Y9: Dystopia | Fahrenheit 451 (Week 8)

Oh hi Year 9,

 
We’re nearly up to the end of part 1 (of 3) of Fahrenheit 451. Hope you're enjoying it!

Here’s your work for the week beginning 15^th June:

1) Do this recap quiz.

2) Write a title: Identity Crisis at the Firehouse.

Using the extract below, answer the question on this document (WORD | PDF) by adding quotations and comments to the points that have been provided.

3) Read Fahrenheit 451 from the bottom of page 45 (‘He had chills…’) to page 65 (the end of part 1).

You can read/download the text here. There is an audiobook that you can listen along with here (skip to 1 hr 18 mins 1 sec).

Optional tasks:

Answer these ‘keeping track’ questions as you read:

More dystopian food for thought.Watch some dystopian trailers: Metropolis, The Road, Humans.

One last thing. Last week, in the ‘optional tasks’ section, I posed the question of the significance of two allusions that Bradbury makes. Here are my thoughts:

Latimer and Ridley burned as heretics

'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.'

Bradbury's allusion to the story of Latimer and Ridley suggests that the woman that says these words and who is about to be burned alive is choosing to become a martyr. The candle that Latimer mentions could symbolise the idea of providing light or hope to others. Perhaps Bradbury is suggesting that her actions will influence others to rebel too. We already sense a growing feeling of unease in Montag, who has stolen a book and is horrified by what he has seen. The memory of the woman setting herself on fire is the spark that ignites Montag’s desire to rebel.

The story of the Tower of Babel

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, the human race agree to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God, who not long ago had punished humanity with the great flood, is angry that humans are already over-reaching and challenging his power. God scatters them over the Earth and gave them different languages so they could no longer communicate and work together. The story now represents human pride; building the tower was like a challenge to God. The punishment was confusion, disunity and isolation. If the government in F451 is like God, then reading is like building the tower. That's why Beatty tells the woman that she's been 'locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel.' Here's the Bible passage.

That’s it for now. Next week, we’ll get cracking with Part 2 of the book.

Let us know if you have any problems. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any observations or questions about the book.

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT