Fahrenheit 451 Project by Andrew Morrison https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb en-us 2021-03-25 13:15:36 UTC 2021-03-27 01:28:30 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f986.png amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1355275855 2021-03-25 23:15:53 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1355275855 Characters amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1355350678 Guy Montag - The main protagonist. He works as a 'fireman', a person employed by the dystopian government who is tasked with burning down homes containing outlawed books. Guy later develops a passion for secretly holding books after his conversations with Clarisse. Guy is often hard to sympathize with throughout the book for multiple reasons: he frequently is his own worst enemy, and often makes poor or strange decisions without ample insight given to the reader. 

Mildred Montag - Guy's wife. A miserable and detached partner for Guy, who immediately appears to be so at the beginning of the novel after attempting suicide by a sleeping pill overdose. She lacks conviction regarding the world around her and the dystopian government that she has been subject to for her whole life. She refuses all of Guy's attempts to educate or enlighten her about the truths hidden from them by the government.

Clarisse - A 17-year-old girl who develops a brief friendship with Guy before dying mysteriously after being hit by a car. She and Guy would frequently discuss their thoughts about how books are banned and why that is so. She effectively inspired Guy to pursue the truth before dying.

Beatty - The captain of the firemen company that Guy works for. He serves as the main antagonist. In his first scene, he makes it clear to Guy that he personally despises books, and that all firemen are expected to burn any books they come into possession of or face their house being burned down. Beatty frequently manipulates Guy. This all despite the author hinting that Beatty has read many books himself. Much like Guy, he can be difficult to understand as a character, as he eventually seems to accept his own death at hands of Guy without much resistance.

Faber - A professor who Guy is supposed to have known prior to the start of the book. He is a book collector who, much like Guy, keeps his collection secret. He is regretful that he doesn't have the courage to speak out against the destruction of books by the government.]]> 2021-03-25 23:56:25 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1355350678 Theme amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1358964008 'Knowledge against ignorance' is a theme that persists throughout the novel. Little is known about the world the book takes place in, including the reason why books are outlawed in the country they live in. Guy's wife is a huge example of the theme, as her refusal to inquire or investigate the world around her is what leads to her miserable existance.]]> 2021-03-26 21:20:56 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1358964008 Symbolism amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359118212 The Mechanical Hound is a great example of symbolism relevant to the theme in Fahrenheit 451. In the plot, the Mechanical Hound is an eight-legged robotic dog that assists in the capture and location of suspected book collectors.

"The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the fire house" (Bradbury 21)

The cold and lifeless nature of the Hound represents the idea the ignorance doesn't sleep, it never becomes tired in its battle against knowledge and education.


]]> 2021-03-26 23:15:12 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359118212 "Proof of my terrible cowardice. I've lived alone so many years, throwing images on walls with my imagination. Fiddling with electronics, radio-transmission, has been my hobby," (Bradbury 86) amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359145893 Here, Professor Faber explains his shame in failing to pick up the fight against the government's policy against books. This is further evidence of the theme of knowledge against ignorance. Despite the fact the Faber has collected books, he hasn't actively pursued the fight against ignorance. It serves as a warning from Bradbury that the fight against ignorance is not a passive one, but an active one. It's a fight where one must always attempt to educate themselves to avoid sinking into complacency.]]> 2021-03-26 23:40:35 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359145893 "Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores," (Bradbury 79) amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359202144 During a conversation with Professor Faber, Faber explains to Guy that books themselves are not important and are not something Guy should risk himself for. Instead, he implies that the individual meanings within different books are what is important. This is crucial to the persisting notion that an active pursuit of knowledge outweighs a simple passive collection of it.]]> 2021-03-27 00:34:03 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359202144 "The sun burned every day. It burned Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen, and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burned!" (Bradbury 134) amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359217804 Here, Montag ponder his place in the world. He implies in his monologue that the sun is virtually infinite and that it will continue to burn through time as it always has. He then considers that in addition to this, he and the firemen have always burned books, and that if both the sun and the firemen continued together, everything will burn metaphorically. This is antithetical to his goal of learning of the world around him, so his concludes that the book burning must end absolutely.]]> 2021-03-27 00:50:10 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359217804 Symbolism amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359226665 At the end of the book, Guy flees to the countryside after his confrontation with Beatty and the firemen to live with a group of intellectuals who, much like himself, collect and read as many books as they can.  Soon after, an atomic bomb destroys the city that Montag had lived in. This is symbolic of the destructive nature of a society that chooses ignorance over knowledge.

"And in that instant saw the city, instead of the bombs, in the air. They had displaced each other." (Bradbury 153) ]]> 2021-03-27 00:59:27 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359226665 Guy Montag (Continued) amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359239655 Guy is an extremely puzzling and frustrating character to say the least. He consistently bungles his own plans and fails to show any insightfulness towards the other characters or their motives and actions. Guy fails to understand in the moment he kills Beatty that he was doing him a favor. Leading to the climax where Guy burns Beatty with a flamethrower, Guy is unable to realize that Beatty had purposefully provoked him in order to incite a violent reaction, going so far as to give Guy the weapon earlier on.]]> 2021-03-27 01:13:22 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359239655 Background amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359245901 The world established by Ray Bradbury is quite simplified compared to other dystopian novels like 1984. The lore isn't as deep and there is a very limited scope of the outside world apart from the clarification that a major nuclear conflict is imminent. In the world, Guy lives in a country plagued by selfish and miserable citizens. This is all caused in part by the banning and burning of books by the government which are deemed unfit for consumption for an unknown reason, leaving only shallow forms of entertainment and knowledge available to the public. Guy's wife, Mildred is the archetype for a citizen in the world they live in. She spends all of her time employing only the most shallow forms of entertainment to take up the bulk of her life, watching and listening to low-quality programing on TV and the radio. Living in this society is so terribly miserable that it drives Mildred to attempt suicide by drug overdose.]]> 2021-03-27 01:19:49 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359245901 amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359252415 2021-03-27 01:26:51 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359252415 amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359252832 2021-03-27 01:27:19 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359252832 amorrison45 https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359253799 2021-03-27 01:28:20 UTC https://padlet.com/amorrison45/386oanj0v4phr0cb/wish/1359253799