Beatty At His Worst

From the last few lines on page 110 of Fahrenheit 451 on, we are enlightened on how malicious Beatty is. Prior to that, he had just been shifty. However on page 115, he made a good point: "For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely is certain, that nothing will ever happen to me. Others die, I go on. There are no consequences and no responsibilities. Except that there are. But let's not talk about them, eh? By the time the consequences catch up with you, it's too late, isn't it, Montag?" A common mind set of today is that nothing bad will ever happen to us. Teenage prenancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and deaths in the family are perfect examples of this. Newflash, these things can happen to anyone. Beatty goes on to say that fire is lovely and that everyone thinks that. I guess that if it wasn't destructive, then it could be pretty. However, when it's burning a house, it becomes the ugliest thing in the world. "Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you're a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical." What kind of world is this where wrong becomes right and ugly becomes beautiful? In our society, some people watch movies just for the gore. They love death, destruction, and mayhem. Why? This goes back to thinking only bad things happen to other people. How would we feel if these things happened to us? What if we got "PLAY ME" tapes? What if Michael Myers started chasing us around with a kitchen knife or Jason Voorhees with a machete? I doubt that most of us would say, "Oh sweet! I'm about to get mutilated!" I know i wouldn't.

I wasn't sad at all when he died. He was a psychotic sadist anyway. I can't help but wonder what will happen now that Beatty is out of the way.

-Devyn Font