3 ratings (3.67 avg)
2 reviews

Ethan Petersen

Add friend

Ethan’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (2)

read‎ (1)

Stats | More…

Ethan is Currently Reading

Ethan Petersen is currently reading

Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Ethan Petersen said: " Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a book about a dystopian society where books are illegal. With the growth of technology, media entertainment, and threats of war, literature became less popular and so the government decided to outlaw it to keep every Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a book about a dystopian society where books are illegal. With the growth of technology, media entertainment, and threats of war, literature became less popular and so the government decided to outlaw it to keep everybody thinking the same. In this future, firemen start fires by burning books instead of putting them out.
The protagonist is Guy Montag, one of these firemen who seems happy with his life and job until he befriends his neighbor, Clarisse, a young girl who has an open-minded and creative mentality unique to most people in this simplified society. After talking with Clarisse for some time and seeing a book possessor burn herself and her house, Montag starts to question if books and diversity of thought are unnecessary. He had been illegally hiding a stash of books in his home and decides to read them with his wife, Mildred. But she loses interest and shows frightening responses to the books so Montag decides to read with Professor Faber, an old English professor he met. Faber helps him read a Bible and gives him a radio-ear piece to keep in touch with him. When Montag returns home, he finds that the fire department is about to burn his own house down for possessing the illegal books. It’s revealed that Mildred turned in her husband as she and her friends was uncomfortable by the literature. Montag’s boss, Captain Beatty forces Montag to burn down his own house and discovers his ear piece. Beatty claims he will hunt down Faber and in response, Montag burns Beatty alive and flees the city as a fugitive to find Faber. The two go to the countryside where all the old book-lovers have been exiled and forced to memorize books. Faber discusses the importance of literature and learning from the past. Foreign bombers destroy the city in an act of war and Montag, Faber, and the book-lovers return to the city to start a new society that includes literature.
One of the themes in this book is censorship. The problem with censorship is that it forces one opinion on everybody. What one individual believes is inappropriate has to become inappropriate for everybody else. This is seen in Fahrenheit 451 as all books are censored and deemed inappropriate for all when many find them to be important. Ray Bradbury, the author, said one of the goals of Fahrenheit 451 was to illustrate how censorship could get out of hand.
Another reason censorship is problematic is that censorship weakens diversity of thought. George S. Patton said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” This means that in order for our brains to grow and think properly we need to be exposed to different ideas and debate them. This novel’s dystopian society sought to eliminate that and everybody think alike by burning all the different ideas in books. This principle can be seen today as more and more people are becoming to offended to hear an opinion different from their own and force everybody to see the world their way. This is the issue Fahrenheit 451 addresses by showing how society ceases to advance, even when technology does, if humankind is told to agree on everything. Ironically, this book on censorship has been censored and banned itself in several schools for its language and grotesque imagery but its message should be taught in schools: if we want to be more intelligent about the world we can’t censor viewpoints that are different. ...more "

Feb 15, 2018 10:51PM · see review

Ethan Petersen is currently reading

The Westing Game

by Ellen Raskin

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Ethan Petersen said: " The Westing Game
The Westing Game is a Newberry Medal winning book by Ellen Raskin. It’s a mystery novel filled with drama and humor.
It’s about a wealthy entrepreneur named Sam Westing whose paper business is so successful he owns a mansion, an apar The Westing Game
The Westing Game is a Newberry Medal winning book by Ellen Raskin. It’s a mystery novel filled with drama and humor.
It’s about a wealthy entrepreneur named Sam Westing whose paper business is so successful he owns a mansion, an apartment building, and mayorship of the town. But after a near-fatal car accident, Westing disappeared. The book actually begins later when 12 people randomly win apartments in Westing’s apartment building, for unknown reasons. After a couple of months after moving in, Sam Westing is reported dead in his mansion. 16 people, including all 12 of the apartment winners are requested to hear Westing’s will as heirs. They all seem to have some minor connection to Westing but nothing in common. They include, a niece, a bride and groom, a burglar, an annoying teenager, a dressmaker, a birdwatcher, a judge, a delivery man, a secretary, the doorman, the maid, and others. The will says that one of the 16 heirs took Westing’s life and they are all going to play a game to find out who it was with the winner receiving his inheritance. They are divided into pairs and each given a few one-word clues. In the end, they discover that the clues were a cipher for the maid’s name: Crow. After she is arrested, the teenager, Turtle, defends Crow before the judge using the heirs as witnesses and the will as evidence. In doing so she discovers that they were actually supposed to find Westing himself who was actually alive. Crow is released and everybody assumes that there is no answer but Turtle secretly rushes to the library to win the game and find Westing who was disguised as the doorman the whole time.
This was a complex novel that I had to read multiple times before I understood it. Not only does it unravel a confusing mystery involving 16 people but the omniscient point of view makes the narration a lot more open-ended to all the subplots and characters’ thoughts. It’s so omniscient that sometimes character’s thoughts or opinions are told as facts rather than their own personal thoughts. It’s as if the role of narrator shifts from Raskin to character to character. Also, with 16 separate characters there has to be several scenes. A common theme I noticed was not introducing the scene or its characters to begin each scene, but beginning instead with random dialogue so that you don’t know who and where the scene is until you’re halfway through. This unique style of writing mixed in with some sarcastic humor and plot twists makes following the novel more difficult than one would think.
I really enjoyed this book, not just for the exciting mystery and humor, but the omniscient point of view as it further delved into characters than other novels do. Many other novels just follow one character and their thoughts so you can only see the story through one person’s perspective. But the truth about stories and life is that everybody sees the world and what’s happening differently with different opinions so the world isn’t as black and white as it seems to many of us. Portraying the story through 16 pairs of eyes instead of just one makes you draw your conclusions on the story instead of being biased by the one protagonist you have to follow. This style of writing and compelling mystery is probably what won The Westing Game the Newberry Medal ...more "

Feb 15, 2018 09:34PM · see review