QUICKWRITES

• Write “Quickwrites” at the top of the page.

• Draw a line halfway down by the hole,

splitting your page in two.

• You have 5 minutes to write ½ a page.

• I’ll collect them when we’ve filled up a

single sheet with 4 Quickwrites.

• Full credit will be earned for ½ a page of

serious thoughts on the subject.

Instructions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Guy Montag (part 1) Late at Night (part 1)

Peculiar (part 1)

Little Things (part 1) Happy (part 1)

Too Many (part 1)

Disposable (part 1)

Dandelion (part 1) Hidden (part 1) Watching (part 1) Same Stuff (part 1) Risky (part 1)

Bigger (part 1)

Forget (part 1)

Want (part 1) Why (part 1)

Eggs (part 1)

One Book (part 2)

Lilies (part 2) Literature (part 2) Grow (part 2) Interesting (part 2) Unnecessary (part 2) Dover Beach (part 2)

Bothered (part 1)

CONTENTS continued…

Certainty (part 2) Lovely (part 2)

Run Over (part 3)

Burn (part 3) War (part 3)

Terrorist (part 3)

Alive (part 3)

Silence (part 3) Fire (part 3) Innocent (part 3) Listen (part 3) Leave Behind (part 3)

Phoenix (part 3) The Family (part 3)

Taking It In (part 3)

QUICKWRITES

Guy Montag What kind of a person just walks over the

hole in the fire station floor without

grabbing the pole until he’s fallen halfway

to the ground? What does this tell us about

Guy Montag as a person?

PART 1

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Late at Night Clarisse McClellan says that sometimes she

stays out all night walking around until the

sun comes up. What is the latest you’ve

stayed up at night, or -- should we say --

morning? What is it like? How are the

people different late at night? How does

the world feel different?

PART 1

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Little Things Clarisse pays attention to little things, like

the dew on the grass and the man on the

moon. List 10 little details about the world

that you notice.

PART 1

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Happy Clarisse asks Guy, “Are you happy?” and it

rattles his entire existence.

Now, you will answer the same question:

“Are you happy?”

Explain why or why not.

PART 1

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Peculiar Tell the story of the strangest person you

have ever met, the most peculiar, the most

different from everybody else and from

your whole life experience.

PART 1

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Too Many Montag says, “There are too many of us,

billions of us.” In what ways is he wrong?

In what ways is he right?

PART 1

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Disposable Montag says that this is the age of the

disposable tissue (i.e. Kleenex). What does

he mean by that? In what ways is he

correct? Is he saying this is a good thing or

not? Why?

PART 1

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Dandelion What kind of emotional effect does the

dandelion have on Montag? Why does a

silly little flower have such an effect? And

what does it mean that it is the last

dandelion of the season?

PART 1

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Hidden Take a guess at what Montag has hidden

behind the ventilator grill. Why would he

want to hide something like that? Why

would he be afraid of his friends at the fire

station knowing about his secret?

PART 1

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Watching Clarisse likes to watch people, to sit

someplace like the subway and watch

people. What do you think about her doing

that? Have you done that? Why? Why not?

What kinds of things do you see?

PART 1

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Same Stuff Clarisse says that when she listen to

people’s conversations they don’t say

anything important or different or unique.

Everyone says the same stuff. Nobody is

talking about new ideas. In what ways is

she correct? In what ways do you disagree?

PART 1

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Risky Why do you think Montag puts the book

under his arm? Why does he risk so much?

What does he think he’s going to get?

PART 1

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Bothered Montag tells his wife Mildred, “We need not

to be let alone. We need to be really bothered

once in awhile. How long has it been since

you’ve been really bothered by something

important, about something real?”

Now you get to answer Montag’s

question…how long has it been for you? What

was the last really important thing that

bothered you?

PART 1

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Bigger Beatty says, “The bigger the market, the

less you handle controversy.” What does he

mean by “market”? Why is controversy bad

as your market gets bigger? Overall, what is

he trying to say about ideas and the things

you say in a world where you’re trying to

make a buck and sell things?

PART 1

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Want What do we want in this country, above all?

PART 1

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Why Beatty says, “You ask why to a lot of things

and you end up very unhappy, indeed.” In

your experience, how has this been true?

How is “Why?” a bad question? So which

is better: (1) not having any answers to

anything or (2) having the answers and

being unhappy?

PART 1

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Forget Beatty says, “If you don’t want a man

unhappy, don’t give him two sides to a

question to worry him. Give him one.

Better yet, give him none. Let him forget

there is even a problem.” In what ways is

he correct? Wrong?

PART 1

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Eggs When Montag is reading the book with

Mildred, he reads, “It is computed that

eleven thousand persons have at several

times suffered death rather than submit to

break their eggs at the smaller end.”

What does this mean? How is this similar

to Montag’s situation in this society?

PART 1

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One Book If you could only keep one book in the

whole world, what book would it be? Why?

How would you decide? Would it be easy or

difficult? Why?

PART 2

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Lilies “Consider the lilies of the field” … when

Montag reads this part from the Bible, how

do you think it impacts him at this point in

his story?

Read the entire passage on the next slide

and discuss this question. Analyze any

important words, phrases, or ideas.

PART 2

Lilies “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what

you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put

on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the

birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet

your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why

are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow;

they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in

all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the

grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the

furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry

then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we

wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your

heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His

kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day

has enough trouble of its own.”

PART 2

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Literature Faber says, “The good writers touch life

often. the mediocre ones run a quick hand

over her. The bad ones rape her and leave

her for the flies.” Are his thoughts about

different quality of literature correct? What

do you think makes good literature? What

kind of writers don’t make literature at all?

If it’s not literature, what is it?

PART 2

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Grow Faber says these are the 3 things a culture

needs in order to grow:

#1 - Quality of Information

#2 - Leisure to Digest It

#3 - The Right to carry out actions based

on what we learn from the interaction of #1

& #2.

How is he wrong or right?

PART 2

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Interesting Montag says, “That’s the good part of

dying. When you’ve nothing to lose, you

run any risk you want.” What does he

mean? How is this the kind of interesting

thing that should be put in good books?

PART 2

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Unnecessary “The firemen are rarely necessary because

the public itself stopped reading of its own

accord.”

Why were the firemen “necessary” in the

first place? What has changed to make

them unnecessary? Is this a good thing or a

bad thing? Would Montag’s kind of

firemen be needed today? Why or why not?

PART 2

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Dover Beach “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

PART 2

Why do you

think this poem

brings the

women to tears?

What is it

saying? Discuss

some key words,

phrases, or ideas

that show

deeper meaning.

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Certainty Beatty says, “He is no wise man who quits

a certainty for an uncertainty.” What does

Beatty mean? Why is it unwise to quit

certainty? How might it be wise?

PART 2

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Lovely “What is there about fire that is so lovely?

No matter what age we are, what draws us

to it?”

PART 2

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Burn Describe what it would feel like to have to

burn your own house.

PART 3

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War If you heard the radio announcement “War

has been declared,” what kind of emotions

would that stir up in you? Why?

PART 3

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Run Over What do you think about the teenagers

who almost run Montag over? Why are they

doing that? What are they thinking?

PART 3

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Terrorist What do you think about Montag’s terrorist

plan to frame the firemen by hiding books

in their houses and turning them in so that

their houses will be burned? Why is he

wanting to do this? When is it okay to do

something like this? Is it ever okay?

PART 3

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Alive Faber says that he feels alive for the first

time in a long time and wonders if it’s

because he’s doing the right thing. How do

you feel when you do the very difficult-but-

right thing? Or maybe you never have ...

Why not?

PART 3

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Silence On the river in the countryside, Montag

thinks about his wife and how she would

handle all of the silence. How does silence

make you feel? Or do you fill up the silence

with ear buds, TV walls, and friends in the

parlor? How often do you have silence, real

silence? Why? Why not?

PART 3

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Fire When Montag sees the fire in the forest,

how is it different for him compared to all

the other fires he has experienced, or even

set?

PART 3

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Innocent How would you feel to watch an innocent

man get arrested instead of you? Why?

What would you do feel like doing? What

would you do? What if you are innocent

too?

PART 3

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Listen Granger says, “You can’t MAKE people

listen. They have to come ‘round in their

own time, wondering what happened and

why the world blew up under them.” How

is Granger right? How do you think he’s

wrong? Has our world blown up? And have

you started wondering about it yet?

PART 3

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Leave Behind Granger says, “Everyone must leave

something behind when he dies -- a child

or a book or a painting or a house or a

wall.” What are your thoughts about that?

Must everyone leave something? What does

your life mean if you don’t?

PART 3

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The Family What are your thoughts about their society

calling the people on the television “the

family”? How are they Mildred’s “family”?

How are they not her family? How is it

ironic to call them “family”? What kind of

feelings is the irony meant to stir inside the

reader?

PART 3

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Phoenix Explain how humankind has something

that the legendary, mythological phoenix

bird doesn’t have.

PART 3

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Taking It In What does this novel mean? What is it

saying to readers? What does the world of

Guy Montag, Clarisse McClellan, and

Captain Beatty have to say about our own

world?

PART 3

QUICKWRITES