English 1 Mr. Pelster Fahrenheit 451 study questions pp. 3-18 discussion questions 1. What metaphor does Bradbury use to describe the burning books? What impressions does he convey with that metaphor? 2. Describe the sounds and scents associated with Clarisse. 3. What kinds of powers did Clarisse seem to have immediately over Montag? How does his meeting with her affect him? 4. What do you think Montag has hidden in his house? 5. From Montag s conversation with the handymen, can you tell if suicide attempts are common? What could be the reason for this? 6. Do you think Montag is in love with Mildred? If so, what proof can you give? 7. Clarisse describes herself as insane. Does she seem insane to you? 8. What types of conflicts do you see so far in this story? 9. Compare Bradbury s portrayal of Clarisse and Mildred. What is similar? What is different? pp. 18-35 discussion questions 1. What does the Mechanical Hound do? How does the Mechanical Hound kill its victims? How does it contrast with the symbolic fireman s dog that we think of today? 2. How do the firemen play with the Mechanical Hound? How does that make you feel about the kind of people who are firemen? Is Montag the same? 3. Why does Bradbury mention the suicide of the fireman from Seattle? 4. Describe the difference between Montag s conversations with Mildred and his conversations with Clarisse. 5. What seems odd about the subjects the students study in school? What does that tell you about the values of the society? 6. Why doesn t Clarisse have any friends her own age? What is the usual meaning of antisocial? How is the meaning reversed in Fahrenheit 451? 7. Clarisse says that People don t talk about anything (35). How does that compare with what you see in your life? 8. Clarisse s Uncle says that people used to believe in responsibility (30). What does that mean? Why does Clarisse mention that she was spanked after that, and that she does housework by hand?
pp. 35-48 discussion questions 1. What does the old lady mean when she says, Play the man, Master Ridley? 2. What difference does it make to Montag that the woman is still in the house when they are searching for and preparing to burn the books? 3. Again in this section, Bradbury compares books to birds. Does it have the same impact as it did at the beginning of the book? Is it more powerful, less powerful, or equally powerful? 4. Beatty makes an allusion to the Tower of Babel. Why does he compare the woman s collection of books to the story in the Bible? Do you think he s right? 5. Bradbury compares the trail of kerosene around the house to the track of an evil snail. Snails are destructive pests in a garden. According to the simile, who or what is the snail and what would be the garden? 6. Who starts the fire at the woman s house? Why does it matter? 7. Beatty seems to know a lot about the woman s quotation. What does that tell you? Is Stoneman s reaction to Beatty s knowledge telling in some way? 8. To Montag, Mildred s conversation is only words, like the words he had heard once in a nursery at a friend s house, a two-year-old child building word patterns, talking jargon, making pretty sounds in the air (42). What does that say about Mildred? 9. What key descriptions of their relationship does Bradbury provide in this section? 10. Montag says that he and Mildred are empty. In what way is he correct? 11. When Montag describes three walls that are between him and Mildred, what does he refer to? What does that imply about technology? 12. Mildred tells Montag about Clarisse s death in this section. Why does Bradbury choose that particular death for her? 13. In what ominous way does this section end? Do you think Montag is right about what he imagines is outside his window? Whether he is or not, what does it tell you about his conscience? pp. 48-68 discussion questions Fire Chief Beatty says each of the following things in his discussion with Montag. This is perhaps the most important section in the book. It explains how the firemen came to be what they are and do what they do. The speech by Beatty outlines the decay of society into the state we find it in Fahrenheit 451. For each of the subsequent quotes, explain what Beatty means in your own words. In other words, paraphrase Beatty. Whenever possible, give examples of what he s talking about that you can see in our own world. 1. Picture it. Nineteenth-centry man with his horses, dogs, darts, slow motion. Then, in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests. Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending. 2. Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.
3. School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn things save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts. 4. More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don t have to think, eh? Organize and organize and superorganize super-super sports. 5. More cartoons in books. More pictures. The mind drinks less and less. 6. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three-dimensional sex magazines, of course. 7. We must be all alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? 8. Peace Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or ow much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so full of facts they feel stuffed, but absolutely brilliant with information. pp. 71-93 discussion questions 1. Who or what comes to the door while Montag is reading? 2. Why does Montag think of the old man in the park? 3. According to Faber, how has religion changed? 4. How does Faber see himself? How does Faber see Montag? 5. Why isn t Montag afraid of stealing more books? 6. How can the words in the books Montag is reading point to Clarisse? 7. What answers does Montag give to Mildred s question, Why should I read? What for? 8. How do Mildred s comments and actions show she s never going to understand what Montag is trying to tell her? 9. How do books function like Caesar s praetorian guard? 10. Does Faber think the firemen are the only problem? Will making them look like traitors make everything else okay? 11. Why was the Book of Job an appropriate one for Faber to read to Montag? 12. Faber says Beatty may be one of us? Do you think it s possible? Give reasons for your opinion.
pp. 93-110 discussion questions 1. Describe the events that appear in the show Millie and her friends watch. What are they like? Do they have any connection to each other? Why do Millie and her friends react the way they do? 2. How loving do you think the relationship between Mrs. Phelps and her husband is? What details give you that impression? 3. On page 95 the women s faces remind Montag of something. What is it? Why do they remind him of that? 4. What do you think of the family life that Mrs. Bowles leads? What details lead you to that opinion? 5. What is the poem Dover Beach about? Why does it make Mrs. Phelps cry? Why does Faber want Montag to read that poem to the women? 6. What does Beatty confess to Montag about his own past while they play cards? What does Beatty try to do to Montag with all the quotes he cites? 7. pp. 113-145 discussion questions 1. To what does Bradbury compare the scene at Montag s house when they arrive to burn it? What idea about that society does he try to get across with such a comparison? 2. What does Mildred regret most losing about her old life? 3. Why does Montag actually enjoy burning his own house? 4. Why does Beatty choose to say lines from Shakespeare? (page 119) 5. Why do you think Bradbury chose to have Beatty die as he did? 6. How does Montag s injured leg like a chunk of burnt pine help to symbolize his state of mind as he hobbles away? 7. Montag realizes that Beatty wanted to die. What explanation can you give for this? 8. Why is it appropriate that war is finally declared at this point in the novel? How can you consider this symbolic? 9. When Montag arrives at Faber s house, how does he act differently than he did during his last visit there? 10. What does Montag s own escape from the Hound remind him of? 11. Why is it appropriate that water carries Montag away from the city? 12. What does Montag need and want as he drifts down the river? (page 143) 13. On page 143, how does the land affect Montag after he gets out of the river? Why does it affect him this way?
pp. 145-155 discussion questions 1. In what way is the silence Montag perceives around Granger and the old men important? What does it tell you about them that is different from the people in the city? 2. What contemporary television show does the chase of Montag remind you of? How does the chase for Montag end? What things does that ending tell you about society? What opinion does it help you form about the society? 3. At the top of page 150, Granger repeats the word Hell. What is he talking about and why does he repeat the word? 4. Granger refers to his group, and those like his, as the voice crying in the wilderness (152). What does this allude to? Why is that an important allusion? 5. What is Granger s plan for the books? How many people are out there like him and his group? pp. 155-165 discussion questions 1. Describe the difference between Mildred and Granger s grandfather. Why does Granger miss his grandfather and Montag not miss Mildred according to what the story implies. 2. What s the difference between a gardener and a lawn-cutter, according to Granger? How does that relate to the rest of the book? 3. Montag s name means Monday in German. What symbolic importance does that carry? 4. Grange is an old name for a farm, so Granger might be loosely interpreted to mean farmer. How is that name also symbolically appropriate? 5. Why does Granger say they should build a mirror factory first? 6. Why does Granger want Montag to lead them back to the city? How does Granger view Montag? 7. The last quote is from the book of Revelation (22:2). Why is it an appropriate passage for this point in the book? What does it imply?