"the man had been desperately unhappy then. Now he was proud and smiling becasue his hands were busy doing what they liked to do best, Pail supposed- replacing men like himself with machines. He hooked up the lamp behind the Orange-O sign." (338)

This quote from Player Piano could be the authors feelings on human nature. Finnerty and Paul finally succeeded in overcoming this world built of machines, and here are the people trying to start from scratch in building up the same society. On the surface, it just looks like the man was fixing a machine. However this man had designed a machine to take over his place and it did just that! It took over his role in society. And instead of despising the machines he is drawn to his machine like instincts of making them. This scene in the book is a bit degrading to human nature as a whole. Its message is that human beings are so naive and unintelligent to fully grasp what Paul and Finnerty's grounds were for the uproar. He was acting as a machine, seeing something was broken, and the only processing he took was to rush to it and fix it. This is a common theme in this book, comparing men to machines. It also is comments on how the human race is so reliant on machines as a whole for survival.

Player Piano was not one of my favorites, however I did enjoy the overall message of the book. I think in a lot of instances machines are taking over way to much of what should be left for humans to do. Now-a-days a musician can simply sing a song and then have a computer make the background melody. Music in the present is slowly being stripped away of pure talent. A computer can also make a terrible musicians voice sounds harmonic and distinct. It is so incredibly disappointing to go to a concert and have the musician sound completely different from what he or she's recorded music sounds like.
I enjoyed the ending to Player Piano as well. Just because one can not win every battle does not mean it is not worth putting up a fight. I thought it was brilliant that in the end Lasher told them all he knew they would not win the "battle". In a book about a society that is so structured, the message at the ending of the book was winning a battle in itself. At least they finally had a cause for something, used their own brain power instead of the machine.

player piano

Throughout the entire book of Player Piano, I had been thinking about the title and it was significant to the work as a whole. In the first few chapters there is a player piano in the bar that Paul goes to with Finnerty. The word choice in this particular section is interesting because the author states that its a player piano, not just a regular piano. "Finnerty sat at the player piano, savagely improvising on the brassy, dissonant antique". (105) An original piano is a "machine", however this machine would be merely a pretty piece of wood if there were not a talented musician to play it. However a player piano is a machine that plays itself, stripping away any of the talent and human aspect from the music. Vonnegut uses the player piano as a symbol of machines taking over too much of what should remain human in society.

Anthem Quote

“Then we knew. We were in the Uncharted Forest. We had not thought of coming here, but our legs had carried our wisdom, and our legs had brought us to the Uncharted Forest against our will.”

As I had written before, the Uncharted Forest is one of my favorite parts of this book. It symbolizes so much within itself. I chose this particular wrote because it reminded me of another quote very similar to it. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag says something very similar in nature when he kills Beatty. He blames his hands for his actions, instead of taking responsibility for his them. Equality is doing the same thing. This point in the book is Equality’s weakest moment. Throughout the entire book, when he was in the subway educating himself he knew and accepted that it was no one besides himself doing what he was doing. Just pages after his weak moment he realizes what he is doing, the book’s tone took an entirely new direction. It went from uncertain to confident and assured.

I also think the word choice for the “Uncharted” forest. Another word for uncharted is unknown or unfamiliar. This is a much better word choice then forbidden. It is ironic because forbidden is just a given, so instead of being called forbidden it was called uncharted.

The Benefactor was the one character in the story of We that interested me the most. He had so much power in the society, so much control. It is as if whenever the character of the Benefactor speaks, the author speaks though him. The Benefactor was the character of wisdom in the book, the voice of reason. Although what he had to say to D-503 at the end of the book about I- 330 was not what he wanted to hear, it was still nevertheless the truth. D-503 was just a piece of the puzzle that I-330 needed to complete her big picture. He didn’t actually care about him or his feelings, and I admire how the Benefactor tells D-503 with no holding back.

However the Benefactor had offensive things to say about Christian beliefs, and these offensive things were justified because it was coming from such a strong powerful character. It is interesting to me that Zamyation built the character of the Benefactor using biblical references, but at the end of the book completely bashes Christian beliefs. For example the Benefactors hands were always described as "huge cast iron hands", which is the same way God was described in many places in the bible. When talking about the Benefactor even if it was a pronoun such as him, it was always capitalized. It is also the same way in the bible.


“Suppose they blindfolded you and force you to walk by feeling your way along, stumbling and knowing that right there, inches away, was the edge. Just one step, and all that’s left of you is a piece of flattened dead meat. Isnt that just what I am doing?” Pg 170

I like this quote because I think every once in while we all feel the way the main character is feeling at this point. Relating to the story, the main character is taking some blind risk taking that is making him constantly feel on the edge. The word choice in the second sentence makes the entire statement more powerful “a piece of flattened dead meat.” As if humans who are identified as numbers isn’t already dehumanizing, those same humans are then referred to pieces of dead meat. This quote could also easily be related to our world. The “they” in the quote could be anyone who pressures another person to do something. Although people say they don’t want others to have control and power over them, there are yet still many instances that it happens. What could drive a fourteen year old boy to come to school one day and shoot his classmates and teachers? That boy was feeling defenseless, blindfolded, like he was about to fall off of the edge. He was blindfolded for so long that the anger was uncontrollable. Although the boy and D-503 are in completely different worlds, they still felt that lost feeling described in the quote above. D-503 went against his society, which in his world is seen as horrific as the situation with the boy.



The book We introduced me to a lot of firsts. It was the first book that I read that had a character such as the Benefactor in it. The closest character in a story that I have read that I could compare the Benefactor with is God in the bible, which is probably what the author wanted. It is also the first time I read a book and did not see the ending coming. After reading Fahrenheit, the reader could assume that eventually they would go back to the city and try to recreate a better society much like one of the far past. However We did not leave the reader with much to dwell on. Those feeling of hope were quashed when I realized that they took D-503’s imagination. The ending is what ruined the book of We for me. I’m not saying I want every ending of a book that I read to end with butterflies and rainbows, but I at least want to close the book after reading the last page with every problem resolved and assume that there is hope for the society I have just read about. I also did not like that a lot of D-503’s thoughts were always cut off by “…”s. I realize that it was part of the syntax of the book and was put there for a purpose, but it made the read extremely choppy and scattered.

The Anthem was an attention getting book right from the start. The main character was inspiring, his every action was very honorable. When reading it Anthem along with the book We, I would look forward to the twenty pages of Anthem and dread the ten pages of We. Why? The little things about the book is what made it one of our best ones this year. I liked how the paragraphs were separated by spaces. It made the read go quickly, and kept much of what Rand wanted to convey to the reader organized. I love reading about different cultures. And although this is a fictional society, the different ways of the society was interesting to read about. How the men would get jobs, the smarter ones put down and the less intelligent ones ruling the society? How ironic! Also the fact that the apple of Equality’s eye was such a far reach from him, and for what reason? Reasons of the society. It was interesting that the entire book was written using the world “we” when in fact it was an individual the entire time. It was as if there were little puzzles of the book that got resolved at the end. Resolution. That is my favorite part of the book. Any question, any confused thought was resolved at the end. Equality realized what the forbidden word was, he had a woman to start a life with and a home to keep his new family safe. That sense of hope for the main character at the end of the book is what made Anthem an excellent book.

The Forest in the story of The Anthem is a symbol in the book that is important to the story but can also be related to real life. In the story, the forest may have technically been forbidden, but no one needed to say that because who would have wanted to leave their great society anyway? What is ironic is that there was no physical wall around the city that separated the people from the forest, the people in the town put up a mental wall around the city, to keep themselves inside and “safe”. The only information that they knew about the forests was that all that left never came back. They never thought about that fact that the people that left may have not wanted to come back. The forest was the unknown, and anything unknown can be scary. When I think about the forest in Anthem, it reminds me of the men that were sent into space to reach the moon. Space was the unknown and they set off to search it anyway. When equality finally found himself, the individual inside, the mental wall around the forest collapsed and he was finally able to discover what the past and how he wanted to make it the present.

Atwood obviously had her own opinions about religion that she was trying to convey throughout the book. The entire ceremony was a slap in the face to some of the rules that the bible states people should follow. The ceremony was rape. Plain and simple. She did not want it to happen, she did not desire for or long for it, it was something that was expected from her from her society. “If he were better looking would I enjoy this more?” (95) She brings up the fact that it was not rape because she signed up for it but what other choice did she have? This excuss was just another way for her to justify in her mind a ceremony that she knows is wrong. Also if she did not sign up for what she was doing she would not have been able to have children, which was a gift from God to the women of the world.
It is interesting that the entire room is described to be white. White is usually a symbol of purity and cleanliness, and what was happening in the room was quite the opposite. It is justified to be pure of sin because the Wife was present. This is obviously part of Atwood’s satire because the way she set up the situation is not how the bible intended it to be. She made sure that the childbirth scene was as painful as she could make it because she wanted to emphasize that because of woman’s sin, we now have to deal with a painful childbirth. The worst part about the women in the The Handmaids Tail is that they go through all of that work, with no baby to lighten them of the pain.

“I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was.” (263)

This quote can represent every women in this book, and also portrays how corrupt their society really is. Moria had the “shame” that Offred is talking about. Moria wanted to make love not go through a ceremony. Moria wanted to be able to talk to her girlfriends, not have so many restrictions. This is the shame. If Moria had none of this shame she would have been ignorant like many of the other Handmaids. However how many shameless characters were there really in the entire book? Janine on the outside seemed to follow all of the rules without thinking twice about going against society. However there were rumors going around that it was her doctor that had gotten her pregnant. So how shameless was she? The men of the society always had Jezebel to look forward and Serena Joy wanted to get Offred pregnant so that she did not have to go though another ceremony with her. Each character is at a different level of ignorance, and the ones with the most lust in their lives seem to be the happiest. The society may not have many uprisings, however through all of the secrets and lies; it is already on its way to corruption.



The Handmaids Tail is my favorite book that we have read so far. I liked the fact that we finally read a book that was in the point of view of a woman. Sometimes it is easier to visualize the story and why the main character does certain actions and makes certain decisions simply because she is a woman. I also am interested in women’s history. And although this is far from women’s history the book dealt primarily with a society focused on keeping women safe from harm. Although the women were indeed safe, their dignity was stripped from them, which made for a good plot. Although the story had an interesting plot, some of the underlying messages that Atwood was trying to get across got very irritating. Some of the shots that she took at Christian faith was repulsive. For example, the box that wrote down the prayers made the reader think about if prayers are just words said aloud with no higher being listening, just as there was no one reading the paper prayers. A message such as that was not something a agreed with, however the overall message that one cannot mix church and state was a good message. There must be limitations to the mixing of church and state or else it will end up being a society like Gilead.

The entire book of Fahrenheit 451 was based upon the idea that knowledge is better than ignorance. Or, from Beatty's standpoint, is ignorance better than knowledge? Throughout the entire book Montag was searching for the unknown. When he stole the books from the house, and the bible from the firehouse, he did not know exactly what he was looking for, but he did know that he was looking for something. When he shared the books with his wife, he was trying share with her, trying to reach out to the only person that he as even think of reaching out to in such a cold society. And when she let him down he tried to find some more answers by reaching out to Faber. The ironic part about the book is while Montag was doing all of this searching, Beatty was suffering.

Beatty knew what it was like to have such knowledge. But being trapped in a world that he couldn't have anyone to share this knowledge with, he became angry and overpowering. His anger for not being able to share his knowledge about books drove his irritateing comments towards Montag, which he knew would drive Montag to the extreme. Beatty was a man of knowledge, he knew how to push peoples buttons. The ironic part about the story as a whole was each character, Montag and Beatty, seemed to have something that the other wanted. Beatty would have been happier if he were less ignorant, and Montag was just yearning for some knowledge. So was it better to have knowledge, or be ignorant in the society that Bradbury had set up in the book Fahrenheit 451?

C.) When I first read Fahrenheit 451 I thought it was a good book. However comparing it to other books we have read, my opinion has changed. Montag was a weak character, who not until the last few chapters knew what he was going against. There was a specific goal he wanted to obtain, and most of the time when he would do something against his society, he could and would not take responsibility for it. For example, when Montag killed Beatty towards the end of the book, he did not blame himself for his actions he blamed his hands. Comparing this book to The Anthem makes the overall character of Montag look lazy and his whole "cause" meaningless. The main character in The Anthem has a purpose. Although he did much of his knowledge gathering in secret, he did eventually present what he had found to the council. That was him taking responsibility for his actions. Any character, and also any person that is willing to take responsibility for their actions is admirable. Since Montag was not one of these characters, I found the book Fahrenheit 451 rather irritating.

This song by itself without being compared to The Handmaids tail, the song begins by saying that we all have choices. The writer of the song is saying people in our world have the ability to dream, “And you can dreamSo dream out loud”, so people should not let what other people have to say bring them down. However “In dreams begin responsibilities”, so if one is going to dream they have to take into account all of the responsibilities that some with that dream. Although I have not finished the book, I can imagine Luke saying what this song is saying to the main character in the book. He loved his wife. She was his free sprit that he saw. She had dreams of being with him and whether they were right or wrong he did not care because they were hers to have.

It was interesting that U2 brought religion into this song. “Yeah I'd break bread and wine, If there was a church I could receive in” People whom are affiliated with a church usually know exactly what they from it. They understand why there are there and what the are doing. This quote is excellent to put into the song because the person writing the song seems to be trying to find something to believe in but they cant. They cant find anything to be affiliated with, which is a big part of the song.

This song by U2 was written much like the chapter in the Handmaids tail about the ceremony. The chapter beings just like any chapter and all of a sudden there is a paragraph with a lot of unexpected profanity. The profanity is needed in this paragraph to really hit some what Atwood was trying to get across. It is the same in this song, the song goes without any harshness, no signs of taking a turn and then the song writer put a very strong harsh word the last sentence of the chorus. Why? Because U2 wanted to catch the listeners attention, make sure they understood what they were trying to say. U2 is not the type of band to put swear words in every song just because they can. So when one sees a swear word in their song it is there for a reason.