Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen”. Whether they’re your enemies or your friends, it always right to stand up against an issue and challenge them, or else there will never be a change in society. Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, writes a dystopian novel that almost depicts our current world. In the novel, Bradbury illustrates a society where books are outlawed and technology takes over people’s daily lives.
On the other hand, Mark Twain, the author of the satire , ” Lowest Animal”, expresses his own opinions in an essay here he performs numerous experiments comparing humans to animals. Through his satire, he proves that humans are wasteful, cruel and indeed the so alled ” Lowest Animal”. Both Twain and Bradbury illustrate that the perfect time for one to stand up is when their community falls into danger or when they feel dissatisfied. In the beginning of the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury quickly introduces a character named Guy Montag, and describes Montag’s passion for his job.
He is a fireman, however not the usual fireman we know about today. Montag’s job is to burn literature and make sure the information ontained in them is all gone. In his society, books are banned and nobody ever appreciates the valuable knowledge they contain. However, as the novel progresses, Montag’s thought process and behavior starts to take a shift. He begins to feel unsatisfied seeing books burned. Due to his curiosity Montag does the opposite of his job. Instead of burning and destroying books, he starts collecting and reading them.
However when Beatty, his fire chief, finds out that Montag has been hiding books, he orders the destruction of his house and places Montag under arrest. As Montag’s world starts to crumble, Beatty finds out about Faber, the man who has helped Montag save books and says, ” Well-so there’s more here than I thought. I saw you tilt your head, listening.. We’ll trace this and drop in on your friend”( Bradbury 118). Quickly Montag says, “ No! “(119), and takes Beatty’s flamethrower and burns him and the other firemen to the ground.
Due to his dissatisfaction about Beatty’s actions, Montag stands up for himself, saves his own friend and his society. Montag could’ve sat down and watched the existence of books and his friend disappear. However, he, alone, bravely stands up against a person who possesses more power han him,while not knowing what effects it could cause. Even though our society isn’t as violent as Montag’s, we share some of their aspects. The idea of reading has become very unpopular to many people across the world over the past few decades.
According to Jordan Weissmann, the author of the article, “The Decline of the American Book Lover”, many people of our generation have stopped reading and have become unintelligent. She says, “The Pew Research Center reported last week that nearly a quarter of American adults had not read a single book in the past year. As in, they hadn’t cracked a aperback, fired up a Kindle, or even hit play on an audiobook while in the car. The number of non-book-readers has nearly tripled since 1978″( Weissman). Books provide something that nothing else could ever provide, knowledge.
Many could argue that if teachers provide and give us education, what’s the point of reading a book? They have forgotten that the only way teachers could’ve gotten the knowledge to teach us is by reading books. Not having books in our society is almost like not having food. It is an essential quality that us humans must have. Similarly. Montag’s society almost resembles our current world. Books have been ignored by many people of our generation and nobody has done anything about it. However unlike Montag’s society, people of our generation haven’t outlawed reading.
They still read books, and it creates a perfect chance to put an end to the extinction of reading. In Twain’s satire, he compares the human race to the races of other species of planet Earth to make an argument that human beings are extremely cruel and barbaric, and that they show no sympathy to the other creatures whom they share the planet with. As Twain describes his scientific findings and experiments, he quickly jumps to the irst point of his satire by saying, “… some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl.
They killed seventy-two of those great animals and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied( Twain)”. Human beings are so clueless and wasteful, they not only kill seventy-two buffalos, but also let seventy-one of those creatures go to waste and rot. While an anaconda only killed one and spared the rest. As he continues with his satire, Twain makes an argument concerning man and war by saying, “The higher animals engage in individual fights, but never in organized masses.
Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, war. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to exterminate his kind ( Twain)”. Man is the specie that is willing to slaughter his own kind and take away the land of others , just to get the taste of revenge. In his satire, Twain’s overall argument is that out of all the species of our orld, the human race is considered the ” Lowest Animal”, because of the unnecessary actions they take, Why kill a whole population of buffalo, and devour only the taste of one?
Why slaughter your own species? Twain took this opportunity to write a detailed satire on the human race and help promote a positive change in our nature. If he didn’t, the planet earth would be in a far different condition. Currently in our society, people are still wasting food, murdering and destroying hundreds of other species, and lastly getting into massive conflicts leading to war. According to Dr. Mercola, the author of he article, “You Won’t Believe How Much Food Goes To Waste”, over 40% of food in the US is wasted.
That 40% of food can easily be donated to poor families all across the world. This statistic clearly shows how selfish and cruel human beings can be. Not only have humans wasted food, they have also been the main cause of the extinction of species. Jen Viegas, the author of the article, ” Humans Caused 322 Animal extinctions”, says, species caused 322 animal extinctions over the past 500 with two-thirds of those occurring in the last two centuries( Viegas). Many could say that animals are going extinct ecause they’re not able to adapt to their environments.
However, Animals don’t have their” own environment” “our years, anymore. Us humans have destroyed many ecosystems by polluting and toxicating our earth. And not only that, we are still continuing this massacre every day. However, there is still hope. Not all species have gone extinct, and our world hasn’t yet become an unlivable place. Just like Twain, all humans of our Earth can help stop this issue. If every human being on the planet starts to be more cautious of their environment and surroundings,the planet earth would become a very different place.