Fahrenheit 451

An Introduction

Historical Context

World War II had ended only a few years before

Era of McCarthyismThreat of nuclear warfare loomedMany Sci-Fi books and movies

reflected this fear

Predict or Prevent?

Bradbury claimed he was trying to “prevent the future”.

He did foresee many future developments:– Walkmans, earbuds,

big-screen and interactive t.v., rise in violence, growing illiteracy, condensation of info into “sound bites”

Settings

Historical Setting

Physical Setting

Social Setting

Themes To Watch For

Individual self-expression is important.

Violence is self-destructive.

Mindless pleasure seeking and materialism make for an empty life.

Humanity should preserve and value the culture of the past.

More Themes

Humanity has the ability to be reborn or revived.

In the wrong hands, modern technology can be dangerous.

Commercialism can erode spiritual values.

People lose their humanity when not able to communicate and interact with each other on a personal level.

Symbols To Investigate

Fire Burning Water The salamander The Mechanical

Hound Seashells Parlor Walls Titles of each

section

Names

Guy Montag– Guy Fawkes?– Name of a paper

company Clarisse

– Form of Clara, from the Latin for “bright”

– Clarisse is often associated with a brightness different from that of a fire

Faber– Name of a pencil

company

Fire Imagery

Many cultures have gods associated with fire– Egyptian goddess

Sekhet Many myths try to

explain the origin– Greek myth about

Prometheus stealing fire from the gods

Scientists used to believe all matter was made of the 4 elements: fire, earth, water, & air

Connections & Background Info: The Hearth and the Salamander

Ben Franklin helped organize America’s first fire company and founded its first circulating library.

Franklin was also a writer and printer who believed in free speech and press.

Connections & Background Info: The Hearth and the Salamander Dante: Dante Alighieri was an Italian

poet who wrote The Divine Comedy Jonthan Swift: Author of Gulliver’s

Travels Marcus Aurelius: Roman philosopher

and emperor Hamlet: You know this one! Little Black Sambo: children’s book

with racial stereotypes that are offensive Uncle Tom’s Cabin: novel that

condemns slavery

Section II

The Sieve and the Sand

Connections & Background Info: The Sieve and the SandAuthors mentioned by

Montag:

Thomas Jefferson Henry David

Thoreau: author of famous essay on civil disobedience, and Walden.

Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government) is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849.

It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice.

Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican/American War.

Walden The work is part personal

declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, and manual for self reliance

He hoped to isolate himself from society to gain a more objective understanding of it

Simple living, self-reliance, Transcendentalist.

Connections & Background Info: The Sieve and the Sand

Texts: “Dover Beach” by

Matthew Arnold-Reflects a personal sense of isolation and doubt. Montag does not read aloud the first two stanzas.

Connections & Background Info: The Sieve and the SandTexts:The Bible:

– Montag attempts to read a portion of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount that criticizes materialism.

– Another character reads to Montag from the Book of Job, about a man whose faith is tested by a series of great calamities.

– The Bible has often been a target of censorship.– When the New Testament was 1st transalted into

English by William Tyndale, copies were seized and burned. (He was also burned at the stake as a heretic.)

Connections & Background Info: The Sieve and the SandBeatty’s Quotes and Paraphrases:Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

– “Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.”

– “He doth nothing but talk of his horse.”– “The Devil can cite Scripture for his

purpose.”

Section III

Burning Bright

Connections & Background Info: Burning BrightWilliam Blake’s “The Tyger”

Tyger! Tyger! Burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?

Connections & Background Info: Burning Bright “Old Montag

wanted to fly near the Sun and ... he's burned his wings”– Daedalus and

Icarus

Connections & Background Info: Burning Bright“You think you can walk on water”There is no terror, Cassius, in your

threats, for I am arm’d so strong in honesty that they pass by me as an idle wind, which I respect not”– Julius Caesar, IV, iii

Connections & Background Info: Burning BrightThomas Hardy: British novelist & poet

Charles Darwin: Survival of the fittest

Aristophanes: Ancient Greek playwright

Connections & Background Info: Burning Bright“Mr. Lincoln”: yes, it’s Abraham Lincoln

Machiavelli: The Prince

The Phoenix