Fahrenheit 451 Unit 2 Study Guide

Quote 1: "Here, in a word, - and it is a rare instance in my life, - I had met with a person thoroughly adapted to the situation which he held." Introductory, pg. 24

Background: this story takes place in a futuristic USA where the country is at the brink of war. Tensions between other countries are increasing and soldiers are being deployed to their stations. Although all of this is happening citizens of the US believe that the world will be short and quick and the soldiers will be back home within a week.

"It was the first time in his life he had ever really worked…and that he had ever had anything to do which took all he had in him… (He) stood with the rest up in the gallery and watched the men on the killing beds, marveling at their speed and power…and never occurred to one to think of the flesh-and-blood side of it – that

In the book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, the author predicts the future of today’s society. Bradbury predicted the future of today’s technology and societal issues. Some technology from the book that is similar to today is the small electronic earpieces that fit into peoples’ ears to communicate with people; nowadays, it exists and people call it Bluetooth. In addition, there was large flat screen televisions that were the size of a wall. Technology is part of the societal issues from the book, they are similar to today’s society because the people do not care about reading or gaining knowledge anymore, it’s all about television and technology. In addition, suicide is not taken care of or prevented properly It is almost as suicide is taken as a joke. Actually, there are many ways today’s society is similar to the book, society that Bradbury based in the future containing advanced technology and societal issues.

The narrator is constantly trying to prove his sanity, yet we can conclude that he actually, if not consciously, subconsciously understands he is going mad. He is the one that first puts the idea of him being mad in the reader?s mind, and he is the one that continually asks how it could be possible that he is mad, which shows that he himself is not sure. He?s trying to prove his sanity in such a desperate way, that I believe it is obvious he must have some idea of his insanity, otherwise he would just state his sanity, rather than trying to prove it.

really was, he was not crazy, his only fault was being incompetent to live amongst the wild.

“With the knife I had, I opened his chest to that place…. I inserted the knife point, and with great difficulty, at last i pulled it out”

The word insane is a legal term. Because research has identified many different mental illnesses of varying severities, it is now too simplistic to describe a severely mentally ill person merely as insane. The federal law states that insanity is a fair defense if " at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendants as a result of sever mental disease or defect was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of the wrongfulness of his acts"(Knowles). The American

Hi Rihana I totally agree with your point that you can have a mental disorder and yet not be insane. There is a stigma on people who struggle with mental disorders that they all must be insane but that is just not the case. It a shame that people with mental disorders not only have worry about how they feel about themselves, they have to worry about being stereotyped as insane and the reaction of other people as well. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (2016) 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness with in a given year. That makes mental illnesses fairly common which might be surprising to some people. When you realize how many people could potentially be suffering from a mental disorder it might be someone's feeling about

Crazy. Last time I checked just because someone has been diagnosed with a mental illness does not mean they are crazy. However as infuriated as I was with him, I realized that it was not his fault, but rather the result of the lack of education on mental health within our culture(s).

Even during the time when the narrator was in the process of hiding the body, he does not find himself insane. The narrator speaks of how is was so cunning and intelligent enough to not get a spot of blood anywhere, of how he placed the boards of the floor precisely as they were before the murder.

The audience should also notice within the first paragraph where the legal definition of insanity could also be applied. It is here where his words begin to contradict themselves. It is here where he starts to demonstrate a mad man, by accusing the audience of coming to the conclusion that he is mad. He then goes on to imply that if he were mad, he “would be out of control, …profoundly illogical, and not even recognize the implications of his

like he is to others in the play, so he has no reason to act insane.

When you are insane, you are busy being insane - all the time... When I was crazy, that's all I was. - Sylvia Plath

was truly crazy or not. Although, there are many deliberate acts of fabricated insanity repeated