Fahrenheit 451

By Ray Bradbury

Consider the books you have read in the past, either for school or pleasure. Which one would you point to as the most influential on you as a person? Explain in a brief paragraph why this book had such a profound impact on you. What did you learn from it? How has it affected your life or way of thinking?

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Who: Follows a man named Montag, a fireman whose job is to start fires rather than stop them.

Where: An unnamed city in the USA.

When: The 24th century

What is this book about?:

A society where books and free thought are banned.

People who are addicted to television and mind-numbing substances.

A man who fights to overturn this repression.

A mechanical dog??????

A repressive government who insists that everyone be happy and submissive.

What is this book’s genre?

• Utopia vs. Dystopia

• Utopia: an ideal community with a perfect socio-political-legal system

• Dystopia: a society in a repressive or controlled state under the guise of a utopia (anti-utopia)

• Many works of fiction are categorized as dystopian (Hunger Games, The Giver, Feed, The City of Ember)

Dystopian

Why read Fahrenheit 451?

• Understand the political and historical context of the novel.

• Draw comparisons to the present day.• Understand the nature of censorship and

some of its history.• Focus on the literary elements of character,

symbol, and allusion.

The 1950s Environment

• Involved in the Cold War with the Soviet Union• US concerned with spread of communism• Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusations rock

country• Television tries to promote perfect happiness

http://player.discoveryeducation.com/clickDirector.cfm/type/video/action/download/guidAssetID/146E9FBF-7A1D-4CF9-A017-8AF43E2BE190/strRealname/McCarthyism.asf

Censorship

• The suppression of communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, or inconvenient to the general public.

• In Fahrenheit 451, censorship actually begins with the people.

• Books and thought cause unhappiness and discontent.

Nazi Germany

“Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.”

Ballantine Books originally published the novel in 1953, but in 1967

brought out a special edition to be sold to high schools. Without informing

Bradbury or putting a note in the edition, the publisher modified seventy-five

passages in the novel in order to eliminate words like “hell,” “damn” and

“abortion.” The expurgated edition was sold for thirteen years before a friend of

Bradbury’s alerted him to the problem. Bradbury demanded that Ballantine

withdraw the version and replace it with the original. Ballantine agreed. The

publicity generated by the expurgated version of Fahrenheit 451 caused the

American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee to investigate other

school books and use its considerable economic clout to warn publishers about

expurgations and demand that any excised versions be clearly identified. (from

www.trib.com)

Why do you think people choose to censor some

material?

What do you think it reveals about a person who seeks to

censor something?

Book Challenges 2000-2009#1 Harry Potter#5 Of Mice and Men#8 The Golden Compass…#21 To Kill a Mockingbird#22 Gossip Girl series#60 Speak#74 The Lovely Bones#86 Cut#89 Friday Night Lights

Also…Crank, The Hunger Games, Twilight series, ttyl series, Diary of Anne Frank

Just Five Years Ago…

Major Characters

• Guy Montag – protagonist, fireman, married to Mildred

• Mildred Montag – Guy’s wife• Clarisse – A strange young girl who talks to

Montag one night• Beatty – antagonist, the captain of Montag’s

fire company