Anthem

Analyze
Anthem takes place in a futuristic world but in reality they have really gone backwards in time. The characters have lost their real identity and have become nothing more but a number. Such things as love, friendship, electricity, and even true happiness was taken from this community of people and yet no body knows how to break free. The men and woman in this world do not even know something as simple as the word I. A one letter word that means so much has been taken from these people and replaced with We. Emotions are not to be shown amongst two people nor are they aloud to have any type of physical contact especailly between a man and woman. How is it possible that such a large community was completely reformed and changed by a small group of people? Where did the idea of taking people's identity away come from? And even the word I? The master minds of this community wanted to form a type of Utopia where everyone is the same and happy and life is good but that was not the case for all. Atleast there was one person in this community that knew how to get away. When the word "I" was introduced to him for the first time it was a great new expirience and he could finally express a true emotion to the woman he loved. A society without the word "I" seems impossible but in the book Anthem it was very much possible.

Passage
"We stood still; for the first time did we know fear, and then pain. And we stood still that we might not spill this pain more precious then pleasure" (39). To feel emotion is such a wonderful thing in someones life and for Equality this was his first expirience in feeling love and an attraction toward a woman, Liberty. Even though he did not know specifically what he was feeling he knew there was something there and seeing that girl made him feel good inside. Something that he had never felt before and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible. When he says it was "more precious then pleasure" he is feeling probably the largest amount of good emotion hes ever felt. I really liked this passage because its a big turning point for Equality. From that moment forward he realized there was something wrong with the life he was living. There is something missing in his life and even though he did not know the word for it or how to say it, it was still there and he couldn't ignore it.

Opinion
Anthem was a wonderful book that took you trough the life of a man who had many new expiriences and eventually found love. It grabbed me right from the beginning when I had to figure out why the man was always refering to himself as "We" insead of me or I. I was very interested on how a community could be turned around and brought backwards in time while at the same time going forward. They lived with no electricity and acted like they had no idea what it was when it was discovered again for the first time. People were refered to by numbers instead of names and there was no personal freedom. Living without the word "I" seems like such a unique idea and it kept me reading and very interested. The ending of the book was very good as well. It described a life that was basically starting over and giving two people hope for a better world. Anthem was one of my favorite books and had such a unique concept.

Fahrenheit 451

Analysis
Fahrenheit 451 is a book that is based on the government having complete and total control over their people. Censorship is a major problem in this community and only a few people try to get away from it. The banning of books is one thing that is done to keep the community from becoming too "smart" or gaining too much knowledge. Brainwashing is also a favorite thing for the government to do to their people. Giant tv screens are used to keep everyone interested so they do not become bored and search for other things to do such as read books. Books are such a dangerous thing in this society that firemen are hired to burn them and the residence they are found in. Censorship is such a problem in this world and the people have been subjected to it for so long that they do not know any better. A government or any large group of people should not have such a large amount of control over anyone like in the book Fahrenheit 451. The whole community never got to lead a life full of freedom due to their government fearing they would gain too much knowledge.

My favorite passage in this book is "It's strange, I don't miss her, it's strange I don't feel much of anything," said Montag. "Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don't think I'll feel sad. It isn't right. Something must be wrong with me." (155) After all that Montag had been through with the fire department and Clarisse and his friend Faber the last thing he needed was to remember his wife. They did not have a very strong husband and wife relationship and at the last minute he tells himself that if something happens to her he wont be sad and theres something wrong with him. I really liked this passage because even though it never said Montag loved his wife, him saying "There must be something wrong with me" shows that inside he does care about her. He did not just completely forget about her and move on without wondering what happened to her. Montag was a very strong man and even though he did not have the support of his wife he still managed to have her in the back of his mind.

Overall Thought
Fahrenheit 451 did not hold my attention as much as I would have liked it to. I think the idea of burning books and brainwashing people in a community is a little far fetched for me. The book also did not hold my attention until the very end and sometimes was very boring. I prefer books that have more real life situations and not ones that burn books to protect people. Clarisse was definitely my favorite part of this book. She was very open minded and thought differently then everyone else she was around. If she was in the whole story I may have enjoyed it a little more. Fahrenheit 451 was not one of my favorite books but was not the worst I've read either.