Ray Bradbury’sFAHRENHEIT 451
What? Where?When? Who?Why?
WHAT?
Reading banned
Firefighters burn books
Censorship
Conformity
Imagination repressed
Technology advanced
WHERE?
In a violent and hedonisticfuture America
In the city
*hedonistic means self-indulgent
WHEN?
In the not-so-distant future?
Written over 50 years ago
Based on “The Fireman”which was published in 1950
WHO?
Guy Montag
His wife, Mildred
Clarisse McClellan, a teen
Captain Beatty
Professor Faber
WHY?
Hatred of thoughtinvestigation/thought control
Mary Bradbury, tried in 17thcentury Salem Witch Trials
McCarthyism
Black Listing
Book Banning
FACT – FACT – FACT – FACT
1953 Ballantine Books publishF451
1967 Special Edition for schools
Modified 75 passages to eliminate
words like “hell,” “damn,” and
“abortion”
1980 Bradbury’s friend informs him
Ballantine withdrew version
AGREE?
“Censorship reflects asociety’s lack ofconfidence in itself.”
Potter Stewart/AssociateJustice of the SupremeCourt (1915-1985)
FACT – FACT – FACT – FACT
LATE 1950’S Americantelevision - cookie-cuttersitcoms, predictablewesterns, and violentdramas.
Critics howled, butviewership continued to rise
AGREE?
Television is
“…a really dreadful influence onall of us. Don’t ever look at localtelevision news again. It’s allcrap. There’s no news, there’sno information. It’s negative,negative, negative. You look atthat, and you think the world iscoming to an end.” Bradbury 1990
AGREE?
Television is very dangerous.Because it repeats andrepeats and repeats ourdisasters instead of ourtriumphs.”
Bradbury 1990
Three Sections
“The Hearth and theSalamander”
“The Sieve and the Sand”
“Burning Bright”
Symbols
The title refers to thetemperature at which booksburn.
Salamander – mythologicallizard capable of living in fire
Phoenix – mythological birdreborn from fire
Themes
conformity vs. individuality
Freedom of speech and theconsequences of using it
importance of reading andunderstanding history
Machines – help us or hinderus
Critical Issues
Censorship – the suppression of abook, movie, etc. consideredoffensive or a threat to security
A story about how televisiondestroys interest in readingliterature.
Why might censorshipbe imposed?
to protect the public
to protect our children’sgrowth and development
religious beliefs
to be fair to minorities