Research Paper
For the final essay you will develop a research question related to the themes explored in Fahrenheit 451.
Your thesis will be a well informed answer to your research question. Though you need not focus on
Fahrenheit 451, in your introduction you should include a direct comparison between the society of Fahrenheit
451 and our own.
Examples research questions:
1. What causes censorship in modern American news media?
Questions to generate ideas:
Does modern American media work like it does in Fahrenheit 451?
Does the news media seek to inform or entertain with spectacle?
Is there a lot of incidental censorship? (I.E. exclusion because the story
is not entertaining enough?)
What do other countries report on that American media does not?
2. To what extent does our society make quality (“true to life”) information available to the masses, time to
absorb it and think about it, and freedom to act upon it?
3. Is censorship in America's media complex due to the popular taste (which prefers spectacle over difficult)
and minority interests Bradbury warns against in Fahrenheit 451?
4. How accurate was Bradbury's picture of the future? Are we sick with the distraction of short-term
spectacle and beaten into submission by ubiquitous marketing? And, as a result of this never-ending drive to
consume/buy material things, do we suffer from existential vacuums?
5. Does “South Park” feature “true-to-life” detail, the kind of detail that Faber says makes something worthwhile and literary? Or is “South Park” simply another sensationalist distraction designed to entertain and
not make them think?
Example research question answer with direct comparison to Fahrenheit 451:
1. Beatty of Fahrenheit 451 blames censorship on “technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure.”
It is clear that Bradbury meant this as a critique of our own society's tendency to exchange quality
information for the more palatable spectacle and to censor itself in the name of avoiding offense. While this
critique is not without merit, Bradbury underestimated the supplanting intent of the state to consolidate
power and censor those who oppose it. In our modern American society, censorship stems more from the
government than from minority pressure.
Length: 6 pages
Time line:
F451 pages 98-128 reading response due 11/9
F451 pages 128-165 reading response and two articles and annotations due 11/16
Three articles and annotations due 11/18
Research Proposal, outline, and preliminary bibliography due 11/23
Annotated Bibliography, second outline, and zero draft due 11/30
First Draft due 12/2
Second Draft due 12/7
Final Draft due 12/14