I watched Mr. Montag as he boarded the eternally obsidian subway train, mimicking the darkness inside the tunnel ahead. He was struggling for the words that were slipping away all too easily, sacred passages thousands of years old, while the flashy consonance of the ad “Denham’s Dentrifice” stole his precious jewels. This void he was slipping into, both via train and distraction, showed how much the human mind has changed. Instead of appreciating the deep and complex, we now favor the flashy and shallow. If it sounds good, looks good, and sticks like glue then its good enough, right? Here we see Mr. Montag’s first eruption of frustration, taking out his irritation on the eardrums of innocent passengers. I understand his position. I mean every day in school, when I was alive, we never got deeper on any issue than the shiny wrapper, crinkling and shining and filling everyone with the warm and fuzzy feeling of truth. Even when it was all lies. We all have our methods of expelling our frustrations. For me, it was long walks at night with nobody around. For Mr. Montag, well, lets just say he has a more explosive approach.–Clarisse McClellan