Minniti/Cooper (Thanks, Mr. Weaver!)
Fahrenheit 451 – Author Assertion Paper
GOAL: Ray Bradbury makes several ASSERTIONS about what he thinks
American culture will be like “in the future” (which is actually NOW).
An ASSERTION is “a positive statement or declaration, often without support
or reason.” Bradbury made these statements in 1950 based upon what he saw
around him, but ultimately, he was “guessing”…hence the lack of support. But
now that we are living in Bradbury’s future, we can see if he was right or wrong, or
somewhere in between. Your job is to provide support for one of Bradbury’s
assertions based on what you see around you in today’s world. Your task is to
write a paper examining and discussing the validity of one of those assertions
covered in class as it relates to the novel, Fahrenheit 451.
CONTENT: Your paper must state an ASSERTION (quote it from the novel in
the first paragraph of your paper-otherwise known as your introduction), then
explain what the assertion means (what did Bradbury mean…you might quote
some more “book” stuff here), and then provide support from our culture to show
that Bradbury was correct. Examples of themes/issues that Bradbury made
assertions about include, but are not limited to:
Mass Media
School Violence
School Discipline
Marriage
Family Relationships
Youth Sports
Minority Pressure
Child Discipline
Divorce
Censorship
WRITING ISSUES: This is a major paper, so please take enough time to plan
and write the paper. There should be no errors in grammar/spelling. This should
be an example of your best writing.
Book Citation: You MUST cite passages from Fahrenheit 451 in order to get a
decent grade on the paper. Citations should be included like the example below:
In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury states, “school discipline relaxed,
lessons cut shorter, condensed, condensed, then almost completely
eliminated…” (Bradbury 85).
Value: 40 points