WARM-UP

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WARM-UP

• On your own sheet of paper, write a theme of
  Fahrenheit 451.
• Find a quote or brief passage from the book that
  fits with the theme you chose, and write it on
  your paper as well.

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The 4-1-1 on 451
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What is a THEME?
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WHAT WERE LEAVING BEHIND

• Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting
  around, talking. Its like being a pedestrian,
  only rarer. My uncle was arrested another
  timedid I tell you?for being a pedestrian. Oh,
  were most peculiar.
• Clarisse McClellan, F451 (p. 9)

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SOCIAL/ ANTI-SOCIAL WHO GETS TO DECIDE?

• The psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and
  hike around in the forests and watch the birds
  and collect butterflies.
• Clarisse McClellan, F451 (p. 22)
• (see also pp. 28-29)

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• If a man walks in the woods for love of them
  half of each day, he is in danger of being
  regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days
  as a speculator, shearing off those woods and
  making the earth bald before her time, he is
  deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
• Henry David Thoreau, Life without Principle

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THE MECHANIZATION/ INDUSTRIALIZATION OF SOCIETY
And I do all the shopping and housecleaning by
hand. CM, F451 (p. 29)
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THOUGHT CONTROL
Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced
books in the colonies. First Fireman Benjamin
Franklin. from The Brief History of the First
Firemen of America, F451 (p. 33)
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HERETICS MARTYRS
Play the man, Master Ridley we shall this day
light such a candle, by Gods grace, in England,
as I trust shall never be put out. the lady
in the burning house, F451 (p. 35) (see also p.
39)
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MASS MEDIA INFLUENCE
Thenmotion pictures in the early twentieth
century. Radio. Television. Things began to have
mass. Captain Beatty, F451 (p. 53)
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FUN HAPPINESS
We stand against the small tide of those who
want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting
theory and thought. Captain Beatty, F451 (p.
60) (see also p. 58)
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OTHER THEMES

• PC
• CONTRADICTION IN BOOKS
• CENSORSHIP
• What else???

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FOR HOMEWORK

• Write one theme from F451 on top of your paper.
• Find a quote from the book that fits with that
  theme, and write it down as well.
• Under your quote, write a paragraph explaining
  why it fits with the theme you chose.