FAHRENHEIT 451
FINAL PROJECT
9th Grade English final Fahrenheit 451 project will consist of a poster, a paper, and a presentation.
Everything will be due Tuesday, March 14. No one can use the same passage, character, or symbol.
You must give me your choice by Monday, February 26.
BEGIN: Choose one of these:
 Identify a line or passage that can be socially or technologically related to 2024
o Passage should be a stand-alone, socially conscious expression of an idea (see examples)
 Choose a character – Montag, Beatty, Clarice, Mildred, or Faber
 Choose a symbol/motif from the story
PAPER (+50)
 You will write a paper, a 5 paragraph essay
o Thesis statement/Introduction (+10)
o Body Paragraphs (+20)
o Conclusion (+10)
o Formatting and grammar (+10)
 Main points will be the significance of the passage and direct correlation to 2024
o Why is line important to the novel?
o Where is this connected today? MUST identify symbolic nature of passage.
o How might this have a future impact on society? Where will this be relevant?
 Main points will describe the significance of the character
o Describe the character.
o How do they change or stay the same?
o How do they interact with other characters/Compare and contrast
o Why are they important to the story?
 Main points will describe the significance of the symbol:
o What is the symbol and where does it appear in the story?
o What does it represent in the story?
o Why is it important?
o Why is this significant to you personally?
POSTER (+25)
 You will then create an artful VISUAL (A3)
 Poster will contain written passage with page number and an artful representation of the line,
OR a colored sketch of the character OR symbol
PRESENTATION (+25)
 Present VISUAL and explanation to the class:

2-3 minute planned and prepared presentation :
o Have an introduction/conclusion that wraps up entirety of information (+10)
o Have focus statement clarifying the direction of your
presentation (+10)
o Proper speaking techniques must be evident (+5)
Examples of Quote Possibilities:
 “Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten
seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or
paid for in factories.”

“You're a hopeless romantic," said Faber. "It would be funny if it were
not serious. It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once
were in books. The same things could be in the 'parlor families' today.
The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the
radios, and televisors, but are not. No, no it's not books at all you're
looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records,
old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look
for it in yourself. Books were only one type or receptacle where we
stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing
magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they
stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.
Of course you couldn't know this, of course you still can't understand
what I mean when I say all this. You are intuitively right, that's what
counts.”

“That's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or
disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows
very well it is important and WORTH the doing.”

“Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things
we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all.
The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of
the Universe together into one garment for us.”

“But we do need a breather. We do need knowledge. And perhaps in a
thousand years we might pick smaller cliffs to jump off. The books are
to remind us what asses and fools we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian
guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember,
Caesar, thou art mortal.’ Most of us can’t rush around, talk to everyone,
know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many
friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the
only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is
in a book.”

“So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the
pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon
faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless.”

“Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of
‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then
they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without
moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.
Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie
things up with. That way lies melancholy.”

“All is not lost, of course. There is still time if we judge teachers,
students, and parents, hold them accountable on the same scale, if we
truly test teachers, students, and parents, if we make everyone
responsible for quality, if we insure that by the end of its sixth year
every child in every country can live in libraries to learn almost by
osmosis, then our drug, street-gang, rape, and murder scores will suffer
themselves near zero. But the Fire Chief, in mid-novel, says it all,
predicting the one-minute TV commercial with three images per
second and no respite from the bombardment. Listen to him, know
what he says, then go sit with your child, open a book, and turn the
page.”