Fahrenheit 451 - Secondary Solutions

Fahrenheit 451

By Ray Bradbury

Literature Guide Developed by Kristen Bowers for Secondary Solutions®

Secondary Solutions®

The First Solution for the Secondary Teacher

ISBN-10: 0-978204-1-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-9789204-1-8 © 2014 Secondary Solutions. All rights reserved. A classroom teacher who has purchased this Guide may photocopy the materials in this publication for his/her classroom use only. Use or reproduction by a part of or an entire school or school system, by for-profit tutoring centers and like institutions, or for commercial sale, is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, translated or stored without the express written permission of the publisher. Created and printed in the United States of America.

Fahrenheit 451 Literature Guide

Fahrenheit 451 Complete Literature Guide About This Literature Guide ........................................................................................... 3 How to Use Our Literature Guides .................................................................................. 4 Sample Agenda ............................................................................................................... 5 Standards Focus: Elements of Fiction ............................................................................. 7

Literary Terms to Know ......................................................................................................................... 7 Exploring Expository Writing ......................................................................................... 8

Author Biography: Ray Bradbury ........................................................................................................ 8 Standards Focus: Exploring Expository Writing ........................................................... 10 Standards Focus: Historical Context ............................................................................. 11

The History of Book Burning as a Form of Censorship ....................................................................... 11 The Most Frequently Banned or Challenged Books of the 20th Century ............................................ 12

Standards Focus: Allusions and Terminology to Know .................................................. 13 Vocabulary List ............................................................................................................. 17 Anticipation/Reaction Activity ..................................................................................... 18 Note-Taking and Summarizing ..................................................................................... 20 Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander .................................................................... 21

Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................................... 21 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................................... 22 Standards Focus: Characterization and Character Motivation ........................................................ 23 Standards Focus: Setting, Tone, and Mood ........................................................................................ 25 Assessment Preparation: Word Roots ................................................................................................. 27 Assessment Preparation: Vocabulary in Context ............................................................................... 29

Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand .................................................................................. 31 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................................... 31 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................................... 32 Standards Focus: Poetry Analysis ....................................................................................................... 33 Standards Focus: Figurative Language .............................................................................................. 35 Assessment Preparation: Word Origins—Etymology ........................................................................ 37 Assessment Preparation: Vocabulary in Context .............................................................................. 40

Part Three: Burning Bright ........................................................................................... 42 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................................... 42 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................................... 43 Standards Focus: Developing Style ..................................................................................................... 44 Standards Focus: Author’s Style .......................................................................................................... 47 Assessment Preparation: Word Parts ................................................................................................. 49 Assessment Preparation: Literal and Figurative Meaning ............................................................... 52

Part One Quiz ............................................................................................................... 54 Part Two Quiz ............................................................................................................... 56 Part Three Quiz ............................................................................................................ 58 Final Test ...................................................................................................................... 60 Final Test: Multiple Choice ........................................................................................... 62 Teacher Guide .............................................................................................................. 65

Summary of the Novel .......................................................................................................................... 65 Vocabulary with Definitions ................................................................................................................ 68 Pre-Reading Ideas and Activities ........................................................................................................ 70 Post-Reading Extension Activities and Alternative Assessment ........................................................ 71 Essay/Writing Ideas ............................................................................................................................ 73 Project Rubric A .................................................................................................................................... 74 Project Rubric B .................................................................................................................................... 75 Response to Literature Rubric ............................................................................................................. 76

Answer Key .................................................................................................................. 78

- 2 - Fahrenheit 451 Literature Guide

About This Literature Guide Secondary Solutions is the endeavor of a high school English teacher who could not seem to find appropriate materials to help her students master the necessary concepts at the secondary level. She grew tired of spending countless hours researching, creating, writing, and revising lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, tests and extension activities to motivate and inspire her students, and at the same time, address those ominous content standards! Materials that were available were either juvenile in nature, skimpy in content, or were moderately engaging activities that did not come close to meeting the content standards on which her students were being tested. Frustrated and tired of trying to get by with inappropriate, inane lessons, she finally decided that if the right materials were going to be available to her and other teachers, she was going to have to make them herself! Mrs. Bowers set to work to create one of the most comprehensive and innovative Literature Guide sets on the market. Joined by a middle school teacher with 21 years of secondary school experience, Secondary Solutions began, and has matured into a specialized team of intermediate and secondary teachers who have developed for you a set of materials unsurpassed by all others. Before the innovation of Secondary Solutions, materials that could be purchased offered a reproducible student workbook and a separate set of teacher materials at an additional cost. Other units provided the teacher with student materials only, and very often, the content standards were ignored. Secondary Solutions provides all of the necessary materials for complete coverage of the literature units of study, including author biographies, pre-reading activities, numerous and varied vocabulary and comprehension activities, study-guide questions, graphic organizers, literary analysis and critical thinking activities, essay-writing ideas, extension activities, quizzes, unit tests, alternative assessment, online teacher assistance, and much, much more. Each Guide is designed to address the unique learning styles and comprehension levels of every student in your classroom. All materials are written and presented at the grade level of the learner, and include extensive coverage of the content standards. As an added bonus, all teacher materials are included! As a busy teacher, you don’t have time to waste reinventing the wheel. You want to get down to the business of teaching! With our professionally developed teacher-written Literature Guides, Secondary Solutions has provided you with the answer to your time management problems, while saving you hours of tedious and exhausting work. Our Guides will allow you to focus on the most important aspects of teaching—the personal, one-on-one, hands-on instruction you enjoy most—the reason you became a teacher in the first place.

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Name _____________________________________ Period _______ Standards Focus: Elements of Fiction

Literary Terms to Know In the study of literature, it is important to remember that a story consists of several elements: plot, characters, setting, point of view, conflict, symbol, and theme. In the realm of fiction, the author can place an emphasis on any one or more of these elements, or conversely, de-emphasize any one or more of these elements. For example, one cannot analyze a story looking at only setting, but some authors may want the reader to focus on the plot, so the setting of the story may not be emphasized. It is important when analyzing a piece of literature that you look at all of the elements and how they work together to create an entire story. " Plot - the related series of events that make up a story

# Exposition- the beginning of a story in which the main characters, conflicts, and setting are introduced

# Rising action- the action that takes place before the climax; the plot becomes more complicated, leading to the climax

# Climax- the turning point of the story; emotional high point for the protagonist # Falling action- the action that takes place after the climax, leading to the

resolution # Resolution- the end of a story; problems are solved, and the characters’ futures

are foreshadowed " Conflict- the struggle(s) between opposing forces, usually characters

# Internal conflict- a character’s struggle with himself or his conscience # External conflict- a character’s struggle with an outside force, such as another

character, nature, or his environment " Characters - the individuals involved (either directly or indirectly) in the action of the

story # Protagonist- the central character in a story; struggles against the antagonist # Antagonist- the conflicting force against the protagonist; can be another character,

a force of nature, or the protagonist struggling against himself " Setting - the time and place, or where and when, the action occurs

# Physical- the physical environment in which a story takes place; this includes the social and political environment, as well as the mood or atmosphere

# Chronological- the time in which a story takes place (includes the era, season, date, time of day, etc.)

" Point of View - the perspective from which a story is told # Narrator- the “voice” that tells a story; may or may not reflect the opinions and

attitudes of the author himself # First person- a narrator that uses the first-person pronouns (I, me, my, myself,

etc.) when telling the story; focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of a particular character

# Third person limited- a narrator that uses the third-person perspective with the third person pronouns (he, she, it, they, etc.); observes the action as an outside observer, revealing the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of only one character

# Third person omniscient- like third-person limited, the third-person omniscient narrator uses the third-person perspective with the third person pronouns (he, she, it, they, etc.); however, this type of narrator observes the action as an outside observer, revealing the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of several characters

" Theme - the main idea behind a literary work; the message in the story


Name _____________________________________ Period _______ Standards Focus: Allusions and Terminology to Know Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander 1. “It is computed that eleven thousand persons

have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.”: from Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift; a satire attacking England’s social and political problems.

2. “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”: a quote attributed to Hugh Latimer (1470-1555) a Protestant reformer who was burned at the stake; Latimer reportedly spoke these words to Bishop Nicolas Ridley immediately before their execution.

3. 451: refers to 451 degrees Fahrenheit—the temperature at which the paper in books burns.

4. Benjamin Franklin: (1706-1790) an American statesman, printer, inventor, scientist, and writer; Bradbury mentions that Ben Franklin was the first fireman in the newly established Firemen of America; later Beatty points out that the “rule books” have inaccurate information. According to Beatty, the Firemen were not organized until the Civil War, or when “photography came into its own.”

5. condensations: “Condensed” or shortened versions of larger texts or full-length literary works.

6. Dante: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), an Italian poet known for his epic poem The Divine Comedy, which is Dante’s metaphorical trip through Hell; on his journey he sees those who have committed evil receiving justified torture.

7. digests: Reader’s Digest, founded in 1922, a family magazine which eventually (1934) focused on condensed versions of full-length novels from the 1930s to today; has been translated into over 20 languages and is distributed to over one million readers.

8. Faulkner: William Faulkner (1897-1962) American novelist and poet; won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949; known for his complex use of literary devices and for his discussion of racism in the South; it is also believed that he was an alcoholic.

9. Hamlet: a tragedy by William Shakespeare (1564-1616); Hamlet avenges his father’s murder after learning that his uncle murdered his father.

10. hearth: a brick- or stone-lined fireplace used for cooking and/or heating.

11. Little Black Sambo: a children’s book written by Helen Bannerman in 1899; the story of a little boy who has to sacrifice his clothes to tigers, but ends up outwitting them; the story has been considered controversial because of the word “Sambo,” which has become a racial slur in America.

12. Marcus Aurelius: Marcus Annius Verus (AD 121-180), a Roman Emperor and philosopher, known for his collection of personal writings, or Meditations, which focused on the idea of stoicism, which is surrounded by the idea that men should be free from passion, pleasure, or pain, and submissive to the natural laws of the universe.

13. Mechanical Hound: the Mechanical Hound is a machine that is “alive but not alive”; it is programmed to seek out anyone in the way of the firemen; it kills its prey by injecting the prey with morphine or other lethal substances.

14. Millay: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) an American poet and playwright; the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for poetry, known for her unconventional lifestyle, feminist views, and political philosophy.

15. moonstone: a luminous blue gemstone which is believed to be a holy, magical “dream stone,” thought to bring good dreams and beautiful visions.

16. phoenix: from Greek mythology, the phoenix is said to die in its nest, which it then lights on fire; from the ashes, a young, new phoenix is born.

17. radio shows (15 minute): fifteen minute radio shows are radio programs lasting fifteen minutes long; broadcast from the 1920s to 1950s, popular before the invention of television; shows included stories of adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, musical variety, romance, music concerts, farm reports, news, and weather.

18. salamander: the mythological salamander is a reptile resembling a lizard; said to live in the depths of fire; according to mythology is able to endure fire without burning.

19. Seashell: small radio-like devices that people put in their ears to listen to a constant stream of music and talking.

20. Swift: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), an Irish satirist known best for Gulliver’s Travels, and A Modest Proposal, both of which attack the political and social problems of his time.

21. tabloids: newspapers in a small format, giving the news in a condensed, often sensationalized way.

22. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: a novel written by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852; one of the best-selling books of all time, the story is believed to have had an extremely profound effect on the view of slavery in the 19th century.

23. wall television: wall televisions are walls made up of television panels; these televisions take the place of real family, and in turn, real conversation; the television stations “fill-in-the-blank” with the customer’s name so that they really feel like they are a part of the action surrounding them.

24. Whitman: Walt Whitman (1819-1892) an American poet known for his break from the traditional poetry of his time to poetry written with a lack of meter, rhyme, or rhythm; his lack of conventionality and “rude” graphic depictions of human sexuality caused several of his poems to be banned.


Name _____________________________________ Period _______

Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander Comprehension Check Directions: To give you a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the novel, answer the following questions for Part One on a separate sheet of paper.

1. At the beginning of the story, how does Montag feel about his job? Give specific examples to support your response.

2. What is your first impression of Clarisse? 3. What memory does Montag’s encounter with Clarisse arouse? 4. What is Montag’s reaction to Clarisse’s question: “Have you ever read any of the books you burn?” 5. What do Clarisse and Montag argue about? What does Clarisse tell Montag that firemen used to do? 6. Explain the significance of Clarisse’s speech about “blurs.” Why are billboards 200 feet long? 7. Why was Clarisse’s uncle arrested? What does this indicate about the society in which they live? 8. What question finally offends Montag? 9. What does his encounter with Clarisse remind him of? 10. What do you think the author meant when he said “How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and

throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought”? What does this question reveal about Montag’s state of mind?

11. How does the author describe Montag’s home? 12. Why do you think Montag did not want to open the curtains or windows? 13. What does Montag find under the bed? 14. Describe the machines. What do they do to Mildred? How do the men treat their “patient”? Why is it

so “routine” to them? 15. What does Montag hear after the men leave? What is his reaction? 16. Mildred’s earpieces have been described as “electronic bees,” “mosquito hums,” and “hidden wasps.”

What are these earpieces? Why does she always have one in her ear? Why do you think Bradbury compares these devices to insects?

17. How does Mildred react when Montag tells her what happened the night before? 18. What is Mildred’s “script” about? What part does she play? Why does she want to buy a fourth wall? 19. Why does Clarisse insist that Montag is not like the others? 20. Describe the Mechanical Hound. What is its purpose? How does Montag feel about the Hound? 21. Why is Clarisse considered “anti-social”? How do the kids in this society entertain themselves? What

is your reaction to this? 22. What do people talk about in this society? How is this different from our own society? Why do you

think Clarisse has such a problem with everything being “abstract”? 23. What does Montag continually hear overhead? 24. Why do you think the woman stays in her house while it is burning? 25. What does Montag take from the burning house? Why? What does he do with it afterward? 26. What does Montag ask Millie about their past?? Why do you think he asks her this important question? 27. What does Montag realize about his relationship with his wife? 28. How does Mildred feel toward the characters in the parlor? Why is this disturbing to Montag? 29. What does Mildred tell Montag about Clarisse? How does she deliver this news? 30. Describe Montag and Mildred’s relationship. 31. What does Montag learn about Beatty from his visit? 32. What does Beatty tell Montag about how books disappeared? What is your reaction to his explanation? 33. From Beatty’s speech, what does Bradbury reveal about his own fears about society? What

ideas/concepts are true in our modern society? 34. How do you feel about Bradbury’s predictions of school? Are there any truths to this assessment? 35. According to Beatty, who is to blame for the banishment and burning of books? 36. What are the people in this society allowed to read? What is the purpose of reading in this society? 37. According to Beatty, what is the firemen’s primary job? What is the ultimate goal in this society? 38. What do the firemen do if one of their own “accidentally” steals a book? 39. Why are there no longer front porches in this society? 40. What does Montag show Millie? What is her immediate reaction?


Name _____________________________________ Period _______

Part One Standards Focus: Characterization and Character Motivation Characterization is the technique by which authors develop characters. • Direct characterization is when the author or narrator tells the reader what the character is like.

For example, “Rhonda works diligently to make sure her cookies are the best in town.” • Indirect characterization is when the author gives information about a character and allows the

reader to draw his or her own conclusions about that character. Two ways we can learn about a character through indirect characterization are: # A character’s own thoughts, feelings and actions— the reader witnesses what the character does or

says, and learns something about the character from these thoughts, feelings or actions. For example, “On her way to class after lunch, Susan saw some trash on the ground that wasn’t hers. She decided to pick it up anyway, and threw it in the trash can.” The reader can make some assumptions about Susan from this excerpt: she cares about the environment, she takes pride in her school, she likes things neat and tidy, etc. Each of these are appropriate assumptions based on Susan’s actions.

# Interactions with other characters— the reader witnesses the interactions between characters, such as how other characters act and what they say about each other. For example, “Emma said, ‘Julia seems to not care about her school work anymore. It’s as if she is distracted or concerned about something. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know, but it is certainly unlike her to get bad grades,’ Ashley replied.” The reader can make assumptions about Julia from the conversation between Emma and Ashley. The reader can conclude that Julia used to work hard and get good grades in school, that she is distracted about something, and that she is not behaving like her usual self.

Character Motivation is what drives a character to do what they do. In other words, ask yourself: what is this character’s strongest desire? Characters’ decisions are important to the plot, and in many cases, their decisions will affect the play’s outcome. Just as we can tell a great deal about a person by the way he or she lives his or her life, we can also learn a lot about characters by what they say and do. Similarly, just as some of the decisions we make in our lives are minor and trivial, and others change our lives forever, a skilled writer develops characters that also make both seemingly unimportant as well as life-altering choices.

Directions: For each of the characters below, complete the chart with textual examples of indirect characterization from Part One of the novel. First, find a quote in which another character describes something about that character, and then find a quote in which the character describes himself. Be sure to give the page number from where you obtained the quote. Then in your own words, fill in what you think is the character’s main motivation as evident this far in the story.

Character Guy Montag Page #

Another Character’s Description

Description of Himself

Motivation


Name _____________________________________ Period _______

Part One Standards Focus: Setting, Tone, and Mood " Setting is the time, place, and atmosphere in which the action of a story takes place. Setting can

include time of day, weather, season, era, location, and social or political atmosphere; for example: The year is 1914. It is early morning, outside the barn on Foster’s farm in Glenn, Kansas. The sun is rising slowly, and the animals begin to flutter about, welcoming a new day.

" Tone is the author’s attitude toward his subject; a clever writer can use a sympathetic tone to

make the reader feel sorry for a character, for example. Conversely, writers can use a distant, detached tone to keep the reader from relating to or feeling sentiment for a character. Some words to describe tone are: somber, sarcastic, bitter, matter-of-fact, sentimental, etc.

" Mood is the general emotional response that a reader feels when reading. Writers use figurative

language, details, dialogue, and foreshadowing to help set the mood in a piece of literature. Mood is often expressed in adjectives which describe how the writer intends to make you feel, like: tense, serene, somber, optimistic, dark, and depressed.

In Part One, Bradbury creates a mood of tension and unrest from the very first sentences of the novel: “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” By equating the idea of “pleasure” with burning and fire, we immediately feel uneasy. Our conscience tells us that something on fire is generally a bad thing. Directions: For each of the quotes from the text, underline the words that reveal the setting, including clues about time, place, and atmosphere, then on the line labeled “setting,” explain how these particular words indicate specifics about the setting. Next, explain the tone Bradbury uses to create mood. Include comments on the use of figurative language, imagery, etc., if apparent. Finally, describe the mood of the excerpt using as many details and appropriate adjectives as possible. An example has been done for you. Ex. “The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward.” a. Setting: It is autumn, after dark. It is windy and leaves are thrown into the air as the girl walks along. b. Tone: distant, detached, ominous, threatening, eerie; the tone makes us feel as if there is no one else around, and the girl appears with the gust of wind, almost with a ghostly quality c. Mood: lonely, uneasy, skeptical, suspicious

1. “It was like coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon has set. Complete darkness, not a hint of the silver world outside, the windows tightly shut, the chamber a tomb world where no sound from the great city could penetrate. The room was not empty.”

a. Setting:

b. Tone:

c. Mood:

2. “Without turning on the light he imagined how this room would look. His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable….The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning.”


Name _____________________________________ Period _______

a. Setting: b. Tone: c. Mood:

3. “As he stood there the sky over the house screamed. There was a tremendous ripping sound as if two giant hands had torn ten thousand miles of black lines down the seam…The jet bombers going over, going over, going over, one two, one two, one two, six of them, nine of them, twelve of them, and one and one and one and another and another and another, did all the screaming for him.” a. Setting: b. Tone: c. Mood: 4. “Laughter blew across the moon-colored lawn from the house of Clarisse and her father and mother and the uncle who smiled so quietly and so earnestly. Above all, their laughter was relaxed and hearty and not forced in any way, coming from the house that was so brightly lit this late at night while all the other houses were kept to themselves in darkness. Montag heard the voices talking, talking, talking, giving, talking, weaving, reweaving their hypnotic web.” a. Setting: b. Tone: c. Mood:

5. “Montag stayed upstairs most nights when this went on. There had been a time two years ago when he had bet with the best of them, and lost a week’s salary and faced Mildred’s insane anger, which showed itself in veins and blotches. But now nights he lay in his bunk, face turned toward the wall, listening to the whoops of laughter below and the piano-string scurry of rat feet, the violin squeaking of mice, and the great shadowing, motioned silence of the Hound leaping out like a moth in the raw light, finding, holding its victim, inserting the needle and going back to its kennel to die as if a switch had been turned.” a. Setting: b. Tone: c. Mood:


Name _____________________________________ Period _______

Part One Vocabulary Assessment Preparation: Word Roots Directions: Use the word list below to answer section a for each question. These words come from Part One of the vocabulary list on page 17. For section b, to find other words that have the same root as the vocabulary word and hint word, look up the vocabulary word, hint word, root, or all three in a dictionary. Look at words located around these key words to find related words. Be sure to read their origins to verify that they come from the same root.

1. The word gore comes from the Old English gor, which means “filth.”

a. Which vocabulary word has this same root? _________________________________

b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________ 2. The word terrain, meaning “piece of earth, land, ground,” comes from the Greek teresesthai “to

become or be dry,” from the Latin torrere, meaning “to dry up.” a. Which vocabulary word has this same root? _________________________________ b. What other words have this same root? ____________________________________

3. The word incline comes from the Latin in- “in,” plus clinare, meaning “to bend.” a. Which vocabulary word has this same root? _________________________________ b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________

4. The word pollinate comes from the Latin pollen, meaning “dust, fine flour.” a. Which vocabulary word has this same root? _________________________________ b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________

5. The word problem comes from the Latin problema, from pro “forward” plus ballein “to throw.”


b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________

6. The word center comes from the Latin centrum, meaning “center.”



7. The word tract comes from the Latin tractus, meaning “space, course, or duration.”



8. The word fame comes from the Latin fama, meaning “rumor, talk.”


b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________ 9. The word bottom comes from the Old English bodan, meaning “ground,” or “lowest part.”

a. Which vocabulary word has this same root? _________________________________ b. What other word can you find that has this same root? __________________________

abstract abyss ballistics bewilderedly cacophony centrifuge devotion drear feigning illumination olfactory proclivities pulverized seized sheath stratum tactile torrent ventilator waft


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