Ray Bradbury

And Fahrenheit 451

Words of Wisdom from Bradbury

• “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them” -Ray Bradbury

Journal: What does the following mean to you?

• “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them” –Ray Bradbury

History of Ray Bradbury• Born in Waukegan, IL on August 22,

1920• Fahrenheit 451 was inspired by many

historical aspects…especially…– Stalin and his successors who burned

“questionable” books and killed or imprisoned the authors

– Hitler and the Nazi’s who burned books by Jews or “questionable” authors

Nazi book burnings

Bradbury interview…• When asked why people should read books,

Bradbury responded with: “Because we are trying to solve the muster of our loves, no matter what kind you have. Quite often there’s an end to it and you have to find a new love. We move from novel to novel.”

• What does this mean to you?

What do you think?

• What is censorship? • Is censorship a “good” or

“bad” idea? Can it be both? Why or why not?

The idea of CENSORSHIP:

• Defined as: suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

• Books• Music• Education • News

Censored books• The Grapes of Wrath: for its “negative” portrayal

of rural people • To Kill a Mockingbird: racial slurs and occasional

swear words• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: alleged racial

content• Catcher in the Rye: profanity, events like

prostitution, depression and alienation• Ironically, Fahrenheit 451 has also be censored

Discussion Questions

• What does the following mean to you?• Do you agree with it? In what context?

Why or why not?• 1.censorship• 2. morality• 3. dictatorship, • 4. freedom of speech • 5. consequences

Now…

• Come up with your OWN question and write it on a piece of paper-one that deals with any of the words that we just discussed

Fahrenheit 451 overview• Guy Montag lives in a world (a futuristic

America) in which he is a fireman. He is a book burner, in which he is responsible for burning books in a society in which reading or keeping books is not allowed.

• Fahrenheit 451 is “the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns”

Themes/Symbols and Imagery

• 1) The Idea of Censorship• 2) Knowledge vs. Ignorance• 3) Utopia vs. Dystopia• 4) Animals and Nature

Short Stories

• Let’s first look at two short stories, The Veldt and Harrison Bergeron- annotate for the idea and concepts of censorship, knowledge vs. ignorance and utopia vs. dystopia