Fear & Pain

This is a response to the novel Fahrenheit 451, a story about a distopic world that revolves around fear. I wrote a response to the quote "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" relates to Montag in this story. This is how I thought it related to him.

Frederick Nietzsche once said "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." This is what happens in so many lives with people who have pain that forces them to go forward. They spend their entire life trying to lose this pain that is inside of them -- a pain that is making them stronger without them realizing it. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 Montag, the main character, learns to open his eyes causing him an unbearable pain of knowledge -- a heavy weight set upon his shoulders to save people from living their life of not knowing. This causes him to keep going forward, to be stronger; have a purpose. Strength can come from fear and pain; these are what keep us going and give us purpose.

Fear is a weapon, a strength, a weakness; it is a force that drives many and a weakness that kills many. The country Montag lives in is based on fear -- a simple force that the government uses to control millions of people. This weapon causes people to do things they wouldn't do in their right mind. "He glanced at his hands to see what new thing they had done." This is what Montag did right before he killed Beatty and it was all from the fear of being arrested and taken to jail; he couldn't believe that he going to kill a person because he was afraid.

Strength comes from fear yet is also comes from a pain that is not strong enough to kill but is strong enough to hurt. After Montag kills Beatty the mechanical hound stabs him with the needle that injects a poison into his legs; he described it as thousand of needles stabbing his leg. With pain the strength comes from being able to look past the pain and keep moving forward with a purpose.

When the quote "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" was thought up there had to have been many things to consider. First would be the task of finding something that doesn't kill you yet still makes you stronger -- this might lead to fear and pain. These are things that people have to get through to keep going -- they make a person stronger. Without these people wouldn't have to try hard to keep going; without these people wouldn't have strength. Sometimes people need an extra push to get them through the pain and fear -- sometimes people need a purpose.