1. Fahrenheit 451: Part II The Sieve and the Sand
Study guide questions
# 1-15

2. Symbolism
Objective: Recognizing the use of symbolism in a literary text.
Symbolism refers to the use of a specific word, idea, or object to represent a person, an idea, a set of values, or a way of life.

3. Symbolism Match each object with what it represents:
1. fire A. The ability to survive fire
2. Television family B. Government propaganda that
drowns out individual thought
3. Seashell ear radios C. The watchful eye and violent
control of the government
4. Salamander insignia D. The destruction of knowledge
5. Mechanical Hound E. Government control of the
media and media distraction

4. Answers! 1. D Fire = destruction of knowledge
2. E TV “Family” = gov’t. control of media
3. B Ear bud = drowns out individual thought
4. A Salamander =ability to survive fire
5. C Hound = watchful eye

5. AGENDA Bell ringer (Symbolism and review)
Author’s style-add to literary terms
Study guide check
Group work on plot diagram
Discussions of Part 2 (questions 1-15)
Closure-exit slip

6. Today’s Objectives
Students will recognize the use of symbolism in a literary text.
Students will recognize the elements that define an author’s writing style.
Students will understand how structure supports the plot of a literary work and will identify key points in the plot.
Students will discuss the role and importance of propaganda in the story.

7. Think-Pair-Share
Why do you think that Bradbury titled the first part of the book- “The Hearth and the Salamander”?

8. Hearth
Noun
1. the floor of a fireplace, usually of stone, brick, etc., often extending a short distance into a room.
2. home; fireside: the joys of family and hearth.

9. The Hearth and the Salamander
Objective: SWBAT recognize the elements that define an author’s writing style.
Many different elements define an author’s style:
Punctuation
Sentence structure (length and complexity of sentences)
Sound and rhythm, use of rhetorical devices (repetition, alliteration, etc.) flow and sound
Symbolism (ideas represented by objects) and imagery (vivid language that connects the reader to a sensory experience)
Word choice (diction)-dialect, slang, everyday language, or higher vocabulary

10. Author’s Style Consider the elements that define an author’s style.
What elements of style dominate Fahrenheit 451?
How do these elements create a MOOD in the novel? What MOOD do they create?
Mood- The emotional effect or feeling a story creates by the writer’s use of language.
How do these elements affect the TONE (author’s attitude) of Fahrenheit 451? Is it cold and distant, or warm and sympathetic?
Does Ray Bradbury use a lot of dialogue or more narration?

11. Study Guide Check! Please have your study guides on your desk.
With the people in your row fill out the Fahrenheit 451 Plot Events!
You should have 4 events for the exposition.
Two inciting action events- what makes Montag change?
You should have 5 events in the rising action.

12. Parts of the Plot

13. Exposition: Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books.
Montag is thirty years old.
Montag has been a fireman for 10 years.
Montag is married to Mildred.

14. Inciting/Rising Actions
Montag meets Clarisse McClellan.
Montag begins to question his way of life.
Other events in the Rising Action:
Montag’s wife attempts suicide.
Montag takes book.
A woman is burned to death with her books.
Clarisse disappears.
Montag plots with Faber.

15. 1. What is Montag reading just before the Mechanical Hound comes to the house?
Montag is reading a James Boswell letter and Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson written in the early 18th century.
It is regarded as an important stage in the development of the modern genre of biography; many have claimed it as the greatest biography written in English.

16. 1. What should the hound’s arrival indicate to Montag
1. What should the hound’s arrival indicate to Montag? What is his reaction? (page 67)
Montag realizes that the authorities are still following and spying on him.
Mildred becomes terrified that their house and her electronic walls of “relatives” will be burned down because of the books Montag has hidden. (p. 69-She can’t visualize books!)
Montag is caught up in his desire to keep reading, and he wants to ignore
the hound.

17. What new character can you add to your Characterization Chart?
Bell ringer
What new character can you add to your Characterization Chart?
Age/appearance
Personality Traits
Job and Priorities

18. #2. What is Montag’s reaction when he hears the jets overhead. (pp
Montag is angry that the jets constantly inhabit the skies and that war has been almost an ongoing reality in his life.
He is haunted by the fear that others in the world hate his country, which is rich, well fed, and self-satisfied, while others are poor, hungry, and lost.

19. #3. What memory comes to Montag as a source of help in this strange society? (page 70-71)
Montag remembers an old man in the park, an ex-English professor, who talked of “the meaning of things” and quoted two poems. The man, whose name was Faber, gave Montag his name and address on a slip of paper so Montag could find him again.

20. Faber’s words…
“I don’t talk things, sir,” said Faber. “I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I’m alive.”

21. #4. Why does Faber refuse to answer Montag’s questions on the phone?
Faber is aware that every conversation can be monitored and recorded. He is afraid to incriminate himself by talking to Montag on the phone. (p. 71)

22. #5. What is the significance of the conversation between Montag and Mildred before Montag leaves the house?
Montag is trying to connect with his wife. He wants her to join him in his reading, but he sees with regret that she is stuck in the brainwashed present and cannot summon the bravery or daring to try to find the truth. Although he has changed, she has not. As he leaves, he believes that she cannot be saved.

23. “It’s mud to you, too!”
Montag walked to the kitchen and threw the book down. "Montag," he said, "you're really stupid. Where do we go from here? Do we turn the books in, forget it?" He opened the book to read over Mildred's laughter. Poor Millie, he thought. Poor Montag, it's mud to you, too. But where do you get help, where do you find a teacher this late?

24. Montag frustrated?
"Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read.“
For Montag, books are more about communication than anything else. That’s why it wasn’t enough for him to read them on his own, why he insisted that his wife do it with him and later, realizing she was inadequate, that he find a teacher.

25. #6. What happens on the subway? (p. 75)
Montag sits on the subway with the Bible open on his lap, trying to memorize the whole book before he has to turn it in to Beatty to be burned.
When the advertisement for Denham’s Dentifrice comes over the speakers, he fights those words with words from the Bible, trying to avoid being influenced by the propaganda and ads on the subway.

26. Montag crazy?
His behavior is increasingly erratic, and the other passengers realize that he is in some sort of crisis. They try to move away from him, but he screams words from the Bible as he tries to hold onto that book’s reality.
Finally, he flees the subway and runs out of the station toward Faber’s house.

27. “Lilies of the field.” Quote from the Bible-Matthew 6:28.
Jesus warns about worry.
Worry immobilizes, but concern moves you to action.

28. 7. What does Faber say about his own history? (page 78)
He says he tried at first to speak up against the suppression of ideas, but no one would listen, and he became afraid to continue his protests.
When he saw the system for burning all books, he retreated to his small world and tried to avoid society.
He considers himself a coward, but he could not inspire others to join him, so he stopped trying.

29. 8. What does Faber say about Jesus?
He says that even God would not recognize
Jesus as he appears on the parlor walls,
almost like a soap-opera character dressed in today’s clothes, making simplistic statements
and seeming to endorse commercial products.
Society’s controllers, by co-opting Jesus, have taken over every realm of thought and belief; they have substituted themselves for both reason and religion.

30. #9. Why does Montag think books could make him happy? (page 78)
He says, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we are not happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.”

31. # 10. Books = Key to Happiness?
Faber says that books themselves are not the key to happiness, but three other factors are.
These are the essentials of HAPPINESS!
Quality of information
Leisure for reading and contemplation
Freedom to act based on what one learns from books

32. #11.Explain what Faber means by quality of information. (pp. 79-80)
Faber explains that he means details and the “pores in the face of life” that reveal “the texture of information.”
Quality information must include, the good and the bad of any subject, and it must be grounded in reality, even if it is fictional. The reader should find nuances-shadings-in books so he or she has to think about the meaning.

33. Quality of information
“This book can go under the microscope…the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more ‘literary’ you are. That’s my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”

34. Real leisure, according to Faber, is quiet time for thought.
12. Leisure for reading and contemplation-What does Faber mean by leisure? (p. 80)
Real leisure, according to Faber, is quiet time for thought.
Leisure is not sitting in a game parlor or being surrounded by the televisor walls and empty noise.

35. Leisure?
“Off hours, yes. But time to think? If you’re not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can’t think of anything else but the danger, then you’re playing some game (Call of Duty Ghosts?) or sitting in some room where you can’t argue with the four-wall televisor…It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to
protest.”

36. #13. What is Faber’s third factor required for happiness? (page 81)
Faber says people must have “the right to carry out actions based on what we learn” from quality of information and contemplating that information at leisure.

37. We do need knowledge!
“Most of us can’t rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see 99% of them is in a book.
And don’t look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library!” –Faber (page 82)

38. #14. How does Montag coerce Faber into becoming his teacher? (p. 84)
Montag starts ripping the Bible up, and Faber begs him to stop. Montag does not stop until Faber agrees to be his teacher.

39. #15. How does Faber equip Montag to deal with Captain Beatty. (pp
Faber gives Montag a tiny transmitter that he has invented. It allows Montag to look like he is wearing a propaganda earpiece, but he will hear Faber coaching him on how to deceive the captain.

40. Theme
"I don't want to change sides and just be told what to do. There's no reason to change if I do that." (Montag) "You're wise already!“ (Faber)
Fahrenheit 451 reminds us that it’s the process of independent thought that matters, more than the knowledge itself.
School vs. education

41. Education-inclination to learn, open a book with a curious mind!
School vs. Education
Education-inclination to learn, open a book with a curious mind!

42. What is the plan that Faber and Montag agree to start?
Closure: Exit Slip
What is the plan that Faber
and Montag agree to start?
A. Catch the Mechanical Hound and deactivate it, so that Montag will be safe to read more books.
B. Hire linguists to study the pages of the Bible to see if it is a counterfeit copy.
C. Plant books in fire stations, so that the firemen’s houses are burned.

43. Reading Assignment: For Thursday, Dec. 5th
Read pages (17 pages)
Answer questions
That will finish part two- “The Sieve and the Sand”
“Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord…So few want to be rebels anymore!” Faber on page 83