Instructions: Text Analysis Worksheet
Part One
Instructions: In Part One of the Text Analysis Worksheet, provide a short summary of the text that you’ve read. Your
summary should not be overly detailed, but it should contain general information about the major plot points or major
events the author relates in the text. Note that although the example below is from an online source, yours should be in
your own words (not plagiarized from an online source).
Part One Example:
Summary
The novel opens with Guy Montag, a “fireman” in a futuristic society where he and his coworkers start fires, rather than
put them out. Books are banned and burned upon discovery, and Montag has no qualms about his responsibility.
But then he meets Clarisse McClellan, a seventeen-year-old Bohemian girl who happens to be his neighbor. She’s very
chatty, and opens his eyes to the world of nature, dew drops, and not being a stooge. After their first meeting, Montag
returns home to find his wife overdosed on sleeping pills. He calls for help, but he gets plumbers instead of medics. This
sort of thing happens all the time, they say. The next morning, his wife (Mildred) doesn’t remember anything and is happy
as a clam.
Montag grows increasingly dissatisfied with his life and work as he talks more with Clarisse. He starts to wonder if
perhaps books aren’t so bad, and even steals one from a book burning. Meanwhile Clarisse disappears (probably dead),
and his boss, Captain Beatty, is growing suspicious. He lectures Montag on the dangers of books and explains the origin
of their profession. Far from rejuvenated, Montag feels more rebellious than ever. He spends the afternoon with his wife
reading a secret stash of books he’s been storing and decides he needs a teacher. He takes a Bible and tries to memorize
some of it on the way.
He settles on an old ex-professor named Faber, whom he met in the park one day. Faber is reluctant, but finally agrees to
work with Montag against the firemen. Faber provides Montag with a two-way radio earpiece and sends him on his way.
That evening Montag loses his cool and reads some banned poetry aloud to his wife’s friends. Not such a great decision.
That night at the firehouse, Beatty taunts Montag by quoting contradictory passages from the same books. He’s trying to
prove that literature is confusing and problematic. Then he takes Guy to a fire alarm – at Guy’s own house, called in by
his wife, who flees the scene. Montag torches his own house on command, then turns on Beatty and torches him, along
with the very scary Mechanical Hound sent after him.
Now a fugitive, Montag makes his way to Faber’s house, where he watches his own chase scene on TV. The men make
plans to meet up later and in a different place, as the city is pretty much off limits for them. Montag flees to the river at the
edge of the city and some other random pedestrian is killed in his place (the authorities wanted a happy ending to the
televised chase).
Guy gloats in the river and thinks about life for approximately 4 paragraphs before bumping into a series of forest-bound
individuals who turn out to be ex-professors and other intellectuals. The head honcho, Granger, explains the situation:
since books are now banned, they each have memorized one text. Guy would like to volunteer parts of the Bible he tried
to memorize early, but his brain’s a bit foggy right now.
Then the city is bombed by a warring country. Everyone is dead except for Montag and these book people in the woods.
They decide to rebuild society, and Montag remembers a very relevant passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes about a
time to sew, a time to reap, and the tree of life.
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Summary courtesy of Shmoop.com
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Part Two
Instructions: For Part Two, fill in each section of the worksheet provided. For the literary term in Column 1 (“Literary
Term”), find a definition of the literary term and provide that definition, in your own words, in the space provided.
Definitions of literary terms can be found all over the Internet via a Google search for “literary terms,” but the definition
you write should be in your own words.
In Column 2 (“Evidence”), cite textual evidence which illustrates this literary term. You should include the author’s last
name and page number in parentheses (MLA in-text citation format).
Then, in Column 3 (“Explanation”), explain how the text you’ve selected illustrates the literary term. Your explanations
should be a short paragraph, written in complete sentences and using academic language.
Part Two Example:
Literary Term
Evidence
Explanation
Setting: The time and
physical location in which a
story occurs; the “where
and when” of the story.
“He walked out of the fire station and along
the midnight street toward the subway
where the silent air-propelled train slid
soundlessly down its lubricated flue in the
earth and let him out with a great puff of
warm air onto the cream-tiled escalator
rising to the suburb” (Bradbury 4).
Metaphor: A direct
comparison between two
unlike things; saying
something “is” something
else.
“With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this
great python spitting its venomous kerosene
upon the world, the blood pounded in his
head, and his hands were the hands of some
amazing conductor playing all the
symphonies of blazing and burning to bring
down the tatters and charcoal ruins of
history” (Bradbury 3).
Theme: An author’s
message about life
conveyed in his or her
writing.
“The old man nodded. ‘Those who don’t
build must burn. It’s as old as history and
juvenile delinquents’” (Bradbury 89).
Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unnamed
city and in a suburb just outside of the city.
The “midnight street” and “subway,” imply
a city setting. After leaving the fire station
where he works, Montag is taking the
subway out of the city to his home
somewhere in the suburbs. This quote also
suggests that the story is set sometime in the
future, due to the “air-propelled” train,
which runs “soundlessly,” unlike subway
trains today. From this, I infer a setting with
some advanced technology, but not so
advanced to be unrecognizable from today.
There are actually two metaphors in this
sentence, which compare Montag’s
flamethrower to a large snake, and
Montag’s hands with that of the conductor
of an orchestra. The first metaphor implies
that the flamethrower is dangerous and
frightening, like a deadly snake, while the
second metaphor suggests that Montag is
skilled at his job of burning things, almost
like an artist or a musician. This complex
use of metaphor also demonstrates
Bradbury’s use of language, which is very
beautiful and descriptive.
The message here, conveyed by Professor
Faber to Montag, is that people who do not
cannot find constructive purposes in their
lives tend toward destruction instead. It’s
like how gangs tend to attract people who
don’t have much hope for education or
success in other areas, so they look to the
gangs to provide meaning for them, even if
it leads them to violence and crime.
NOTE: Although you may handwrite your responses on the copy of the Text Analysis Worksheet provided, it is
preferable to download the file and type your responses directly into it.