Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page A Ray Bradbury Novel Guide brillig_carrot_bianca Note The text used to prepare this novel guide was published by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page C Fahrenheit 451 Table of Contents Instructions Overview . 1 How to Use This Guide . 1 Timeline . 2 Before We Start Lesson Plan Details . 3 Background . 5 Author Biography . 5 Book Summary . 6 Character List . 8 Synopsis . 9 Vocabulary Definition List . 10 Pre-Reading Questions . 13 Novel Road Map to Success . 14 Overall Grading Rubric . 18 Target on Text Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander Teaching Essentials . 21 Activities . 23 Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand Teaching Essentials . 35 Activities . 37 Part Three: Burning Bright Teaching Essentials . 51 Activities . 53 Reflect on Reading Lesson Plan Details . .67 Discussion Questions . .69 Activities/Projects . 72 Pre-Reading Question Review . 77 Final Test . 79 Answer Key . 83 Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page 3 Fahrenheit 451 Before We Start his section contains preparatory information and activities for both you and your students. You receive T background information on the novel. Students get a character list, synopsis, vocabulary definition list, pre-reading questions, novel road map to success, and overall grading rubric. LESSON PLAN DETAILS 1. Character List—hand out for student reference 2. Synopsis—hand out and discuss in class (20 minutes) 3. Vocabulary Definition List—hand out for student reference 4. Pre-Reading Questions—hand out and have students complete in class (20 minutes) 5. Novel Road Map to Success—hand out for students to complete as they read 6. Overall Grading Rubric—hand out and discuss (20 minutes) 3 Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page 5 Fahrenheit 451 Background... Just for YOU! Author Biography Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920. Because his mother was crazy about the movies, his parents gave him the middle name “Douglas” after the actor, Douglas Fairbanks. Bradbury started writing when he was about ten years old using pieces of butcher paper. The family moved to Los Angeles when he was fourteen, and Bradbury met comedian George Burns, who was then a radio star. Burns gave Bradbury his first writing job when Bradbury contributed a joke to the Burns & Allen Show. Bradbury did not pursue a formal education after he graduated from high school. However, he spent time in the library, and he continued to write. To make a living, he sold newspapers on Los Angeles street corners. In 1940, Bradbury published his first story, “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma,” in an amateur fan magazine, Imagination! (In 1939, he published four issues of his own fan magazine, Futuria Fantasia, most of which he wrote.) Bradbury’s first paid publication was the short story “Pendulum” in Super Science Stories, 1941. Dozens of other stories in various publications like Weird Tales followed, culminating in his first short story collection, 1947’s Dark Carnival (later redone as The October Country). In that same year on September 27, he married Marguerite (“Maggie”) McClure, whom he had met when she was a clerk in a book store. (Marguerite died on November 24, 2003.) They have four daughters—Susan, born 1949; Ramona, born 1951; Bettina, born 1955; and Alexandra, born 1958—and eight grandchildren. Bradbury’s reputation as a major science-fiction writer was established when he published The Martian Chronicles in 1950. In 1953, he published his best-known novel, Fahrenheit 451, expanded from his 1950 story, “The Fireman,” written for Galaxy magazine. The novel was also serialized in 1953 in Playboy. (Because he couldn’t afford an office, he composed the book on a rented typewriter in a university basement. He fed dimes into a timer, one every half-hour; the entire enterprise cost him $9.80.) Bradbury—who counts among his life-long friends the special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen (stop-motion animator of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and many other movies) and Forrest J. Ackerman, long-time editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine—has also written poems, dramas, and film scripts (most notably the 1956 Moby Dick, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck). Ironically, considering Fahrenheit 451’s opinion about television, his stories have been frequently dramatized on TV on The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Ray 5 brillig_carrot_bianca Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page 6 Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury Theatre. The Martian Chronicles became a mini-series in 1980; Something Wicked This Way Comes became a disappointing feature film in 1983; and Fahrenheit 451 was famously, if not exactly faithfully, filmed in 1966 by famous French director François Truffaut (his only English-language picture), starring Julie Christie. Bradbury has received the World Fantasy Award and Stoker Award for life achievement and the Science Fiction Writers Association Grand Master Award, and he is a Science Fiction Hall of Fame Living Inductee. On November 17, 2004, President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, presented Bradbury a National Medal of the Arts. In addition to his many literary prizes, Bradbury also has a couple of astronomical tributes: There is an asteroid named in his honor, (9766) Bradbury, and an Apollo astronaut named a moon crater “Dandelion Crater” after Bradbury’s novel, Dandelion Wine (which, ironically, is not a science fiction novel). Bradbury suffered a stroke in 2001. He still lives in Los Angeles and writes daily. Sources: http://www.spaceagecity.com/bradbury/bio.htm, http://www.raybradburyonline.com/biography.htm Book Summary Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic American city at a time when reading books is prohibited in an attempt to make everyone “equal” and prevent uneasiness of mind. Technology that entertains and distracts its citizens from all things worrisome or disturbing fills homes, schools, and even subway trains. The citizens live well. In fact, they live better than those in the rest of the world, and they are despised by others in the world because they have so much excess. Consequently, conflicts have arisen. Two atomic wars have been fought and won since 1990, but these events go relatively unnoticed by the country’s zombie-like citizens. Ironically, firemen (like the novel’s protagonist, Montag) are not public servants who put out fires, but storm troopers who burn caches of books. They are the censors, the “custodians of…peace of mind.” When Montag begins to question the status quo, when he starts to keep and read some of the books he’s supposed to burn, he soon finds himself at odds with the brave new world of which he is a part. Background Fahrenheit 451, like most futuristic science fiction novels, comments upon contemporary society. Very often, a writer will take some aspect of current society and extrapolate, imagining what would happen if that trend or behavior were taken to its farthest degree and then show us the (usually negative) consequences. Bradbury’s book is in the tradition of other science fiction novels such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). Brave New World depicts a 6 brillig_carrot_bianca Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page 8 Fahrenheit 451 Before We Start Handout 1 Name Date Hour Character List Below is a list of the major characters you need to know. Guy Montag: He is the thirty-year-old fireman who realizes his life is empty and oppressive. He searches for meaning in books and from others like him. Mildred Montag: She is Montag’s sickly wife who uses painkillers and TV to avoid facing her own problems. She doesn’t understand Montag’s strange behavior and wishes he would return to his old self. Clarisse McClellen: She is the innocent seventeen-year-old girl and outcast who teaches Montag to appreciate beauty, question his world, and seek happiness. Captain Beatty: He is the captain of the fire department who is well-read but hates books. He notices Montag’s change and anticipates his every move. Professor Faber: He is the retired English professor and self-proclaimed coward who blames himself and others like him for the oppressive state of society. He teaches Montag about the importance of books and helps Montag carry out his plan. Granger: He is the leader of the book people who has a plan to preserve literature through the Dark Age until they are ready to rebuild. Mrs. Phelps: She is one of Mildred’s zombie-like friends who seems unconcerned that her husband is fighting in the war. Mrs. Bowles: She is another one of Mildred’s friends who leads an empty life and does not care that she has lost three husbands and that her children hate her. Stoneman and Black: They are firemen who perform their duties without question. Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, four days after the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution (guaranteeing women’s right to vote). 8 brillig_carrot_bianca Fahrenheit451_NG 8/19/06 11:53 AM Page 9 Fahrenheit 451 Before We Start Handout 2 Name Date Hour Synopsis This novel guide offers strategies for critical reading and literary analysis. It also offers suggestions for discussing and debating issues surrounding censorship and the importance of being a critical and individual thinker. Finally, it serves to reinforce ethical attitudes, reminding you that citizens of a democratic nation must fight to uphold ideals set forth in the Constitution. Fahrenheit 451, with Bradbury’s rich use of metaphorical and symbolic language, creates a literary experience that offers immediacy and stimulates discussion. You are likely to be drawn to the hero and his journey from blind participant in a suppressive society to aware individual in a sterile, thoughtless environment to rebel against the status quo and, finally, to welcomed outcast in a forest of free thinkers.