The meaning of Kate Middleton's Wedding Dress.

     My favorite column was "What will Kate Middleton's wedding dress look like?" by Robin Givhan, because I find the whole concept of the hype that surrounded the royal wedding funny. One of the strangest things about the Royal Family in Britain is that it's really just for show. The Queen, Prince Charles, the whole lot of them don't really yeild any power other than being the figurehead for the millions of people Britain still has somewhat control over. So when the Queen's grandson, who could basically choose from any woman in the whole world (I mean come on, he's a freaking prince!) chooses to mary a commoner, the whole world makes such a big deal that people on California woke up at about 2am just to watch Kate and William get married. Which leads me too all the hype. I remember when William and Kate announced their engagement, in December 2010. For the next  five months, it was completely insane how much information the news could squeeze out of this. The best quote out of this column was by far "Now we can focus on that other crucial wedding planning decision: What will the gown look like? And what might it mean?" 

Imagine me sighing heavily.

But in all seriousness, what can a dress mean. It's a freaking dress. Do dresses now have some inner meaning other than to be what you wear when you getting married. Is there now some type of way to make a dress have some inner meaning? Well, to be quite honest, I couldn't care less.

My mom woke up at 5:00am to watch the wedding. She says it was kind of a sentimental thing. She watched when Diana and Charles got married in '81 and   through the eyes of People Magazine (which she no longer subcribes to, citing not having enough time) and saw their two kids, William and Harry, grow up. She's sentimental like that. Now, for five years, I've held a long-honored tradition of waking up and watching Sportscenter. This was one of those days where that didn't happen. I got up at 5:30, as I have for a long time, and went downstairs to see a woman in a white dress with a 8 or so foot long piece of silk dragging behind the back of it. And now, Ms. Givhan, I can answer your question, the meaning of the dress is...there is no meaning.

Kate Middleton's actual wedding dress, with the long train.

Fahrenheit 451 Theme Project Handout

 Censorship diminishes individual thought.

Timeline:

1. Montag met Clarisse and she changed the way he thinks. She made him more curious about the society.
2. After they burned the old lady and her house Montag started to question the procedure that the firefighters use. Also while Montag was in the house, he took a book from her house. 
3. Montag pretended to be sick from the nervousness from stealing the book. He planned on involving Mildred with his crime. He had a change of heart towards Beatty.
4. Montag decided to go to Faber after numerous events in which he found a bible and exposed himself to Mildred, and wanted someone to help him in his new way of thinking.
5. Montag returned home to find Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps at his house. They angered him when they talked lightly about their husbands which caused him to recite Dover Beach despite Faber telling him otherwise causing Bowles and Phelps to storm off distraught and Mildred cursing him.
6. After the reciting of the poem, the call for a burning was actually for Montag’s house. At that time Montag and Beatty confront each other, causing Beatty to take out the device Faber used to communicate. The two fought until it came to gruesome end in which Montag burned Beatty before the hound came, for that is what is Beatty wished.
7. After this incident, Montag had officially became a convict. He had planted a book into one of his colleague’s home and had made the run for it after he learned that the hound was nothing but accurate. When Montag finally made it to the forest he had noticed a fire in a way in which he never had before and met the intellectuals/book people, who had noticed who Montag was and welcomed him. Shortly after meeting they were met with the site of the city’s aftermath from being bombed.

• The theme helps us understand the censorship that affects their everyday thoughts and opinions on society and law.

• Censorship still occurs today because children’s programs are censored of adult content.

Quotes:

“Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone…” (Bradbury 8)

“Then he began to read in a low, stumbling voice that grew firmer as he progressed from line to line and his voice went out across the desert into the whiteness, and around the three sitting women there in the great hot emptiness.” (Bradbury 97).

“And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering manikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him...Beatty flopped over and over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent.” (Bradbury 113).

Fahrenheit 451: Final Thought

     Fahrenheit 451 is probably the most thought provoking story I have ever read. A riveting, honest portrayal of the future, it is also a way for the author, Ray Bradbury, to vent his feelings on the censorship of books. What's ironic about this book, which is about censorship, was released in the early 1950s, when the US was rampant with fears of communist infiltrators and a book about defying the government was the last thing everybody needed. I'll admit, the idea of the banning of all printed liturature seems scary when you think about how much printed liturature there is in the world. But the most striking thing about this book is that it depicts a future America. America. The land of the free and the home of the brave, now burning books to get outside thought into their people's mind. And that could be our future. I say could because you never know what's going to happen.

      I saw a trailer and a few scenes from the movie version, and it's very, VERY, different from what I envisioned as a very bland, cloudy all the time kind of world, but it seemed half decent, it had a whole big monorail system and it all seemed kind of nice, you know, except of couse, for the book burnings. I also found it really cool that Bradbury predicted the widespread use of technology, like television and bluetooth headsets, and even predicted the awkward conversations that arise because of it. "Fool, Montag, fool, fool, oh God you silly fool...""Shut up! He pulled the green bullet from his ear and jammed it into his pocket.    

                   b b  b

    Over all, it's been a pretty good book. It's interesting to see how we have a law enforcer using the stuff he's supposed to confiscate and destroy, it's like a DEA agent using drugs he takes from other people. But the drugs Montag takes are one full of uncensored knowledge and wisdom. It's a shame to see that the world Montag live's in could be our future, but it's in our hands to prevent that from happening. 

The poster for the film version.