Fahrenheit 451(1953) By Ray Bradbury Author Bio History of Book Burning Major Themes of the Book Parallel Themes with Animal Farm

Author Biography: Ray Bradbury Born in Waukegan, IL in 1920 As a boy, loved circuses and magicians; Halloween; fantasy stories (Buck Rogers, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Oz) First writing success in sci-fi genre: short story published in 1941 at age of 21

Ray Bradbury (con’t) By 1960’s, moved away from sci-fi to horror and other genres Nominated or won numerous sci-fi and short story awards; came up with “Spaceship Earth” metaphor for Disney World; several of his stories made into movies Other popular works: The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), Dandelion Wine (1957), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)

The History of Book Burning “Where they burn books, they will end with burning human beings.” ---German writer Heinrich Heine, from his play Almansor (1821) (referring to the burning of the Quran during the Spanish Inquisition) History of Book Burning and pictures from Wikipedia, September 29, 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning)

History of Book Burning (con’t) Dramatic symbol of righteousness and censorship Goes back to ancient times; burned for religious and social reasons Early Christian texts burned by Roman authorities; non-Christian texts burned by Catholic authorities

History of Book Burning (con’t) 1873: Comstock’s New York Society for the Suppression of Vice Destroyed 15 tons of books, four million pictures

History of Book Burning (con’t) 1842, Paris, France: books written in new braille code burned by school for the blind 1917, Russia: Anti-Communist books burned 1930’s Nazi Germany: 18,000 works deemed “degenerate” (Jewish or not pro-Nazi) were destroyed. 1933 rally burned 20,000 books.

History of Book Burning (con’t) 1948, Binghamton, NY: 2000 comic books burned 1953: Sen. McCarthy recommended removal of pro-Communist books from libraries; several libraries burned them In modern times, phonograph records, CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs are sometimes also burned as form of public protest Now, censorship is usually more subtle: “they don’t gotta burn the books they just remove ‘em” (Rage Against the Machine, “Bulls on Parade” [1996])

Major Themes in Novel Censorship Dystopia vs. Utopia: Utopia: optimistic; “good” technology; humankind lives freely in peace and prosperity Dystopia: pessimistic; “bad” technology; humankind lives in oppressive and restricted environment Are heroes made from inherent ideals or circumstances?

Parallel Themes with Animal Farm The changing of history The importance of literacy The power of government over its people Is ignorance bliss?