Comparing The Giver and Farenheight 451 Here are two societies. One is the society in The Giver; there is no war, crime, and hunger. Every person has a job although the job is assigned by government. Another society is the one in Farenheight 451. Firemen are people whose job is to hunt down and burn books in the society. Both of the two societies are not normal. There are some similarities and differences between The Giver and Farenheight 451. First, there are main characters that have similar characteristics in two societies. In The Giver Jonas does not easily accept rules of the society since he wanders between the truth and rules of the community. Montag, the main character in Farenheight 451, is a book-burning fireman. One day he decided read the books which he burns. As a result, he steals some books and hides them in his home in violation of the rules of the community. Secondly, people in both of the two societies do not think the past seriously because the past has just passed. In The Giver people do not want to remind of a little dead boy in their mind. Also, people in Farenheight 451 do not read a book since the book such as biography of David Carperfield makes people remind of the past. However, an impression people can get from those two forms are quite different since one is a written book whereas the other is film. Written words have obvious and clear meanings so that readers can have crystal clear feelings. For example, in The Giver the readers may be able to feel clear meaning of the paragraph, He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry. No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving (p.70), since it is written in words. While, film Farenheight 451 cannot have those same effects on the audience since it carry its theme on a screen. It cannot describe the details like The Giver. Here is another difference between The Giver and Farenheight 451. The Giver, almost all the information is carried to people by the Givers memories since people could recognize other societies by books even though there are some ordinary books in every house. On the other hand, in Farenheight 451, there is only TV and no books since books are considered as something which makes people unhappy and guilty, so people are banned to have books in their home. That is, books make people melancholy because there are some ideas in those books like philosophy or sociology. Finally, when some people who committed a crime or violated some rules are punished, the people in the society in The Giver cannot know how they are to be punished. And there is only one word, release, meaning the punishment. On the other hand, in the film, Farenheight 451, the people could see the scene of punishment by TV. Both the societies in The Giver and Farenheight 451, were the ones under controls and there is no freedom to the people in the societies. While I compare and contrast these two societies, I feel grateful to have freedom such as I can buy books, read them, and do study which I want. Reference Lowry, L. (1993). The Giver. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Free Essays: Destructive Competition Exposed in Cantor’s Dilemma
Destructive Competition Exposed in Cantor’s Dilemma
Competition is often useful as a means of motivation. However, in the scientific world, competition has the potential to cause many scientists to forget their main purpose in research. The main goal of scientific research is to develop knowledge that will better society. When scientists work together to help each other reach a common goal, science is working as it should.
However, with so much competition to be the best scientist, make the most money, and possibly win the Nobel Prize, it is difficult for scientists to share ideas. Many scientists are very secretive. Carl Djerassi, a world famous scientist, describes this competition in his fictional novel, Cantor’s Dilemma. In his novel, he demonstrates the secrecy that competition encourages when two scientists, Cantor and Stafford, complete an important experiment. Cantor does not want to publish the full experimental details right away. He explains, “No, I’d like to string this out a bit. Just a preliminary communication first, without the experimental details, so that nobody can jump on the bandwagon right away.”
Scientists are very concerned with the idea that another scientist may get hold of their work and claim it as his or her own. In Cantor’s Dilemma, Cantor decides to which journal he will send his manuscript based on his prior knowledge of referees. Referees review the experiment and pass it along to other scientists for verification of the results. He did not want an American referee to leak the news. Therefore, he sent the manuscript to London where an American referee would not have the opportunity to see the article.
Many scientists adopt other people’s ideas as their own. Surprisingly, this often happens unintentionally. Djerassi describes grant requests in Cantor’s Dilemma. When a grant request is sent in, most of the people on the review board are the scientist’s competition. Since they are dealing with ideas and not completed work, the review board has the opportunity to steal ideas. Cantor describes that, “[Members of the review board] can’t help but remember what [they] read, and after a while, say a few months or even weeks later, [they] forget where [they] first saw it and gradually [they] think it’s their own idea.” For this reason, most scientists do not give many details when they are applying for a grant.
Competition also can influence a scientist into producing fraudulent results.
