Journal Entry Quarter 2: 4

          In my reading of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, I have noticed a reflection of American Literature as a whole. Through each of the time periods, Americans have rejected, rebelled against, and redefined the styles and ideas of previous literary movements. These literary revolutions have occurred with the shifting ideals of the culture as a whole, and with those of most individuals. Each time period redefines what "being an American" means, by redefining the American Dream, by redefining success and happiness. The American Dream is always the idea that an individual can reach their goals without some supervisor, employer, Jedi Master type looming over them, smacking them with a ruler every time they slip a toe out of line. Each person has the freedom to arbitrarily decide when they will be satisfied, successful, and happy. It is the nature of every new generation to see the very opposite of the previous one as happiness. Between Puritanism and Rationalism, there lies rebellion against the passive nature of predestination, while the people begin to invest themselves in Revolutionary thought, and the shaping of a nation. From Rationalism to Romanticism, people rejected the theories of logic and real-world evidence-based thought, for whimsical tales directed at a moral, as the citizens seek to better there lives, and develop a taste for luxury. For each time period there is a new trend in the culture. For each is a new version of the American Dream.
          This rejection of the old idea of happiness is among the most prevalent motifs in Fahrenheit 451. As main character Guy Montag begins to see that his world has lost the beauty of knowing in favor of ignorance, he personal rebells. He hides away books behind a vent. He turns the flamethrower on his boss, burning him to charcoal. He escapes the city on the run from the mechanical Hound, running as if he is not so much saving himself, but saving what he has discovered. Within that one novel, the American tendency to discover and remake and rebel is revealed. Guy was generally happy before his eyes were opened by the wonderfully rebellious knowledge of a girl who dared to stare at the sky and watch the wind send leaves rolling, cart-wheeling, across the lawns. He is forced to redefine his American Dream, much the way our Literature has been forced to change as we redefine the idea in the world of reality.

Journal Entry Quarter 2: 3

          If there is one time period that Fahrenheit 451 does not seem to hold a connection to, it is Rationalism. Ray Bradbury's novel develops a futuristic distopia where knowledge, reading, and discovery are forbidden. Books are burned, and possession of them is a crime. To the modern reader, the Post Modern story is entirely fantasy, even though it serves as a warning to hold on to words and to knowledge tightly through the ever faster shifting winds of technology. Bradbury uses a great deal of  creative liberty to assume dramatic results and devastating consequences for protagonist Guy Montag's world of ignorance. The novel therefore is more a rejection of Rationalism than an example of it, even though it defends the needs for both rational and creative thought.
         Rationalism defines the world in a logical and realistic way, which requires one to view the world through reason rather than imagination. The opposite of ideas inspired Bradbury. Where Rationalism focuses on the retelling of true events as the means of conveying a point, Romanticism - imagination, fantasy, nature, and fiction - uses pure imagination to "drive home" its point. Bradbury rejects to former for the use of the latter, much in the way that his nineteenth century predecessors rejected the same. For Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury chose the most effective style of Literature.

Journal Entry Quarter 2: 2

          Fahrenheit 451 connects to Romanticism through its element of fantasy. Though, theoretically, Ray Bradbury's novel represents a warning, not a mystical land, it still holds the elements of un-reality. Since the entire book is set in the future, it serves to warn people about the dangers of giving up knowledge for the contentedness of an "ignorance is bliss" ideology. Fantasy almost always contains a moral or a warning, and Fahrenheit 451 is no different. The elements of Romanticism play out in the unreal elements of the story, such as the mechanical Hound, the Firemen that burn books, and the conflict within protagonist Guy Montag. The connection shows that even books written in Post-Modernism, two time periods after Romanticism, contain elements of previous styles of writing.
           However, one of the other important elements of Romanticism is the focus on nature. Fahrenheit 451 is set in a city for roughly the first half of the novel. Even in the city, though, there is a focus on the natural. When Guy meets the girl, Clarisse McClallen, she immediately begins to point out the beautiful pieces of the natural world, right on their street. Blowing leaves, shining stars, and even dandelion pollen enter their conversations with frequency, and Guy begins to notice the simple beauty of the world around him. No longer does his stare at his toes as he moves down the sidewalk, but he sees. He sees what his country, his culture, is missing through their obsession with speed, technology, and ignorant content. The novel ties nature to knowledge, as through Guy's newfound attention to the world , he finds himself wanting to know more, wanting to read, to learn, to discover. Romanticism is a large element of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, even though it was written a century after the time period slipped away.