Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit

451

Es'Sence Dixon ESC 721 Professor Coggins

F451 Checklist

Individuality

Books

A Conscious

Group-Think

Kerosene

Rebellious Spirit

Freewill

Matches

Courage

Lighter

Curiousity

"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind."

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel, written in 1953, that presents a seemingly ideal (for some), soceity in which books are banned and burned. Technology and ignorance reign supreme. Firefighters no longer put out the fires, they instead start them. *F451 was banned in libraries throughout the years 2000-2009. Reasons for banning: Burning of the bible Overthrowing the government

“I am a preventer of futures, not a predictor of them. I wrote Fahrenheit 451 to prevent book-burnings, not to induce that future into happening, or even to say that it was inevitable.”

Ray Bradbury

Bradburys purpose for writing Fahrenheit 451 was to show how we as a society can easily follow what everyone else is doing, unconsciously becoming ignorant by believing all that is given to us.

• Knowledge vs Ignorance

• Individualism vs Conformity

• Censorship as a form of control

• Technology's destructive ability

F451 Themes

F451 Themes

Stand Out Characters

Clarisse McClellan

Professor faber

Guy montag

Guy Montag is the protagonist of the novel. He is a firefighter who meets and begins to spend time with Clarisse, who in turn begins to re-spark his curiousity of the world.

Clarisse McClellan is the young lady who challenges Guy's worldview. She is the representation of intellectual freedom and individualism

Professor Faber is a retired English Professor who becomes Guy's mentor and guide. He represents wisdom and the preservation of knowledge

Potential essential Questions

How does the government in the novel control and manipulate information, and what are the consequences of this control, and how does it relate to society today?

What is the role of memory and knowledge preservation in the novel, and why is it important for the characters to remember and cherish books?

Are we limiting ourselves to the information we see and learn by only using techonology?

Socratic Seminar

Encourage Free Thinking & Individualism

Compare Montag's society to todays

Consider a world without reading

We live in a world of follow the leader. I want students to consider Montag's position and how detrimental following behind everyone else can be. I also want students to be encouraged to stand for what they believe in. Are we being controlled?

In some ways a book can serve as a glance into our future. F451 is one of those that has slowly but surely become accurate in many ways.

The more dependent we become on technology the further we move away from books and traditional reading. Are we missing out on knowledge and information when we move away from traditional book reading?

Supplementary #1

This article written for The New Yorker explores popular banned book titles and the reason for banning. The article also offers insight as to what children could actually learn from some those titles. The image that accompanied the article can mean many different things. One of the main things being that you can uncover and find anything in a book.

How a banned book helped us find our voice

Supplementary number two is a TEDTalk surrounding the experience of two young ladies who are working to reverse a book ban in their school district that resulted in the ban of books that promote diversity and inclusion

This picture would serve as a visual supplementary piece to accompany the theme of the book. It is a visual represenation of standing out from the crowd and individually thinking and having individual ideas.

Fahrenheit 451 the movie

Students & Their reactions

• Excitment from books being banned and burned

• Excitment of relying on technology and socializing

• Confusion with firefighter STARTING the fires instead of putting them out

Teaching to 11th & 12th grade students

For a class activity, students can participate in an escape room based on the books themes. I would design the escape room in a way where they can find information in either a book or through the use of techonology but not both. In doing this, there would have to be a group decision. The purpose of this would be to show the effects of following the crowd instead of thinking for themselves.

As a potential assignment, students can imagine and create their own dystopian world in which technology is banned. They can explore how that could change the course of society either for the better or worse. Students would be asked to incorporate their own personal feelings about a world without technology. Would they ban it all together? Would there be a limit to how often techonology is used? They would be encouraged to consider the pros and cons of life without technology. Fahrenheit 451 unit is a unit that can be worked over the course of three to four weeks depending on how in depth the lessons go. There are many ways to be able to connect this book to life currently.