Literary Analysis #2

1. What drew you to this book?

•     I tend to go for books that are super romantic yet action filled with great covers and plots. Books that are not entirely true is what I tend to aim for.

  What did you expect and/or hope to experience through reading it?

•    I hoped that the book would have a good theme and that it would be realistic and relatable.

2. What kept you reading past the first ten pages?

•     It was really riveting in the sense that it grabbed your attention and right from the get go it was relate-able. 

3. Describe your reading habits

•    My reading habits are alright, i'd say i'm like everyone else where I only read a book that I like and if I do not enjoy it then I am not able to focus on it. If then I enjoy it then it will be hard for me to put it down. I read if i have to for school and classes.

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

• A fireman, Montag, burns down houses if there is books inside of them. He later meets a girl, Clarisse, who makes him question his beliefs and ways of life. His boss, Beatty, doesn't allow people to think for themselves so reading and thinking is illegal. Montag goes against this at his own risk and brings his wife, Mildred, into the entire mess. The author wanted to show that people are not always right and you have to have an open mind. He fulfills that by Montags character when he questions his entire life and meanings. 

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

• Sometimes you meet people who are different than you and you start to question your own character. Things change and people change.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

• His tone is like futuristic from the setting of the story being kind of gloomy and down. He wants it to be about learning and knowledge not television and electronic devices. -"He felt that the stars had been pulverized by the sound of the black jets and that in the morning the earth would be covered with their dust like a strange snow." -" The mechanical hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse." -They read the long afternoon through, while the cold
  November rain fell from the sky upon the quiet house."

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

•  There is simile, metaphor, personification, repetition, onomatopoeia, indirect characterization, foreshadowing, imagery,hyperbole and static character.
• simile- pg 48: "The electric thimble moved like a praying mantis on the pillow, touched by her hand."
• metaphor- pg.3"Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity." 
• personification-pg.145 “Out of the black wall before him, a whisper. A shape. In the shape, two eyes. The night looking at him. The forest, seeing him”.
• 
  

1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

• Montag is a fireman and he is content with burning books and houses. He doesn't question anything or think about it.
• Montag questions his thoughts and his character about books. He doesn't understand what the meaning of books are or if he should continue burning them or not.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?

• No, it does not change, throughout the book he writes the same with metaphors and personification for everything and everyone.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.

• He is a static flat character because he changes throughout the story and he conveys that the author wanted us to learn that it's not all about technology and we should open our eyes to the knowledge and character of things and people.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

• I felt like I met a person. "He watched the scene, fascinated, not wanting to move. It seemed so remote and no part of him; it was a play apart and separate, wondrous to watch, not without its strange pleasure. That's all for me, he thought, that's all taking place just for me, by god." You can feel his emotions and you can kind of relate to him because we all change throughout our lives.