Author's Note: This is my response to the second prompt which included the quote: "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." In the response, I added in a few of my vocabulary words that I have. I also experimented with using some repetition. Please let me know what you think:
"What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." This is a famous and well known quote by Friedrich Nietzsche. It is pretty self explanatory, meaning that even if you have had hard times, it will make you stronger in the end. This can be applied to any difficult situation, including the hardships Guy Montag has faced in Fahrenheit 451. Although it is true that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, it is not valid to say that this will always help the situation we are in, but sometimes that makes all the difference.
When someone fights for what is right, it will almost never go as intended, and may just backfire on them. This was the case for Montag. In this past section of the novel, Mildred has sent out the call for the firemen to come and burn their house, because they own books. Guy is forced to burn the house down by himself, because it is his. After this point, he would have been put under arrest. This shows the difficult part of the situation. Guy does as he was told, and burns the entire house down, sort of getting sucked back into the feeling of who he once was. Then, just when it seemed as though he would fail under the pressure and fear, Montag does the unthinkable -- killing Beatty, killing firemen, killing the hound, killing the evil he saw. He was given a burst of strength because of what did not kill him, what did not change him. Be that as it may, this completely backfired on Montag. Just within mere seconds of the murder itself, Guy had become a wanted criminal. This made him stronger, and it was motivated by what he believed in, but it certainly did not go the way it was expected to.
A world without pain is a world without strength. Montag would have never been able to triumph if he didn't have something to knock him down. Before, he was just like everyone else,and when awakened by Clarisse McClellan, he began to see and feel pain. Then, by experiencing the attributes of pain, of life, he turned that into the power to break free of the chains that bound him to the wall. Guy's mind and thoughts would be identical to every other human being on Earth if he did not have these kinds of reactions, and sometimes that does come with a price, whether it helps or not. Montag may have lost his old world that left behind a job, a wife and coworkers because of this. If it were not for that though, he wouldn't have gained a new one in the process.
It can be a complicated thing when dealing with the rough circumstances in life. Sometimes it can turn out to be better than we ever excepted it to be, and other times it completely blows up in our faces. The latter was the case for Montag, but that doesn't mean he did not gain from it. Even though Guy is wanted for murder, he is unworried, and is absolutely focused on trying to change the world. He has achieved more than he ever would have by living a corrupted life like Mildred or Beatty. Strength is a key part of life, and for that to happen, pain has to happen as well. The situations we get into aren't always easy, but they are worth it in the end.
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