In Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradybury calls the people in the society "gray". Personally, I think this is a great description of them. They have no personalities whatsoever and can't even think for themselves. This can easily be related to the color gray because gray expresses a boring, dull mood. If you have no personality and can't think for yourself, then you're boring and dull as well.
A different kind of example of this is when they go and kill the fake Montag just to please everyone. If you have to go and kill some innocent person just so people can have a few laughs then there's no way they have a true personality. Plus, I strongly believe that even seeing that man die was still not enough to please that society based on what everything we've seen in the book already. Even if they did laugh it wasn't true happiness that they were expressing.
Finally, the reason that everyone was gray to Montag in the first place is because he isn't gray. If everyone's gray in a society, then they don't look at themselves or eachother that way. They'd look at themselves the same way our society does now. But Montag isn't gray and the same as everyone else. He has color, a personality, so they looked different to him. I remember one time our youth pastor was trying to explain to us the fact about how so many people aren't saved and how we have to try to change that. To try to help us visualize it he said to walk down the hallways in school and visualize yourself in color and all those who aren't with no color. If you would do that you'd feel isolated and alone. I think that's how Montag might feel and why he's seeing people as gray rather than with color.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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Very interesting point about Montag noticing how gray the people are because he is "in color." Sometimes being in color is a lonely place to be...but I would so much rather live a colorful life, however difficult, than a gray one, devoid of purpose.
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