Fahrenheit 451 - Part I Discussion Outline (w/ Analysis and Questions)

The Hearth and the Salamander is the title of the first section of Fahrenheit 451. The meaning of The Hearth and the Salamander can be symbolic and straight forward. The word “hearth” is a brick/stone fireplace, often with an oven, used for heating and originally also used for cooking food. Since the hearth is usually a home’s central and most important feature, which the concept has been generalized to refer to the household, as "hearth and home" and "keep the home fires burning". The salamander is one of the official symbols of the firemen in the book, as well as what they call their fire trucks. There are ancient beliefs that salamanders live in fire and is unaffected by flames. Both of these symbols are related to fire, the image that

Pg. 123 Question: Who is Mrs. Black and what did her husband always do? Answer: She is the wife of Montag's old firemen friend and her husband always killed others.

Montag begins to question every aspect of his life, “I don’t know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I knew was gone was the books I’d burned in 10 or 12 years. So I thought books might help.” (Pg.82) Censorship puts Montag in the dark; a place he no longer wants to be. Montag wants to be passionate about something worth fighting for. That passion leads him on a hunt for knowledge, guides him to books, and sets him free.

In this world what people often forget about that a human can do is cause mass destruction, things one should remember can be forgotten easily and just as fast as it came it leave, this can be seen in the books around us. Authors share their opinion through the words they write talking about society and how if we keep going the direction we are going we will find ourselves in deep trouble, the messages authors are trying to send can be seen through social commentary, many books have powerful messages behind them; especially in dystopian novels and movies. They show these messages through diction,syntax, imagery, and character development; for examples the books and movies; Fahrenheit 451, Incarceron, Wall-E, and Hunger games. The authors Ray Bradbury, Catherine Fisher, Andrew Stanton, and Suzanne Collins all convey a message through their works through syntax, diction, camera angles, and imagery; emphasizing their warnings of what they fear may happen.

The book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury was about a fireman name Guy Montag. Montag does the opposite from what regular fireman do. He starts fires instead of putting them out. Books in Montag's society is forbidden to read and if caught reading the book would be set on fire. Instead of reading, that society watches large amounts of television as big as the wall and listens to the radio attached to their ears. It was not normal for pedestrians to talk and have meaningful conversations until Montag met a teenager name Clarisse. Clarisse was a strange girl that opened up Montag thoughts. She asked him about his work and what made him become a fireman. One question that really got him to think was the statement “Are you happy”(Bradbury 10). Montag believed that Clarisse was odd. She wasn’t like the norm of the society. She read books, walked the city like a pedestrian and, had meaningful conversations. After that encounter with Clarisse a number of events started to happen to him; his wife Mildred tried to commit suicide with prescription pills, a woman that hid books in her home decides to burn a live with her books, and Clarisse is killed in a car accident., With all these tragic events occuring, Montag tries to find a solution to this epidemic. The society has become controlled from power, a sense of censorship. Bradbury has shown his viewpoint of society through this novel.

The science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is about a futuristic dystopian society where everyone follows simple rules/norms: don't read books and spend time with their “families”. The families in the novel are also known as the TV’s. Whoever in the novel reads or owns books, gets put down by the hound. Montag, a protagonist in the novel, works as the fireman whom are very violent (like the rest of the society). No one in this society ever think, but when Montag (Protagonist) meets Clarisse McClellan, he becomes to question everything. Bradbury tries to portray that when people become emotionless, they don’t think about their actions which end up being violent. Bradbury’s hound (terrifying mechanical beast that kills who are unlawful) represents a type of police in the society that regulates everything and everyone. Thus Bradbury’s predictions are similar to today’s society in the police forces (which are controlled by the government).

Book-burning is the first thing that is explained about this future based society of Fahrenheit 451. Burning books is the obliteration of the single thought on paper or in one word- censorship. Books are considered evil because they make people question and think. All intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge must be quelled for the good of the state — for the good of conformity. Without ideas, everyone conforms, and as a result, everyone should be happy. When books and new ideas are available to people, conflict and unhappiness occur. Some of the many different motifs in the novel Fahrenheit 451 are conveyed through the use of various sardonic lines and connotations planted throughout the book. On the matter of technology and modernization it explains how TV reigns supreme in the future because of the "happiness" it offers. People are content when they don’t have to think, or so the story goes. TV aside, technology is the government’s means of oppression, but also provides the renegade’s opportunity to subvert. Rules and order is another popular topic written into the book. It is stated that “All books can be beaten down with reason.” This was said by Captain Betty, a quote ironically coming from a book itself. Much of the restrictions on the general populous are self-enforced. The government has taken away the citizens’ ability to dissent and marred all dissatisfaction with a cheap version of "happiness," a.k.a. TV. This means

Fire can mean many things and in Fahrenheit 451, the perception of the fire has changed multiple times. The salamander, a mythological creature often called “fire lizard” refines the definition of fire in Fahrenheit 451. The notation of salamander being most common in Chapter 1, the Hearth and The Salamander. The names of the chapters in Fahrenheit 451 all connect to Guy Montag, the main character in a very special way. In The Hearth and The Salamander, the hearth represents his home as it is warm and the Salamander represents his job, as the Salamander is what he wears as a badge. “She seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm”, Clarisse looks at Montag’s arm and sees the salamander which means that he is a fireman.They were the salamander because of the old mythological meaning of the salamander being able to walk on fire and be on fire without getting injured. Salamander is a prominent symbol in Fahrenheit 451, also

Sandy Hook Elementary School. San Bernardino. Paris. What do all of these places have in common? They fell victim to unpredictability. Mass shootings are not new to our society, but they are still a devastating problem that should not exist any longer. Mass shootings connect to the novel, Fahrenheit 451, through both the unnecessary violence and the absence of humanity that are evident in the novel. Mass shootings are a devastating problem in our society, and now their numbers have escalated to a new level. This change reflects how both our society and our humanity is beginning to crumble, solutions like banning unnecessary and excessive fire arms are currently being enacted.

“Then, moaning, she ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator. He caught her, shrieking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him scratching,” (63). In the novel Fahrenheit 451 follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his interactions with society discouraging and encouraging his discovery of the illegal books. Along the way he understands who are the poisonous people in his dystopian world and who are not; changing his perspective to lose trust in his wife Mildred, from previous quote, and finding safety with Faber, a retired professor he came by one day in a park. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the author demonstrates the idea that when there is censorship in the world, ignorance will follow because when a subject is hidden from one anything they do regarding it is under the impression of their lack of knowledge surrounding the topic, this becomes more relevant when Ray Bradbury acknowledges the emotions of people who have read books and whom haven't and their general opinions of them.

In the opening scenes, the archaeological excavation can be described primarily as a huge project. There were many people searching the ground within a large space. The location appeared to be in a dessert, in the middle of nowhere. There were many different roles for the mass amount of people that were located within this excavation. There were people searching for artifacts and there were also people dusting off the artifacts to keeping them safe and shiny. There were also some men who appeared to be important looking at the artifacts because they were dressed up in suits, while everyone else was not as dressed up.

For the question asked for our first Discussion Board and that my book I wrote was stolen and published under the thief’s own name. Why they were able to get away with is? Would I have any legal protection? What impact would this have on you on considering writing another novel or book? Why do you think the publication of printed material was so tightly controlled at the time?

Fahrenheit 451 written by, Ray Bradbury was published in 1953 symbolizing the idea of a modern dystopia through the perspective of Guy Montag. Representing the totalitarian government in place, Montag's job is to dehumanize the world by burning books to ensure the cataclysmic decline in society. Eventually, Montag gains abstract emotions towards books and even social criticism towards his fellow peers: it places the world against him. Throughout the book, Bradbury's uses cautionary tones that come from the patterns of America's cultural shifts in the 1950s as more people develop a sense of armed resistance and opposition towards the government's suspicions. In many ways, Bradbury predicted behaviors that saturate much of modern American culture. Today, the abundance of and dependence on phone technologies are reaching a ubiquitous point in society; so much so, that these technologies are shaping people's thought processes, chipping away from the function of contemplation and concentration humans naturally possess.

The dystopian society describes an imaginary society that is dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible. Montag is one of the victims in the dystopian society, that changes from a mindlessness servant to a book lover. The novel “Fahrenheit 451”, written by Ray Bradbury, tells the reader about a fireman name Guy Montag, who starts to realize that books are important because books give people knowledge, but when he tries to read or gained any information from books, he starts to face with many conflicts with his dystopian society. The protagonist of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, develops are he faces conflicts with this dystopian society during his hero’s journey, and this development correlates with the novel’s overall theme of censorship.

Now at first glance anyone may look at the book and wonder what does Fahrenheit 451 mean? Well Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper catches on fire. This is our first glimpse into Ray Bradbury’s dystopian world in Fahrenheit 451. So, this book was originally published in 1953 during World War II and starting the Cold War, which plays a huge role in what this book symbolizes. The author of Fahrenheit 451 is Ray Bradbury.