Text Exploration for: The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore

Text Exploration for: The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore

Possible Leads:
-Pointless.
-Unique narrative style.
-Humanizes.

Text Exploration:
"I think everybody on that team, lost the feeling of immortality1. We went out and lost the championship by 20 points. I missed every shot I took. I missed everything2.
"So" I asked Adrian. "You think Julian will make it all the way3?"
"Maybe, maybe4."" (Alexie, 47).

1. Immortality is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as "the quality or state of someone or something that will never die or be forgotten." I was kind of wondering why they had felt so immortal before. For literally the entire history of the reservation, people in their shoes had been trying the same things as them, and every single person who had tried it was eventually defeated. No one, as Victor says, made it off of the res. Maybe though, the story was narrated by Victor for a reason. He was the one who believed in himself, when it was his turn to try and be the reservation hero, and he is always the one who believes in the newcomers.

2. When Victor states "I missed everything," it seemed kind of odd to me that he would put it this way. He shows no emotion at all in this sentence, even though it was the biggest failure of his life. I am wondering why it seems that he doesn't care about his own experience, and that all he thinks about is the next person to make it all the way?

3. The fact that he is asking about Julian right after talking about his own failure is interesting. He obviously connects the two. Also, I notice that it puts a lot of pressure on the reservation hero to succeed. Everybody in the town focuses on them winning. They are the very top of the heap, and if they can't make it, no one can. And yet there is no one for the kid to rely on, no role model that they have. They are destined to fail almost, because they have no precedent on how to succeed. And of course, everybody in the town was counting on that one person. So when they fail, the next reservation hero already sees how he is going to turn out. It's a cycle that all of them know about (none of their heroes are succeeding), but none of them know how to fix. Maybe this relates to how they all drink alcohol. Victor is one of the only ones who doesn't accept that this will keep happening forever, as he stops drinking alcohol and is still looking for the next hero.

4.Adrian's Response "Maybe, maybe" makes it seem as though he doesn't think he will. If he had any confidence he would have said yes, to cheer up his friend. It just shows how for them they think everything has been predestined. They have seen the same repeating story so many times that they no longer have much hope. The only sign of hope I see throughout the story is from Victor, in Lucy. Again, it seems like it is just him who believes that they can get out of the tradition of having no one ever get off the res.

*Sorry that I didn't use OED I couldn't find how to access it.

Blood child Chart

The Smallest Woman in the World Table Notes

Sorry its sideways I couldn't find a way to rotate it.

Reflection on the Semester

Overall
Overall I am pretty happy with the grades I have received, but I think that I can do better. Even though my grades are acceptable to me, I am looking for improvement this next semester.

Questions/Confusions/Troubles:
- This isn't directly related to my writing, but I'm not sure how to sign up for an appointment at the writing center.
- I couldn't find my notes on retroactive grading.
- I am not really sure what the difference between gesturing to an idea and digesting is.

Goals/Methods:
- Give myself more time to look over my essays, and make sure that within each paragraph my evidence/analysis match what I am trying to say.
- In the essays we have this semester, I would like to meet with Mr. Garces Kiley once, and meet with the writing center at least once.
- Turn in reading notes, and turn in retroactive grading for every essay that we do this semester.
- Keep participating in class.

Reflection Project

Rough Draft of Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Cale Houghton

The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about a man named Montag living in a dystopian future, where books are burned and society is brainwashed by technology. Montag works as a fireman, but in this reality, firemen don’t put out fires, they make them. Montag, his Captain Beatty, and the rest of the fire crew burn books, houses that contain books, and occasionally, the people who own the books. Their only goal is to eradicate books. To the firemen, its a great time. They all seem to love fire though. As Beatty says it, “Fire is bright, fire is clean,” (p.60).

In contrast to this though, Montag begins to steal books from the hidden libraries that he is supposed to be burning. It might seem like a curiosity at first, but Montag continues stealing books over the span of several months. And when Captain Beatty visits him at his home, he admits that he once stole books. But thats not all, he goes so far to admit that, “At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch. What do the books say, he wonders. Oh, to scratch that itch, eh? Well, Montag, take my word for it, I’ve had to read a few books in my time,” (Bradbury, 62). So, here, he is not only admitting to having read books himself, but he is also saying that EVERY firemen reads a book sometime in his career. So this brings me to the question, if firemen are supposed to despise books, but they all eventually steal a book to read, so what is it that pulls them towards books?

The reason that firemen such as Montag are pulled toward books is that their life is dull and repetitive, and books seem like a symbol of freedom that they need to save. We can see strong examples of how they feel that their life is monotonous in the connections they make to things around them. They feel like books need to be saved because they compare them to a living creature.

Montags life of destruction is very repetitive and monotonous.

One way I can tell this is that he feels connected to the Mechanical Hound, which has one purpose, to destroy.

Montag also feels connected to fire itself, which also has only the purpose of destruction in this book. At the start of the book Montag describes his everyday work as, “His hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of burning and blazing,” (Bradbury, 3). The fact that he is comparing his relationship with fire to a relationship with a human, especially a conductor to a musician, shows that he is feels very related to it. To further prove this connection between Montag and fire, later in the book when he feels like he is productive instead of destructive, he sees fire for the first time being productive, and giving warmth. This is the first time that he feels that he is being productive, (Bradbury, 146). The reason that this shows his life is repetitive is that he is comparing himself to fire. Fire follows a predictable pattern, and is used in their society for one thing: Destroying. When Montag feels a kinship to it, it shows he also feels like all he does is destroy.

The way this affects Montag is that it makes him feel bad for the books.

It’s true that at first he does feel happy when he burns books. Later in the book though, he feels remorse when he burns books.

Books also appear as though they are birds to Montag. At the very start of the book, when Montag is first introduced, the narrator speaks of the books as, “the flapping pigeon winged books died on the porch,” (Bradbury, 3). Also, later in the book the author describes that, “a book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering,” (Bradbury, 37). So here the author describes them as flapping, winged, pigeons, and able to die, on multiple occasions. If he just saw a book burning he probably wouldn’t feel remorse. But seeing an animal dying is very different. He would feel remorse that he was killing something, especially a bird, because birds often represent freedom. So, if he were to burn one he would feel like he was burning his freedom.

In conclusion, firemen become depressed in their monotonous life, and they feel guilty destroying books, so they end up saving books instead, because to them books represent freedom. The reason that I think it is books that represent freedom, and not something else, is because books are what is restricted by the government. The government is the only ones who really know the meaning of why books are restricted, and they are the only ones who know about these mysterious wars that they say will be short and easy, even when cities get blown up. So with this oppressive government, anything they withhold might make people subconsciously think of it as freedom.

Tree-Web Fahrenheit 451

Sorry if it's too hard to read, I had difficulty taking the picture in my lighting. I can try again though if needed.