The following quote helps develop what theme?

“There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that’s too many.
Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your
heart out. Strangers come and take your blood. Good God, who were those men? I never
saw them before in my life!”

1. ? reliance on technology
2. ? conformity
3. :-) alienation and loneliness
4. ? censorship
5. ? change and transformation

The following quote is an example of ___________________.

“[T]he flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house.”

1. X symbolism
2. ? dramatic irony
3. :-) personification
4. ? characterization

The following quote helps develop what theme?

“He walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular.”

1. ? alienation and loneliness

2. ? reliance on technology
3. ? change and transformation
4. ? censorship
5. :-) conformity

Who says the following?

“Kerosene is nothing but perfume to me.”

6. :-) Guy Montag

7. ? Captain Beatty
8. ? Mildred
9. ? Clarisse McClellan
10.

Who says the following?

"There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass
exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them,
you can stay happy all the time."

1. ? Mildred
2. ? Guy Montag
3. ? Clarisse McClellan
4. :-) Captain Beatty
5.

The following quote helps develop what theme?

“He made more soft sounds. He stumbled toward the bed and shoved the book clumsily
under the cold pillow. He fell into bed and his wife cried out startled. He lay far across
the room from her, on a winter island separated by an empty sea.”

6. :-) alienation and loneliness

7. ? conformity
8. ? reliance on technology
9. ? change and transformation
10. ? censorship

Who says the following?

"She's nothing to me; she shouldn't have had books. It was her responsibility, she
should've thought of that. I hate her. She's got you going and next thing you know we'll
be out, no house, no job, nothing."

1. ? Captain Beatty
2. ? Guy Montag
3. ? Clarisse McClellan
4. :-) Mildred

The following quote helps develop what theme?

“People don’t talk about anything. . . . They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming
pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says
anything different from anyone else.”

1. :-) conformity
2. ? censorship
3. ? reliance on technology
4. ? alienation and loneliness
5. ? change and transformation
 Who says the following?

“Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It’s like being a
pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time—did I tell you?—for being a
pedestrian. Oh, we’re most peculiar.”

1. :-) Clarisse McClellan

2. ? Mildred
3. ? Guy Montag
4. ? Captain Beatty

Who says the following?

“Well, this is a play comes on the wall-to-wall circuit in ten minutes. They mailed me my
part this morning. . . . They write the script with one part missing. It’s a new idea. The
homemaker, that’s me, is the missing part.”

1. ? Captain Beatty
2. ? Guy Montag
3. :-) Mildred
4. ? Clarisse McClellan

Who says the following?

"Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be
let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while."

1. ? Clarisse McClellan
2. ? Captain Beatty
3. :-) Guy Montag
4. ? Mildred

Who says the following?

“I rarely watch the ‘parlor walls’ or go to races or Fun Parks. So I’ve lots of time for
crazy thoughts, I guess.”

1. ? Mildred
2. ? Clarisse McClellan
3. ? Captain Beatty
4. ? Guy Montag

The following quote from Clarisse McClellan to Guy Montag helps support what
theme?
“You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think
what I’ve asked you.”

1. ? alienation and loneliness

2. :-) conformity
3. ? censorship
4. ? reliance on technology
5. ? change and transformation

Who says the following?

“I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed
firemen to stop the flames.”

1. ? Guy Montag
2. :-) Clarisse McClellan
3. ? Captain Beatty
4. ? Mildred

Who says the following?

"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a
burning house; there bust be something there. You don't stay for nothing."

1. ? Clarisse McClellan
2. ? Captain Beatty
3. ? Mildred
4. :-) Guy Montag

Who says the following?

"Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book
column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume. I exaggerate, of
course. . . . Do you see? Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery;
there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more."

1. ? Guy Montag
2. :-) Captain Beatty
3. ? Mildred
4. ? Clarisse McClellan

The following quote helps develop what theme?

“There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that’s too many.
Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your
heart out. Strangers come and take your blood. Good God, who were those men? I never
saw them before in my life!”

1. ? reliance on technology
2. ? conformity
3. ? censorship
4. :-) alienation and loneliness
5. ? change and transformation

Whom is Montag talking to in the following lines?

“Why is it that I feel I’ve known you so many years?”

1. ? Captain Beatty
2. :-) Clarisse McClellan
3. ? Mildred
4. ? Guy Montag

Content Questions

(Numbers indicate the chapter you should refer to.)

1. What do the numerals "451" represent?(Part I)

2. 2. After working on Mildred, the machine operator tells Montag that "we get these
cases nine or ten a night." What does this reveal about the emotional stability of the
populace? What other forms of violence are rampant? Why do you think this society has
become so violent?(Part I)
3. How did the government of this society gain control over the people? Explain using
evidence from the story.(Part I)
4. Why is Faber so critical of himself and pessimistic about the world when he is first
introduced? Why is he then willing to become Montag's mentor?(Part II)
5. Why are the characters on the television screen called "The Family"? What purpose are
they supposed to serve in this society? What is the role played by the "White Clowns"
seen on television?(Part II)
6. Why do you think Mrs. Phelps cried in response to Montag's reading of the poem "Dover
Beach?"(Part II)
7. How does Montag feel as he burns his own house? Why do you think he feels this
way?(Part III)
8. What revelation does Montag have about Beatty after he kills him? How does Beatty's
ability to quote from literature actually foreshadow this understanding of his
character?(Part III)
9. Why was Montag's capture depicted on television even though he had escaped?(Part III)
10. Do you think the author wants the reader to believe that Montag will be happy with the
book people? Give reasons to support your answer. In general, would you say that this
novel ends on an optimistic or pessimistic note?
"Three years ago I wrote a short novel entitled 'The Fire Man' which told the story of
a municipal department in the year 1999 that came to your house to start fires
instead of to put them out."
--Ray Bradbury, 1953

Fahrenheit 451, the 1953 reincarnation of "The Fire Man," presents ideas that are
far more complex than that brief description indicates. This novel is a soothsayer,
warning of a future populated by non-readers and non-thinkers; a lost people with
no sense of their history. At the same time it salutes those who dedicate their lives to
the preservation and passing on of knowledge, and testifies to the quiet or
passionate courage of the rebel with a cause. Fahrenheit also poses questions about
the role(s) of government: Should it reflect the will of the people? Should
government do the people's thinking for them?

top of the page

1. Why would society make "being a pedestrian" a crime? (Clarisse tells Montag that
her uncle was once arrested for this.)

2. One suicide and one near-suicide occur in this book. One woman, who shuns
books but loves TV and driving fast in her car, anesthetizes herself,; "We get these
cases nine or ten a night," says the medical technician. Another woman, who
cherishes her books, sets herself on fire with them; "These fanatics always try
suicide," says the fire captain. Why would two people who seem to be so different
from each other try to take their own lives? Why does suicide happen so frequently
in Montag's society?"

3. Captain Beatty quotes history, scripture, poetry, philosophy. He is obviously a

well-read man. Why hasn't he been punished? And why does he view the books he's
read with such contempt?

4. Beatty tells Montag that firemen are "custodians of peace of mind" and that they
stand against "those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory
and thought." How well are the firemen accomplishing these objectives? Are
conflicting ideas the only source of unhappiness in their society? What other sources
might there be? Can conflicting ideas exist even without books that have been
destroyed and outlawed?

5. Why do you think the firemen's rulebook credited Benjamin Franklin-- writer,
publisher, political leader, inventor, ambassador--as being the first fireman?

6. Why does Beatty program the Hound to track Montag even before Montag stole
the book? Do you believe Beatty had seen him steal books before? Or is it that
Beatty had detected a change in Montag's attitude or behavior? Cite incidents in the
book that support your answer.
7. Montag turns to books to rescue him; instead they help demolish his life -- he
loses his wife, job and home; he kills a man and is forced to be a nomad. Does he
gain any benefits from books? If so, what are they?

8. Do you believe, as Montag did, that Beatty wanted to die? If so, why do you think
so?

9. Since the government is so opposed to readers, thinkers, walkers, and slow

drivers, why does it allow the procession of men along the railroad tracks to exist?

10. Once Montag becomes a violent revolutionary, why does the government
purposely capture an innocent man in his place instead of tracking down the real
Montag? Might the government believe that Montag is no longer a threat?

11. Granger, spokesperson for the group on the railroad tracks, tells Montag, "Right
now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly,
end...When the war's over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world." Based on
what you've read of the world these men live in, do you believe that the books they
carry inside themselves will make a difference? Might this difference be positive or
negative? Point out episodes in Fahrenheit to support your response.

12. What does Granger mean when he says, "We're going to go build a mirror
factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long time to
look at them?" Why would "mirrors" be important in this new society? (Note: In Part
1, Clarisse is said to be "like a mirror.")

13. Although Ray Bradbury's work is often referred to as science fiction, Fahrenheit
has plenty to say about the world as it is, and not as it could be. As you review the
book, list examples of the themes mentioned below, as well as others you notice.
Discuss how you feel about the stands the author or characters take in Fahrenheit.

• conformity vs. individuality

• freedom of speech and the consequences of losing it
• the importance of remembering and understanding history
• machines as helpers to humans, machines as hindrances or enemies