Author's Note: This is my essay for Fahrenheit 451. I tried to incorporate as many vocabulary words as I could, and I also tried to fit in a lot of my SMART goals in this as well. I used kind of a unique idea within this essay that has a religious aspect behind it. Let me know what you think:
It's just another autumn evening as you stroll home from the firehouse. Walking down the street, you approach the corner, the one you've been having ambiguous feelings about, and it is then that you see her. She is there, on the street, almost as if she was gliding toward you. Then she comes to you, tells you of a past where firemen helped citizens rather than burned their world down, where billboards were only twenty feet long, when people knew about the man on the moon, a world where people were not afraid. This one conversation, this one moment, changes you forever. You begin to realize just how converse this world has truly become, and you know that you are the one to fix it, you will be the Savior. In life today, it can be extremely difficult to decide what is right and wrong without guidance. Sometimes we need a sign, some way that things will change. The path in life we take is never clear, but once a light does flicker over it, that is the way we change the world, and that is the course that we need to take.
It only takes one second for a life to change forever. Although this will not always help the situation, it will be worthwhile for all in the end. In the book Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was just an ordinary person who worked as a firefighter. His thoughts, ideas, and life was identical to every other human in their modern society, with the exception of one. One, Clarisse McClellan, supposedly no older than seventeen. She is like nothing Montag has ever known, like an angel sent from Him, and opened up the world in front of Guy, of Jesus Christ. Clarisse has given him something no one else has -- thoughts. Because of these thoughts that feel so unfamiliar, Montag begins to see the outline of two paths. One path that leads right back to where he came from, and the other, a way to help the world for the better, a way to righteousness. As he begins to see the attributes in these more and more clearly, he realizes that there is more to life than he and everyone else had ever thought, that perhaps his judgment of what is right and wrong might just be changing, that he just might change everything.
There are always signs out there that points us the way we need to go, even if we can't discern them right away. In the story of Jesus Christ, Jesus has been identified as the son of God, and sets out to teach others of the wealth of this beautiful knowledge. Guy Montag was a normal person like Jesus, but then Clarisse came around that corner, and gave him a gift, a sacred, wonderful gift. He then went to Faber, an old professor he had once met, who recognizes his ideas of change, and that Montag just may have something amazing to offer, just as John the Baptist recognized this in Jesus. Faber helps to shine more light for Guy on the path that will change the world. To spread this knowledge and try to help, Montag talks to Mildred about it, trying to teach her about books, and even shows her a secret collection of books he has stored. Scared, Mildred becomes Judas Iscariot, the apostle that betrayed Jesus, and turns him in to Beatty, the chief priest, by sending in the alarm that the house needed to be burned down, that Montag needed to be put on the cross. When Montag became a fugitive, when the bombing occurred, this was the crucifixion, the death. Then, when everything is over, when there was nothing left, Montag rises again, creating a new hope. By fulfilling Clarisse's wish, Montag has chosen the path that he needed to take, the path that everyone needed him to take.
We can never be sure what life unfolds for us, but we do need an open mind for it. These obstacles and paths are what makes us who we are, as it made Montag who he is. It's the little things that count, whether it be just a conversation with a girl like Clarisse, or it be a small realization that points us in a new direction. This is what will change the world, and this is what will change us.
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