Spock Lesson - Ben Schultz

The party we had in honor of the one true greatest science fiction character of all time, Spock, was an allegory for the book Fahrenheit 451 and society during the fifties. Like in the book, those who had different opinions than what was considered acceptable, were shunned and put away. People who dissented or tried to bring Spock down in any manner were placed in "jail" and not allowed to return to the party. In Fahrenheit 451, those who keep books or are different from everyone else have their houses burned down. This relates to society during the 1950s and McCarthyism, when Ray Bradbury wrote the book. Those who openly said that America might not be perfect were shunned for fear of them being communists. Some artists, including Bradbury himself, were blacklisted and prevented from working for showing what were considered "un-American activities." There was no gray area. You either loved America, or were a communist. Mr. Rivers presented the same dilemma, saying that you either accepted Spock as your overlord, or were Anti-Vulcan who didn't deserve o be part of the class.