If It Were Fahrenheit 451

revised

   I only had a few books that were my favorites in school. The first story I ever read was some story about fish and chips and the value of teamwork. There were a number of books and stories that I enjoyed reading. The Great Gatsby was my favorite book.

   If it were anything, there were two books I wish they would burn. Throw them in the damn fire and quit force feeding them to the children. If someone doesn't want to read something, why make them read it? The need to force me to read books made me not want to read at all. Yet, I wrote. It might not make any sense.  

   During my freshman year in high school, I read this book called The Pearl. I was not interested in the novel because the teacher was asking the most impossible questions to answer. I wanted to take that book and set it ablaze on the classroom floor. It was a book of greed and deceit. It was about being a phony just to get something that you wanted. I never got the point. The book was the most awful thing I had ever read.

  Not too long after I had read The Pearl, I was forced to read Mark Twain. After the first two pages I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. "N****r" was the main word that was used throughout the book and I was offended. I had read in Fahrenheit 451 that if you don't want to read something, put the book down.

   I let the teacher know that I was disgusted. Her only response was that Mark was not a racist man, he was against slavery. Not against slavery. How was this so? It may have been the way to speak then. It doesn't prove to me that he wasn't racist just because he didn't support slavery. I was mortified. Then something happened that taught me the word repetition.

   I was given a choice to read a different book. Yeah, I was up for that. Leave it to the teacher to give something offensive to a student. I was given the choice to read either the racist sounding book or, drum roll please, The Pearl. I just got done reading that tripe! I spent so much trouble reading it the first time to do it again? Why not something new? Perhaps she was too lazy to make up impossible questions for another book. There were no real decisions at all here. I had to read Mark Twain. I just skimmed the pages.

   To add insult to injury, there was a movie based on The Pearl. What injustice this world serves. I avoided the movie like the plague. I am almost interested to see if anyone actually went to see this movie. The people who attended the film probably did not face the same torture as me. Perhaps the director had suffered from reading the book he made the movie to relieve his anguish.

 

Author's Note

by destroying something, I wish to mock it

Reviews

[THE BLACK SEAL]

lol just on i just skimmed the pages was misspelled but over all i enjoyed this, even though i do lile twain and i understand how by speaking that way in the book it was necessary to accurately portray the period of time he wished to convey. we learn nothing through denial we should instead analize the past and see its flaws so that we can move forward with the proper knowledge gathered. good write

[TL Boehm]

Nice bite to this piece. I also love the way you used 'tripe' in this piece.

[Anthony Morningstar]

Just had to check something. I like the Pearl and dislike the Great Gatsby.

But does that take away from this contest. Hell no. I like how you used the word tripe as well. This is really well written. And it's really funny the way that some teachers do such things as that. Well here you go you don't like this garbage well here you go I don't think this one smells that bad. What's worse though is when the teacher tries to call you lazy because you disagree with something that they try to hand out as homework.

This is really great thanks for posting this.

[talibislam]

That was hilarious! I remember the pearl from when I was a kid too. I didn't get past the first chapter.