Taking Risks In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

“I only raised my hand once.” were the words that Mr. Berger-White said to the class. He explained how he raised his hand once during a class and his teacher did not approve his comment. Besides the fact that his teacher did not like his answer, he took a risk to raise his hand and speak. This was the first time that the idea of taking risks was really implanted in my mind. I am the same as Mr. Berger-White was. I did not raise my hand very much during this class, or any class at all. I did not take the risk to raise my hand and share my ideas or thoughts on something even if I wanted to. I did not put myself out there and speak and if I might have, I could have had a different experience in the class. The importance of taking risks have been

In the novel, Montag’s job was to burn books and demolish them. No one in their society could have possession of these books. As a fireman, Montag was enforcing the law of the restrictions on these books. As I read on, we soon find out that Montag has been taking a risk and he has been hiding books in his house. The novel describes Montag’s revelation of these books, “Then he reached up and pulled back the grill of the air-conditioning system and reached far back inside to the right and moved still another sliding sheet of metal and took out a book. Without looking at it he dropped it to the floor. He put his hand back and took out two more books and moved his hand down and dropped it to the floor… When he was done he looked down upon some twenty books lying at his wife’s feet” (62-63). We now understood that he has been keeping over twenty books in his house. Before we find this out we read about how Montag and the other firemen have been getting rid of these books and burning them and we now know that Montag has been keeping some of these forbidden books. The tension of Montag’s society did not stop him from taking these books. It was very risky for him to steal them but he did it anyways. This was pivotal for me because even under the circumstances that Montag was in, taking the risk of having those books in his possession was important to him and shaped him as a person. He got new knowledge that others

The commentary was interesting to me and what really struck me was the final comment that Ross had made on the film reflecting on avoiding risks to make ourselves feel safer. The comment that moved me was, “That’s just, I think, the tension of the movie in a fantastic way -- that there’s a big, huge, wide open, contradictory, confusing, troubling, joyous, reassuring, wonderful world out there. And at the same time we’re very scared to engage it, and that’s the central tension of this piece. And we do a whole lot of things so we don't engage it: we make rules, and we make cultures, and we make stereotypes, and we make morals, and we make all sorts of things to make ourselves feel better or safer, when in fact were really only making ourselves feel a little less alive. And if the movies about anything, it's ultimately taking a risk to tear those things down as scary as it might be, as unsettling as it might be, as potentially violent as it might be, and to open up to the random nature of things and to get past our own fear, which I don't judge, I think is understandable… We all have that fear. I have that fear. Who doesn't have that fear? But it’s something we have to work through, or try to, in order to live as satisfying a life as we possibly can.” Gary Ross’s words shifted my perspective on venturing out of my comfort zone. Reading this was powerful to me because in my own life