It is easy to see that Montag is being influenced by Clarisse to actually think and question. Further in this section Montag begins to question if he is doing the right thing, “...was it always like this? The firehouse, our work? (31). From these, we as readers can see that Montag is changing from being emotionless, to what we count as ‘human’ today.
A Wake Up Call In Susan Sontag Short Story, “The Way We Live Now” During the 1980’s, the epidemic of AIDS was common among small gay communities, but soon it began to spread rapidly. Many organizations and activists continued to educate young people to protect themselves. In ‘The Way We Live Now,” Susan Sontag uses life and death to help readers follow the life of a man dying from AIDS. The story mainly focuses on his friends being concerned about his disease. The story is told in the form of conversation, mentioned and whispered by his friends while he is sick in a hospital bed with AIDS.
As the book goes on, Mildred and Montag have struggles. Montag realizes that Mildred wasn’t the person he fell in love with, and how she’s depressed and doesn’t even know it. The society that Montag is living in, isn’t a very good one. Some people rarely even go outside, they just watch the parlors, and that isn’t a good thing. Some people don’t evne know what the moon loosk like.
Isn’t this a nice time to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise”’ (Bradbury 11). Clarisse introduces herself to Montag and reveals her background. She remains unaffected by the norms of society. Simple pastimes are frowned upon and sometimes even punishable in Montag’s society, however Clarisse loves these simple things.
It just happens sometimes, usually on accident. Consequently, just having AIDS is bad enough. There are many symptoms, including a weakened immune system, fevers, weight loss and even diarrhea. (Kallen 26) First is the asymptomatic stage. There are symptoms in this stage include lymph nodes enlargement, body rash, and mouth and skin problems (“Symptoms and Stages”).
(STEWE-1) Montag becomes friends with a young girl named Clarisse. She teaches him about reality and how people treat each other “No one has time anymore for anyone else”(21). Clarisse tells Montag that whenever she talks to someone, they usually end up leaving or threatening her. This shows that people are too busy to listen to what others have to tell them. They don’t realize that there is a life outside of materials, and that there is a person trying to help them understand.
Throughout the story, Montag learns that the peaceful society he lived in has kept him from being able to learn and be curious about his world. Seeing Montag’s struggles as he tries to find a way to reverse the censorship and learn for himself, the main question we can ask ourselves is this, “Would we give up our ability to freely obtain knowledge to establish nationwide
Said best by Joseph Campbell, “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 closely relates to this quote in the sense that Guy Montag stumbles upon a woman who treasures her books more than life itself, literally. After several years of working as a firefighter in this dystopian society, he runs into Clarisse who then questions his happiness. Confused and angered he begins to wonder why she would ask him such a question. After analyzing, he comes to the conclusion that he is not happy.
The novel opens with a scenario following shortly after the epiphany that the protagonist had upon realizing that he is invisible. The story is narrated by him in retrospect whereby the idea of a first-person narrator which links to an invisible storyteller highlights the man’s invisibility. Furthermore, the protagonist’s name is never revealed in the novel which would suggest that we are receiving the information from a third party outsider. The narrator seems to have no personal investment in the words he speaks yet they are spoken by him. The prologue starts with the sentence “I am an invisible man” which links to the sentence in the Epilogue that states “I am an invisible man and it has placed me in a hole”.
The story ends with Caitlin and Martin meeting which, in my opinion, the pinnacle of story. In the end they become lifelong friends. The first theme in this book is kindness. Caitlin showed Martin a lot of kindness by being generous and giving a lot of her money and time toward caring for Martin even though he was halfway across the world. The other theme in this book is to determination.