Mirrors play a big part throughout the book Farenheit 451, however most of them are metaphorical. Throughout his essay, ""To build a mirror factory": the mirror and self-examination in Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451."" Rafeeq O. McGiveron looks at all the metaphorical mirrors that Montag encounters throughout the book. My question is, what can these mirrors show us about our society compared to the society of F451?
The first encounter that Montag has with a mirror is the one in the firehouse, where he passes by it and winks, like he usually does. McGiveron said, "[...] the situation, the surroundings, and even the mirror itself are all too familiar, and he does not see himself as he really is. Instead of recognizing the destructiveness of his book burning profession, his gaze is merely one of self satisfaction." It seems like everyone in the society of F451 have these little gestures of self satisifcation. The people of their society don't think much, if at all, about what they are doing, or why they are doing it, they simply follow the mold. Most of the people in F451 don't look at themselves as they really are, they put on a mask to fool everyone so that it looks like they have it all together. Instead of trying to see themselves in the mirror, they try to format their mask to be what the society expects them to be until, "[...] the individual ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely th ekind personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be." (Fromm). How are we like that? I think that we tend to put on a mask under a lot of situations. We're expected to feel certain ways in certain situations - we have a "rulebook" of what we're expected to be, and I think that the majority of people put on various masks to abide by the rules in that rulebook.
The next mirror that Montag encounters is Clarisse. Even from her basic description, we can see that she is very mirror-like. She is described to have eyes that reflect Montag back to himself, and her face is mirror-like as well. However, she is a mirror in more than just the appearence, the way she speaks to Montag is very mirror-like. Like McGiveron stated, "For the most part, Clarisse does not interpret or offer suggestions; she merely draws Montag's attention to the facts he should already understand, but does not." Everyone else that Montag encounters seems to have an opinion on the way that society is being run, whether it is the Faber approach that society needs to be reformed, or the Mildred/Beaty approach that society is perfect the way it is. Clarisse simply reflects the facts, and forces Montag to look at who he really is underneith the mask that he wears. She doesn't suggest ways to change it, she just shows in to him, helping him understand the facts that he should know. This relates to our society, because we should be showing others the masks that they are wearing - we should be helping people show who they really are.
Finally, "[...]we're going to build a mirror factory first and turn out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them" (164). This mirror factory producing mirrors is a metaphor for forcing the society to take a look at itself, and see what it really is, not just what it's pretending to be. In order for the survivors of the bomb to create a future for the new society, they have to force the society to see what it used to be. They need to be aware, without the aweareness they will become the way they used to be. In our society today, we need to take a good long look at ourselves, too. This will help us see our own shortcomings, and see where we need to improve.
I'd like to end with this quote from McGiveron's article:
"With Montag's failures and successes, Bradbury shows that all of us, as individuals, and as a society, must struggle to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Whether we look at ourselves from another's perspective or from the perspective of a good work of art, we need this self-exaination to help avoid self destruction."
This is Brittany, by the way... and I like COLORFUL POSTS! lol (please don't include that in the essay XD)
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1 comment:
That was an awesome post Brittany. I agree with you. Most people put masks on because they don't want to show their Self to others. They want to act in ways others will approve. Society needs to have a mirror held up to them so they can see the error of their ways. They need to be individuals and not conform or be like the culture of Fahrenheit 451. (I'm going to bed now, goodnight everybody, and good job!)
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