Discussion Questions

Questions 1-6 directions:

For these first six questions, pick three to answer (they can be any three you like). You should write 75-100 words per answer, providing specific examples from the novel to support your ideas. These examples need not be direct quotations, but they do need to have accurate information, and describe specific scenes, interactions, and use proper names. If I cannot tell you read from your response, you will receive a 0.

1) Consider Mildred's experience at the hospital. What is wrong with the healthcare system in the novel? It's effective, but it's also lacking certain things. What are those things that are lacking? Do you see any parallels between their healthcare system and ours?

2) What is Clarisse’s role in the narrative? Why is she important to Montag?

3) Why does the woman who refuses to leave her house and her books allow the firemen to burn her? What do you think she finds so valuable about the books that she is willing to die for them?

4) What makes Montag unique for a fireman? How does he contrast with the other firemen and the society that he lives in?

5) Read page 78, beginning with the line “You’re a hopeless romantic," said Faber. "It would be funny if it were not serious. It's not the books you need, but some of the things that were once in books." (This is a few pages into the section called "The Sieve and the Sand).

What are the things that were once in books that Faber thinks are missing in the parlor families?  Do you agree that our contemporary television is lacking these elements? Why or why not? Please give a nuanced response, with examples from TV to support your response. Additionally, consider what reading offers that is unique to it.

6) What does Faber mean when he says: “Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord. You firemen provide a circus now and then at which building are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it’s a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line. So few want to be rebels anymore.” 

Why did the public stop reading “of their own accord”? How is this a more dangerous situation than if the firemen alone enforced the rules? 

Questions 7-8 directions: 

For questions 7-8, your answers should be approx. 200 words and should include at least one direct quotation each from the novel to support your responses.

7) Discuss two or more of the following elements of dystopias in the novel, and give examples of how they play out:

Dystopias often include the following elements:

• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.

• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.

• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.

• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.

• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.

• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.

• The natural world is banished and distrusted. 

• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.

• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world, presents itself as utopian.

8) Which elements of dystopian control do you see operating in the world of F451, and how do you see them operating? (Remember, these can be corporate, bureaucratic, religious/philosophical, or technological--please re-read this handout for a refresher).

For questions 9-10, your answers can be 50-100 words.  For #9 provide specific examples from the novel to support your ideas. These examples need not be direct quotations, but they do need to have accurate information, and describe specific scenes, interactions, and use proper names. If I cannot tell you read from your response, you will receive a 0. For #10, you do not need to provide any examples from the novel.

9) How do you interpret the ending of the novel? What is Bradbury trying to say about the importance of books, and their relationship to people, at the very end of the book? Is this a hopeful ending, or a not hopeful ending?

10) What do you think Ray Bradbury (who is now deceased) would think of our world today's relationship to literature?