confusion, the economic conditions were not good, and political injustice emerged as the local election took place and there were some bribery suspicions related to it in that very year.
I want to talk about political corruption and injustice that there is a similar part in this book. There are some talks about the politics, and people are worried about the Government. According to ‘Money Today’ news’s editorial writer, who wrote an editorial about flourishing country and not flourishing country, the people think that the reason to their country’s bad condition is because of bad leader, and there is a concrete investigation report from Harvard University about what is happening under the leader. It mentioned ten reason of a country’s not flourishing situation, and political corruption was in the first place.
Also, there is another column from “News Maker,” it mentioned the political situation that was in 2006. One member of Grand National Party said, “Is it all that if a person is a Governor? A true Governor should act like a real Governor.” There are so many Governors that do not act like one, and I think this is a serious problem. They do not participate well on the conference, they do not work for the citizens. All they are interested in is money. It makes me think that Governors do not try hard to develop their country and they sometimes be an obstacle to the country’s development.

Question #1

Question 1) What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?


The world in this book, “Fahrenheit 451,” is that the books influence a lot to the world and society. The Government in this story bans book because they make people think and it leads them to think about the government and iniquity of people and the government. Everything was different from past. I think this theme is important to a teenager because teenagers don’t read books much these days, and they do not understand the importance of reading and that the books have a lot of effect on to the society and peoples’ thoughts. I think that the author tried to tell his readers by writing a book about the society that is corrupted and let us feel that we have to read books and think, know about the past and be aware not to create the dreadful society like the story has by ourselves. In this book, it shows there are a lot of corruption and iniquity of the society because there are no books, the people do not read them, and the government banns it; and the reason for the governors banning it is that they know that books have a lot of effect on people to think, and if people know to think and know how it was like in the past, they will try to correct the governors and enhance the world they live in. In here, I can find that by governors not wanting the citizens to read, they are leading their society into a hell-like world, and if we do not read books and try to refuse to, it is possible that we can create a world like in the story.

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