Fahrenheit 451
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
FALL 2015
NAME: _______________________________
1
451 Prereading questionnaire
Prior to reading Fahrenheit 451, we will be discussing one of the themes of the novel. In spite of
the novel being about a future society where books are illegal, the author, Ray Bradbury, insists it is
NOT about censorship. Instead, his purpose was to explore the effects of technology on how we
communicate with others. The novel was written decades ago, yet Bradbury was exploring ideas
that we are dealing with today.
This questionnaire is a way to start thinking about these ideas.
1 = Very often
2 = Often
3 = Not very often
4= Never
_____1. I text others while I am in the physical presence of my friends.
_____2. I text while having dinner with my family.
_____3. My parents use their phones at dinner time.
_____4. I check my phone during academic classes.
_____5. I sleep with my phone next to my bed.
_____6. I sleep with my phone in my hand.
_____7. I stress a bit about pictures and posts I make because I worry about what others will think.
____8. I communicate with my parents by text.
____9. I feel pressure to answer my parents’ calls and texts.
____10. I would prefer to communicate bad news (can’t meet a friend on the weekend etc) by text
instead of calling or telling them in person.
2
Jot down how many times a day you check/use your phone. Use tally marks to record when you
check your phone during a 24 hour period, starting
Meal time
Work time (school, hw)
Practice time (music, sports)
Friend time (time when you
are physically with friends,
non school time
Transition time (on bus, in
car, waiting somewhere)
Sleep Time
3
Has the oversaturation of technology impacted how we communicate with one
another?
As you read, talk to the text writing out questions, opinions, predictions, connections or
other reactions you may have in the margins.
Heard on Fresh Air from WHYY
October 18, 2012 - TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. As much as most of us are annoyed when a conversation
we're having is interrupted while the person we're speaking with reads a text or checks email,
let's be honest: Most of us have done the same thing to someone else.
Our digital devices are changing how we communicate and who we communicate with. My
guest, Sherry Turkle, has been researching computer culture for 30 years. Her latest book,
"Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other," has just
come out in paperback. It's about developments in digital culture over the past 15 years with a
focus on the young, those from five through their early 20s who are digital natives, having grown
up with cell phones and digital toys.
Turkle is the founder of MIT's initiative on technology and self and is a clinical psychologist.
Her latest book forms a trilogy with her earlier books, "The Second Self" and "Life on the
Screen." Sherry Turkle, welcome to FRESH AIR. One of the things you write about in "Alone
Together" is how children have grown up in a culture of distraction.
SHERRY TURKLE: Yes.
GROSS: I assumed there that you would be talking about how children and teens are so
distracted by texting their friends all the time, but you're talking about children's parents, too...
TURKLE: Yes.
GROSS: ...that children's parents are distracted. I want you to describe some of the complaints
that children have expressed to you about their parents being distracted by their personal devices.
TURKLE: Yeah, well, what my fieldwork has shown is that, from the minute these children met
this technology, it was the competition. I do my fieldwork in playgrounds, and parents are
texting and on cell phones as their kids play on the jungle gyms and swings, and parents text
during breakfast and dinner as their children beg them for attention.
Parents text at games when the kids are on the playing field, often missing the big score. Parents
are on the phone in cars, and the kids are left to text in the backseat on their devices instead of
having those precious moments, you know, to find out what - to eavesdrop on your kids or talk to
your kids in the car on the way to school.
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So children grow up learning that they're not the center of their parents' attention. One of the
most poignant interviews I did was with a young man who talked about how his father used to
watch the Sunday games with him and maybe have the Sunday newspaper between them and
share the sports section or the news section.
And now his father does his email and texts. And it's just not the same. He misses his dad.
GROSS: So let's turn the tables. What are some of the complaints that parents shared with you
about their children being distracted by their cell phones and other devices?
TURKLE: Well, parents then suffer the slings and arrows of not having their children's attention,
and I think that what's the big change I see now is that parents are starting to accept, really over
the past two years, a little bit of the responsibility for that. It's hard to get your child's attention
because your child doesn't want, for example, to answer your calls. Your child will only respond
to a text message.
This is a very common complaint of parents. Children during dinner will want to text. It's very
hard to get them to come to dinner and eat, and so what I suggest to parents is that they use
dinners as really sacred spaces where they say look, dinner is a time when we come together as a
family, and if I haven't followed these rules since you were young, I'm sorry. I've made mistakes,
too, but now we're starting to put a basket, you know, in the kitchen and in the dining room, and
we all put our phones in that basket, and we...
GROSS: Are they turned off?
(LAUGHTER)
TURKLE: And the phones are turned off just as a lot of professors are starting to say, you know,
look, we've taken things too far, and we put a basket in the classroom, and this seminar really is
for us having a conversation together. Because we know that our...
GROSS: Do you do that?
TURKLE: I'm starting to, because I taught a course last semester, and halfway through the
course - it was a course on memoir, a course in which the students in the course were sharing
very really intimate details of their life. It's a course where students talk about their lives.
We read memoirs, and then the students write memoirs, and members of the class admitted that
they were texting, kind of, under the desks. And we talked about it in class, and it was not OK
that there was texting during class, and we just decided that...
GROSS: And your objection to that was that people were sharing intimate moments, and other
people weren't paying attention? Or were you afraid somebody was, like, live tweeting
somebody's personal confessions?
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TURKLE: No, the objection of the class was that this was really a conversation and that we were
losing - that we were losing the sense of this class as a conversation, and that that is the value of
what we're there to do together is to have a conversation together and that that is what we should
be about.
And what the students taught - we had a great conversation about what was so seductive about
texting, and essentially I heard from the students what I hear from so many adults. I think we've
over-hyped the difference between students - between young people and older people on this
issue.
And they all say to me that what's so seductive about texting, about keeping that phone on, about
that little red light on the BlackBerry, is you want to know who wants you.
GROSS: You had said before a lot of parents complain that their children will accept the parents'
text message and respond to that, but they won't pick up the phone, they won't answer the cell
phone.
TURKLE: Yes.
GROSS: I'm sure you've spoken to children and teenagers about that. What's the explanation?
TURKLE: Well, I'm working now on sort of this flight from conversation project because really
what I'm hearing is people saying to me, I mean this kind of phone-phobia, and also
conversation-phobia. And people basically say - I mean, one 18-year-old says to me: someday
soon, but certainly not now - I mean as though I was going to do something to him - certainly not
now, I'd like to learn how to have a conversation.
And when I say to people, what's wrong with conversation, they say, I'll tell you what's wrong
with conversation: You can't control what you're going to say, and you don't know how long it's
going to take or where it could go. And that's exactly what's wrong with conversation, but that's
exactly what's right with conversation.
And this is the kind of thing that people feel they don't have time for in the incredibly busy lives
and stressed lives that they have, and it's what people are getting used to not wanting to make
space for, emotionally.
GROSS: Now you're talking about adults and children?
TURKLE: I'm talking about adults and children, and children - I mean, I'm thinking of, now, a
college sophomore who talks to me about wanting to text a friend. And I say, well, you know, he
lives in the dorm next door. Why not go to see him? And this young man actually - basically
says, well, I really don't see why a Gchat won't do the job.
I mean, there's almost a falling away of what you would lose by not having the face-to-face. So
my concerns are sort of double. It's both that we are not making the time because we feel we
don't have the time, and it's also losing the skills that we get from talking to each other face-to6
face, which are skills of negotiation, of reading each other's emotion, of having to face the
complexity of confrontation, of dealing with complex emotion, of dealing with confrontation.
You know, it's the difference between apologizing and typing "I'm sorry" and hitting send. So I
think we're substituting connection for conversation. And developmentally, adolescents would
kind of rather do that, but developmentally they're also missing out when they do that. So we're
shortchanging ourselves, and I fear that we're forgetting the difference.
GROSS: You write about how parents, nowadays, give their children a cell phone somewhere
around the age of nine or by 13, and the parents tell them this is going to help keep you safe
because if you get in trouble, if anything goes wrong, you are a phone call away from your
parent. What are the pros and cons, as far as you're concerned, of what you describe as the
tethered child, the child who always has that connection?
TURKLE: You know, first of all children, when I wrote the book, even in the brief time since I
penned the book, the ages have kind of gone down to eight, to seven, to six. Children are getting
these phones earlier and earlier. These are years when children need to develop this capacity for
solitude, this capacity to feel complete playing alone because, you know, if you don't have a
capacity for solitude, you will always be lonely.
And my concern is that the tethered child never really feels that sense of - that they are sort of
OK unto themselves. And I talk to college students who've grown up, you know, with the habit
of being in touch with their parents, you know, five, 10, 15 times a day. And, you know, it's no
longer Huckleberry Finn as a model of adolescence, kind of, you know, sailing down the
Mississippi alone. We've developed a model of adolescence and childhood where, you know, we
sail down the Mississippi together with, you know, with our families in tow. And...
GROSS: But that's very reassuring to parents, isn't it, I mean getting all those texts?
TURKLE: Parental reassurance is not the goal. The goal is a child who has a healthy separation
and a sense of healthy, separated identity, and we have to balance parental reassurance with a
child who feels competent, independent and able to be alone.
GROSS: So when you say that a lot of children text their parents five, 10, 15 times a day...
TURKLE: Yes.
GROSS: Is that in part pressure from parents, like I want you to keep in touch with me, tell me
where you are? Or do you think it's more generated from the children wanting to always tell their
parents what they're doing?
TURKLE: I think it's both. The parents are pushing for it. The children are compliant. And
constantly sharing where you are, what you're doing starts to be kind of a way of life. And when
the children start to pull back, the parents get very upset, and many children just feel oh my God,
you know, it's just so easy to hit, you know, to just kind of text something that, you know, I'm
just not going to make a big deal of it.
7
But in a way, that keeps kids in a kind of soup of connection that is really changing what we
mean by the separation of adolescence, which I still think is a very important part of what
adolescence should be about.
GROSS: Some of the teenagers you were interviewing said to you that shouldn't they have a
privacy zone, a right to a time when they don't have to take their parents' phone call, or a right to
just, like, not respond, just like be on their own and not respond. Would you describe the kind of
concerns teenagers were expressing to you about that?
TURKLE: Yes, I mean, they basically felt that the technology was getting in their way of having
what they - some of them would call it sort of, teenagers had in yesteryear. They looked at their
older brother sisters, and they had two concerns, that first of all their older brothers and sisters
were allowed to not be in touch with parents in a way that they felt was not available to them, but
also, and this was very moving, they felt that on Facebook their life story followed them through
their lives in a way that their older brothers and sisters were allowed to start fresh when they
moved from elementary school to junior high, from junior high to high school, and then crucially
from high school to college.
And one said to me: My God, it used to be that when you went away to college, you got a chance
to start fresh, to be a new person. And that used to - I bet that was great. And I think that this
sense of the Facebook identity sort of as your - something that follows you all your life is
something that many adolescents feel is a burden.
And I think that there's another thing about the Facebook identity in adolescence, which is that
many adolescents used to play with identity, play with multiple identities in adolescence, and
that used to kind of be their fun. And now there's one identity that counts, it's the Facebook
identity.
And I think many adolescents are also feeling the pressure of that. So there are many things
about the new technology that's changing the nature of adolescence, and I think that the
complaints of adolescents about the new technology are - it's a long list even as they're, you
know, even as they're working with it.
(BREAK)
GROSS: Getting back to the idea of privacy from your own parents, did a lot of teenagers
express to you the sense that they're always on call?
TURKLE: Yes, teenagers do feel on call from their parents. They are on call from their parents,
and there are struggles within families of how much they should be on call because parents get
used to texting and then worrying if a child doesn't respond because we're all used to texting and
then basically feeling that, you know, whereas if someone didn't respond to a telephone call
within five minutes, well, that was natural, I mean a voicemail or telephone call, that was
something that, you know, you maybe had 24 hours, 10 hours to get back to.
8
But a text message, you know that that person has gotten it, and adolescents feel the kind of
pressure of parental concern if they don't get right back to them. And I think that's - you know,
that's something that adolescents complain about. They don't want to feel on call in that way, and
yet parents start to worry.
GROSS: How long have you been concerned about this? How recent do you think the
phenomenon is that young people are growing up uncomfortable - often uncomfortable with
conversation and preferring texting because it's safer?
TURKLE: I began to see this, I would say, about five years ago. I began - I think this began with
the - with texting as a - with Facebook and texting, with the advent of a powerful new
technology that really allowed you to put up a profile, curate a self, put up an ideal self that was
the self you wanted to be, not necessarily the self you were, and then hide behind the self and the
texts and really live a life in which, you know, you could hide behind the Net in really a new
kind of way.
GROSS: So you're describing a certain insecurity or anxiety there that if you show your real self
or your physical self in some relationships, that might be uncomfortable.
TURKLE: Yes, and I also began to see something new that I call "I share, therefore I am." You
know, it used to be that people had a way of dealing with the world that was basically, I have a
feeling; I want to make a call. And now I would capture a way of dealing with the world which
is, I want to have a feeling; I need to send a text.
That is that with this immediate ability to connect and almost pressure to do so because you're
holding your phone, you're constantly with your phone, it's almost like you don't know your
thoughts and feelings until you connect. And that again is something that I really didn't see until
texting.
You know, kids are sending out texts all the time. First it was, you know, every few minutes.
Now it's many times a minute, people walking along the street continually texting.
Thoughts on the “face” of Facebook
TURKLE: I've looked into this a great deal, and it's not just kids. And it all stems from the same
thing - which is that when we are face to face - and this is what I think is so ironic about
Facebook being called Facebook, because we are not face to face on Facebook, we are not face
to face on the Internet. You know, when we are face to face, we are inhibited by the presence of
the other. We are inhibited from aggression by the presence of another face, another person.
We're aware that we're with a human being. On the Internet we are disinhibited from taking into
full account that we are in the presence of another human being.
GROSS: You know what this reminds me of just in my own life...
TURKLE: Yeah.
9
GROSS: ...you know, as an adult and a professional? I've had people walk out on me during
interviews.
It's always been a long-distance interview, when I'm in the studio in Philadelphia and they're in...
TURKLE: Yeah.
GROSS: ...New York or California or, you know...
TURKLE: Yeah.
GROSS: ...LA, you know, Chicago, whatever. I've never had somebody be really rude to me or
walk out on me when we were sitting face to face.
TURKLE: Absolutely. I just recently interviewed someone who gave me the most concrete and
mundane example of this, which didn't involve bullying. He was talking about as a child wanting
to get out of dinner. So this wasn't bullying. So I think it makes a better example - wanting to get
out of dinner with his grandmother. And his mother used to say: Call her. And so he had to call
her and he had to hear her voice saying, But honey, your grandfather and I have just set the table,
the chicken is in the oven, the asparagus are all ready, we're waiting for you, we want to hear
about the class you're taking, we're so sorry, we miss you. He could hear even on the phone - not
face to face - the voice, the disappointment. He was over there in a flash. As opposed to sitting
down, typing or texting - I'm not coming over - and hitting send. It's all the difference in the
world and that's only the voice. Can you imagine having to go over to your grandmother's house
and saying, I'm not coming over for dinner, I'm too busy?
GROSS: Do you have any advice for the parents of children or for, you know, young people
about how to deal with online bullying? I know advice isn't your thing, but I thought I'd ask.
TURKLE: No, advice - no, advice very much is - advice very much is my thing.
GROSS: OK.
TURKLE: First of all, if you know who it is, you ask for a face to face meeting. The most
important...
GROSS: You, the person being bullied or you, the parent of the person being bullied?
TURKLE: Well, it's best if you deal through a teacher or a parent. It's always best if an adult, I
mean certainly if you can deal with an adult or a counselor of some sort to set it up and act as a
mediator. But in every case where something is happening on the Internet that's disturbing, you
know, when you're a child or when you're a grown-up, the way to handle it is to bring this to the
face to face. Because nine times out of 10, having a conversation and triggering all of the, you
know, the complexity and the power and the virtues of our human responses to each other when
in fact we allow the complexity of these human responses to kind of kick in really helps the
situation.
10
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Sherry Turkle. Her book "Alone Together: Why
We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other," is now out in paperback.
Let's take a short break here and then we'll talk more about how our personal devices are
affecting our relationships with other people and with our sense of identity.
This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Sherry Turkle. We're talking about how our
relationships with our personal devices are affecting our relationships with other people, as well
as our sense of identity. She's the author of the book "Alone Together: Why We Expect More
from Technology and Less from Each Other," and this is basically her third book about how the
Internet is affecting our lives. She's a professor at MIT, where she directs the Initiative on
Technology and Self.
You've been studying how the Internet is affecting our relationships and sense of identity for a
long time. So you've seen basically like a generation or two grow up with this.
So you've talked to people who use, you know, all of the personal devices now but didn't grow
up with them, and you've talked to a lot of people who grew up with them and don't know any
other world but the world of personal devices, of texting and cell phones and email and all these
other applications. So what would you say are some of the major generational differences you've
seen in how people respond to their devices and to other people?
TURKLE: Well, the most surprising thing for me is the similarities rather than the differences.
Of course there are differences. You know, sleeping with your cell phone is something that
young people do. Very few young people don't sleep with their cell phones. They don't even
pretend that it's an alarm clock. I mean...
(LAUGHTER)
TURKLE: Older people sleep with their cell phones and they, you know, will pretend. In an
interview I always ask, do you sleep with your cell phones? And older people say yes, I use it as
an alarm clock. Young people just admit that they sleep with their cell phones and they check
their email, they check their text many times during the night. Older people will go through the well, at least tell you that they use it as an alarm clock. That's one kind of difference in how the
interview unfolds. But one of the things that I've got to say really has surprised me is how the
hype about generational difference I think is greater than the difference themselves. I think we
have become - that the pull of these devices is so strong that we've become used to them faster
than anyone would have suspected. I came to this interview without my phone and when I got to
the studio, I realized I'd left it behind and I felt a moment of, oh my god, I left my cell phone
behind, and I felt it kind of in the pit of my stomach. And I had to stop myself and think, I'm
here. I really don't have anyone I need to call.
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Socratic Seminar
Write out at least 10 questions about the Fresh Air interview with Sherry Turkle.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Interesting Notes from Discussion
12
Socratic Seminar: Responding to the NPR transcript, “Has the oversaturation of technology
impacted how we communicate with one another?”
Outer Circle Notes: You are required to take 3 notes from the inner circle conversation
1.
2.
3.
Reflection: What did you think about today’s seminar? Be sure to answer at least 4 of the
following prompts in complete sentences =>
1.
I might have learned more if
2.
I was surprised by
3. I was particularly interested in
4. The most interesting thing I learned from today’s session was
5.
I want to find out more about
6. What I liked most about the seminar was
7. One thing I didn’t like was
13
Did Bradbury have a crystal ball?
The classic novel you will be reading presents a dystopian world in which firefighters burn books for a
living and even the people who harbor them, all with the enthusiastic consent of the vast majority of the
populace, who feel threatened by books.
One of the eeriest aspects of Fahrenheit 451 is that the oppression is one chosen by the masses, who
seek their happiness in endless, mindless distraction.
As we read Fahrenheit 451, note any predictions Ray Bradbury made 60 years ago that have become a
reality in the crystal ball below:
14
Fahrenheit 451 Quotations Journal
In life, we encounter quotations which we enjoy for a number of reasons. Perhaps lyrics to a song are
relevant to what we are currently experiencing. Sometimes, we hear quotations from famous speeches
and we like the message. Other times, we might read lines in a poem, play or novel that makes us
think about life in a new way.
Many people like to collect these quotes in journals and write about them. This is what we are going
to be doing during our reading of Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury uses such beautiful poetic language
in his novel and I don’t want us to miss it.
Where do I write my journals?
 Write your journal entries in a small notebook or on sheets of paper you can turn in for
grading. As you read the novel, copy interesting quotations and comment about them.
What do I write about?
 Anything that interests you about the quotation. The entry does not need to be an example
of your best writing – this is more about thinking on paper. Please see the example entry.
What are the requirements?
 Copy the quotation as it appears in the novel and cite it in MLA format.
 Write your thoughts about the quotation using complete sentences.
 You should be honest and put your best effort into each entry. Be creative – be insightful!
 Each entry should be a minimum of two paragraphs. (This does NOT include the quotation)
o CP: You should write 2 entries per section. 6 entries total.
o H: You should write 3 entries per section. 9 entries total.
How much is this worth?
 I will collect the journals after we have completed reading each section.
 Each collection is worth 10 points (This is a paper/project grade).
When is this due?*
 Journal #1 due: November 23, 2015
 Journal #2 due: December 1, 2015
 Journal #3 due: December 4, 2015
REMEMBER THAT A QUOTATION DOES NOT NEED TO BE WHAT A
CHARACTER SAYS – IT CAN BE ANY LINE FROM THE NOVEL!!
*Note: These dates are tentative and may change.
15
Sample entry:
One section of Fahrenheit 451 that really stands out to me was the interaction
between Clarisse McClellan and Guy Montag. As Montag reflects on their conversation, the
narrator tells us, “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run across the lawn with
the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back” (Bradbury
12). Until this moment, Montag really never stopped to consider whether he was happy or
not. Clarisse makes him realize that he is actually very unhappy; he is unhappy with his
marriage, his job, and his society as a whole. I predict that this new insight is going to be a
turning point for Montag; this will inspire him to change his life in some way.
This quote can connect to real life because so many people are pursuing things that
they believe will make them happy. People often feel like happiness can be found in material
possessions. Whether we realize it or not, some people in our very own society tend to
follow the notion that more “things” (new devices, new cars, new clothes, etc.) will make
them feel happier and more fulfilled. I believe the opposite is actually true. I don’t think that
a person can be happy just by acquiring more things. Montag is starting to realize that
nobody in his society is truly happy because something very fundamental is actually missing.
Now that Montag has this awareness, there is no going back. Just like the quote says,
Montag’s mask (or ignorance) is gone, and in its place is a new understanding about his
society and his own life.
***********************************************************************
Questions to think about when you write:

What do you think about this quote?

What do you like about the poetic language?

What does the quote mean to you?

Does it remind you of a life experience, other work of literature, song, movie etc?

What questions do you have about the quote?

When I read this quote I wonder……………

This quote makes me think about………………..
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Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading pages 11-24
Read pages 10-the break on page 11. Include a quote to demonstrate the following:
1. How Montag sees Clarisse
STOP ¾ way on page 11 and answer…..
2. What sort of impression has Clarisse made on Montag? (an answer of “a big impression” is not
enough) Include a quote!
Read from page 11 – page 13 stop at the bottom. Don’t read the last paragraph
In the next section, Montag comes home to see his wife, Mildred and something tragic has happened to
her. Read to find out what happened.
3. What has Montag realized about his life that Clarisse helped him discover?
4. What is his wife doing while she sleeps?
5. What has Mildred done which Montag realizes on this last paragraph?
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In the next section, Montag calls the Emergency Hospital and the technicians come to help Mildred. Read
to find out how Montag FEELS about these men.
Read from page 13 through the middle of page 16.
6. What does Montag think about these men who came to save Mildred? USE A DIRECT QUOTE to
support your answer.
7. What information do we learn about Montag’s society from the technicians?
Read 16-19 to find out: What does Mildred think of her attempted suicide?
8. Why does Mildred not believe she took a whole bottle of sleeping pills?
In the next section Montag and Mildred discuss the parlor walls. Read to learn more about Mildred.
Read 19-the break on page 21
9. Make two inferences about Mildred and use details to support your opinion.
18
Start on the middle of page 21 and stop at the top of 24.
In this section, Montag and Clarisse are walking and talking together. She asks him lots of questions
which challenge the way he sees the world. Look to list some of the things Clarisse does, or talks about
doing, which seem strange in her society.
AS YOU READ List “Strange” things Clarisse does ….
a.
b.
c.
AFTE R READING PLEASE ANSWER….
4. Clarisse puts a flower under Montag’s chin. What was this supposed to show? Why is Montag
upset by this?
5. Clarisse explains that Montag is different from everyone else. How? (see bottom of 23)
19
Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading pages 24-34
Pages 24- 26 middle
In this next section, Montag is at the firehouse and runs into the Mechanical Hound, which is the
equivalent of the firehouse dog, except it’s a robot. It’s is programmed to find people who have books in
their houses, gather evidence, and kill them.
AS YOU READ find out how the Hound reacts to Montag.
AFTER READING PLEASE ANSWER
1. How does the dog react when he sees Montag?
2. How does Montag feel about the dog?
Pages 26 middle – top of 28
In this section, we meet Captain Beatty, the firehouse captain. He is a very mysterious character, and we
don’t always know his thoughts and feelings about things. We need to really make a lot of inferences
about his character.
AS YOU READ: Look for CLUES which show what he thinks of Montag
AFTER READING ANSWER…
3. In discussing the Hound’s strange behavior towards Montag, Beatty says, “You got a guilty
conscience about something?”(27). What do you think Montag has to hide?
20
Top 28 – middle of 31
In this section, Clarisse and Montag again talk. Montag is starting to show us how he feels about
Clarisse, and she shares with him what life is like for her and other teenagers.
4. AS YOU READ… Make a list of behaviors other teenagers do in this world.
a.
b.
c.
d.
AFTER READING ANSWER
5. How is Montag feeling about Clarisse? Review 28-29 if you need to.
Middle of 31- bottom of 34
In this section, we are back in the firehouse with Montag. He and hanging around, playing cards with the
other firemen. He says some things which really draw attention to himself and make others suspicious
of him. It starts and he is sort of spacing out while playing cards.
6. AS YOU READ… List the details Montag notices about the other firemen (33)
a.
b.
c.
d.
AFTER READING ANSWER
7. What stupid things does Montag say which make the other firemen suspicious of him?
21
Fahrenheit 451 Group Jigsaw
Instructions: You will focus on one of the four elements listed below. After looking back at the
pages that we read this week, you will select one quote that exemplifies that particular area.
You will complete the chart below and share your findings with your group.
1. Characterization (Clarisse)
How does the author reveal information about
this character?
2. Characterization (Montag)
How does the author reveal information about
this character?
Quote
-Include the quote as it
appears in the text.
-Include the citation.
3. Setting
How does the author’s description of the
setting impact the mood of the story?
4. Imagery
How does the author’s use of imagery impact
the mood of the story?
Note
-Explain what the quote
means (in your own words).
Thought
-Answer the question above
for your area of focus.
Notes from other group members:
22
Think, Pair, Share
Why do you think the Mechanical Hound doesn’t like Montag?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
What do you think the Captain thinks of Montag? Why?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
How does Clarisse describe her own peers? What do they spend time doing?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
Do you agree with Clarisse that “People don’t talk about anything”? What sorts of things do people
talk about?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
On page 33 what does Montag notice about the firemen as they are all playing cards?
What is disturbing to Montag about this?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
What evidence is there in this scene that Montag is becoming a dynamic character?
I think________________________________________________________________
My partner thinks_______________________________________________________
23
Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading for pages 42-52
1. Where did Montag and Mildred meet?
2. Review page 44 to answer this question: What separates Montag and Mildred emotionally? Why
can they not “connect” with each other?
3. What has happened to Clarisse?
4. Montag becomes so upset over the experience at his job the night before that the smell of
kerosene makes him vomit (pg 49).
o Describe Mildred’s reaction to Montag vomiting
o What is her opinion of the woman who sacrificed herself with her books?
5. What is Montag’s new realization about books? Use a direct quote to support your answer
6. Montag is very upset about this incident, but Mildred just does not “get it”. He asks Mildred
“How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something
real?” Pose this question to yourself and write an answer.
24
Fahrenheit 451 Guided reading for pages 53-68
In this section of the novel, Captain Beatty visits Montag at home and explains WHY the society has
been burning books. This is a question you all have been asking. How did this book burning thing get
started? Was it the government or the people?
Beatty expresses a very strange philosophy in these pages. Copy 3 of the BEST quotes, spoken by Beatty,
that show why the society burns books. Your quotes should be from pages 58-63. You should CITE your
quote with the page number and you should not choose more than one quote from each page.
Quote 1 & pg #
Quote 2 & pg #
Quote 3 & pg #
One of my favorite quotes from the novel is this one. It is spoken by Beatty during his conversation
with Montag.
“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” (Bradbury 61).
1. Explain, in your own words, what Beatty means by this quote.
2. In ONE PARAGRAPH (5-8 sent) relate this quote to your experiences at school. Is this something
you have, or do experience and how. Be specific. Or, is this something you think the media (tv,
news etc) does to the public? In what ways?
25
Fahrenheit 451 Guided reading for pages 71-83
Read through the bottom of 73. At this point, Montag states to Mildred that
“Is it because we’re having so much fun at home we’ve forgotten the world? Is it because we’re so rich
and the rest of the world’s so poor that we just don’t care if they are? I’ve heard rumors; the world is
starving, but we’re well fed. Is it true the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so
much?” (Bradbury 73-74).
1. Paraphrase Montag’s lines in your own words.
2. Think about what you know about the United States today and our country’s history. Think
about what you might have learned in Social Studies classes. How true do you think this quote is
TODAY? Can you give any examples of how this might be, or might not be true?
Read through the bottom of page 83
1. Faber, an old professor, insists to Montag that what he is REALLY searching for is not
actually in books, but can be found in other things too – like music, art, movies, friends etc.
he says that these things “stitch the patches of the universe together for us” (Bradbury 83).
In other words, meaningful books, art, music etc allow us to see how things in life are all
connected. They help us make sense of the world.

Write ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER about 2 or 3 things from Faber’s list which
have “stitched the patches of the universe together” for you personally. Identify
each thing and explain how it has made you see how things are connected. It’s not
easy and this might take you some serious time and thought.
26
Fahrenheit 451 Guided reading for pages 83-93
1. Why does Faber say books are so hated and so feared? (p.83)
2. What is one of the things, according to Faber, that we need in order to read, understand and
digest books? (p. 84-85)
3. What is Montag’s idea of how to solve their society’s problem? (p. 85)
4. What does Faber give to Montag when he leaves his apartment so they can communicate? (p.
90)
5. What book does Faber read to Montag ? (p.93)
27
Read the article below using the talking to the text strategy. After reading, respond to the
questions below.
America's media consumption so high it's measured in zettabytes
Devin Coldewey NBC News Aug. 17, 2012 at 6:59 PM ET
Americans consumed 1.27 trillion hours of media in 2008, says a study by researchers at the University of
California, San Diego. A trillion not doing it for you? In that same period, 10.85 quadrillion words
were consumed. In this evaluation of the nation's media consumption, the sheer totals are astounding.
The researchers, Roger Bohn and James Short, wanted to get a sense of the total media consumed, if
you count every second and every byte of data that every person is exposed to. The approach they took
involves a lot of estimation and modeling, so the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, but these
figures seem to at least be in the ballpark.
The paper is very inclusive in what it considers "consumption." If one person watches an hour-long TV
show, that's one hour of consumption. If there are two people on the couch, that makes it two hours. If
they're on their laptops the whole time, that makes four hours — not to mention all the words and bytes of
data they're consuming all the while. The result is that their estimated totals are numbers that seem
almost defy belief.
For digital consumption in 2008, which was the year for which the study collected data, Bohn and Short
calculate that Americans consumed a total of around 3.6 zettabytes of data. That's 10 to the 21st power,
or 3.6 million million gigabytes: 34 gigabytes per person per day. It's hard to imagine what this could all
be, but when you consider how much data in every format and context we encounter every day, it starts
to sound more realistic.
Roger Bohn and James Short / UCSD
28
Scroll up and down this article; you have just consumed several megabytes of data and a few thousand
words. Watch a movie (TV and streaming services are both transmitted digitally now) while checking your
email and Facebook — more megabytes, more words, and of course more hours. The researchers
couldn't consider how closely we attend to the data, so exposure is all that matters for their purposes.
It also means that you can be exposed to more than 24 hours of information per day, though it would be
difficult. Phone calls while looking at webpages, TVs on in the background, and so on add up, and we
can consume all this information without really even registering it.
And needless to say, consumption of all forms of media has increased since 2012, especially Internetbased streaming.
Interestingly, the capacity for the average American to consume media has increased far more quickly
than their actual consumption: Since 1980, the report says, there has been a steady increase rather than
the exponential one that might reasonably be expected. They explain it thusly:
Roger Bohn and James Short / UCSD
The method they used to estimate bytes per second consumed by various devices (SD television signal
versus, say, a high-resolution PC game) may be questioned by some, and alternative interpretations
could easily produce lower, or higher, estimates. In fact, much of the report relies (as many do) on
averages, generalizations and extrapolations, since there is no way of directly measuring the amount of
data consumed by every single person in the country. But as Short told NBC News in an email:
In media research circles the question continues and there is no magic bullet, it's more likely a problem
where composite measures and over-time indicators of device usage, substitution, and multi-tasking each
give a picture of one part of the question, but not all of it.
In other words, their research uses certain methods and gets certain relevant results, but other methods
might produce other results, no less relevant though perhaps very different.
29
Their report is long and thorough, and there is a lot of interesting data tucked away inside. You can
download the full report in PDF form here and peruse it at your leisure.
Short also said that a new report is in the works and should be available later this year, in which no doubt
there will be even more zeroes attached to the end of the figures.
1. How does this article connect to Fahrenheit 451?
2. What benefit is there to taking in so much information? What potential problems could arise?
3. Consider Beatty’s quote that we discussed earlier. After reading this article, how does your opinion
of this quote change? If it has not changed, how does this article reinforce your thinking?
“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” (61).
30
Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading pages 92-107
Use textual references and at least one direct quote for each response.
1. Why is Montag bothered by the guidance from Faber? (92)
2. What three topics does Montag discuss with his wife’s guests before he takes out the book?
What do their comments say about them? (94-97)
3. Explain how the meaning of the poem Montag recites relates to his life and why it upsets the
women. (100-101)
4. Describe Montag’s developing transformation. (102-104)
5. What is Beatty attempting to do by telling Montag about his “dream”? (106-107)
31
Dover Beach
By Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
32
Ray Bradbury Interview
We are going to watch an interview with Ray Bradbury. Below are questions to help
guide your thoughts while watching this footage. Review the questions before watching
to help focus your attention.
http://www.neabigread.org/books/fahrenheit451/filmguide.php (long version)
What types of materials did Bradbury read as a child?
What authors influenced Bradbury?
“75 years of writing everyday” – what can you infer about Bradbury from this line?
When Bradbury was fifteen-years-old, Hitler burned books in the streets. How did this
influence Bradbury?
According to Bradbury, why is reading important?
When did Bradbury publish Fahrenheit 451?
How does Bradbury create his characters?
What themes/topics does Bradbury discuss in all of his books?
Write down one quote that was interesting to you. Why did this line catch your
attention?
33
Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading pages 113-131
Use textual references and at least one direct quote for each response.
Choices
1. Why does Beatty make Montag torch his own house? Why does Montag read poetry to the
women and his wife? What motivates Montag to kill Beatty? (117-119)
2. Why does Montag want to see Faber (bottom 124-125)?
3. Why does Montag hide the books in Mr. and Mrs. Black’s house (bottom 129-130)
4. Montag recounts “the things I’ve done in a single week” to Faber. How does he feel about his
actions? How else could he have dealt with his growing dissatisfaction with life? (131)
5. Make a prediction about Montag’s next choice.
34
Fire as a Symbol
Review the opening pages of
the novel:
How does Montag view fire?
Select one quote as support.
Review the major events of
Section 1 (3-69):
How does Montag’s view of
fire/kerosene change?
Select one quote to support
this change.
Read pages 113-122 to find
out…
How does Montag view fire
now at this “special alarm”?
How might this event change
the course of the plot?
35
Fahrenheit 451 Guided Reading pages 131-164
Use textual references and at least one direct quote for each response.
1. Why must Montag stop burning? What must he do now? (141)
2. How is the image of fire used differently now? (bottom 145-146)
3. Why does the government have the hound attack the innocent man? (148-149)
4. Does Montag make “the right kind of mistakes”? (150)
5. Who is Granger? What are Granger and his friends planning to do? What is each person
responsible for doing? (150-153)
6. Contrast Granger’s view of our purpose in life to that of Montag’s society. (156-157)
7. Why does Bradbury make an allusion to a phoenix at the conclusion of the book? (163-164)
36
Fahrenheit 451 Writing Wrap-up
1. But I Don’t Feel Happy: What’s Missing?
“It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books…Three things are
missing.”-Faber (passage beginning on page 82)
a. Describe the three things that Faber believes are missing from his society. Why does he believe they
are so important? Do you agree?
b. Do any of these things exist in today’s society in anything other than a book? Explain.
c. Why do fewer and fewer people seem to be interested in books? Should we worry?
2. Books: Not Just Useless, but Trouble-makers
Beatty on books:
“They’re about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they’re fiction. And if they’re
nonfiction, it’s worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down
another’s gullet [throat]…You come away lost” (62).
a. What might someone argue could be beneficial about reading and writing about “nonexistent
people”?
b. Similarly, what might be beneficial about reading competing theories and points of view?
c. Should we expect to be able to find the answers to all our questions in print (or on the screen)? If not,
then from where?
37
3. Not Really about Censorship?
Bradbury has said that Fahrenheit 451 isn’t really about censorship, but about the moronic influence of
television and popular culture. Today, he would include the internet.
“Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord…so
few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily. Can you
dance faster than the White Clown, shout louder than ‘Mr. Gimmick’ and the ‘parlor families’? If
you can, you’ll win your way, Montag. In any event, you’re a fool. People are having fun” (87).
“And then the Government, seeing how advantageous it was to have people read only about
passionate lips and the fist in the stomach, circled the situation with your fire-eaters” (89).
a. Describe at least three examples of pop culture that Bradbury would consider moronic or corrosive.
Can popular culture be valuable? Explain.
b. Was Mildred happy? Explain. How concerned should we be with being happy?
c. Why might a government or some politicians not want a population that is well-read?
4. War and the Phoenix
Bradbury wrote this novel after WWII, during the Korean War, but before Vietnam, Iraq, and
Afghanistan.
Granger, talking about humanity as The Phoenix:
“We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that
and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral
pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every
generation” (163).
“And someday we’ll remember so much that we’ll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in
history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up” (164).
“But you can’t make people listen. They have to come ‘round in their own time, wondering what
happened and why the world blew up under them” (153).
38
a. Do you share Granger’s optimistic view of humanity? Explain.
b. How can we get people to “come ‘round” more quickly?
c. How important is it for people to be allowed to learn from their own experiences and mistakes?
5. Chapter Titles
The section titles of Fahrenheit 451 are very significant. Based on what you have read, what is the
meaning of each?
a. The Hearth and the Salamader (hint: “hearth” means fireplace, symbolizes home and family)
b. The Sieve and the Sand (see p. 78)
c. Burning Bright (read the poem below):
d. Fahrenheit 451:
“The Tiger” by William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
39
Segment from “This American Life”: Prologue & Act I: “An American Girl Turns 18”
Ira Glass: Sylvia's parents are immigrants, very traditional. And in Sylvia's house, the men are
men, the women are women, just like back in the old country.
Sylvia: My brother goes, "Oh, I want tortillas." And my mom, just like right there on, she'll just
turn off the TV and she'll go make them. And my brother goes, "I want money." And my mom's
right there taking my money. He goes, "Wash this shirt for me. I want to wear it tomorrow." And
there goes my mom, washing the shirt. And it's not like that with me.
That's the way she thinks. That's the way she is. She's like, he's a boy. For instance, he can't cook
for himself. He's a boy. He can't do this because he's a boy. That's a woman's job. My mom
always has this little saying that really annoys me. Sometimes when the house is dirty, she says,
"Oh, it looks like there's never been women in the house," making it sound like women are
supposed to clean. And I'm thinking, Dad can clean. She goes, "No, he's supposed to be in the
garage fixing the car or something."
Ira Glass: It's a typical American story in this country. From the time she was little, Sylvia
spoke English better than her parents. She was the one in the family who'd call the phone
company or the utilities. She translated teacher conferences. If the family was going somewhere
and needed directions, Sylvia was the one who would walk up to a stranger and ask for them.
And now, nearly grown up, she wants to be an American girl in a way that her parents don't
completely understand. She goes to a big, integrated public school. A few years ago, she started
listening to The Cranberries and Nirvana and Metallica, not the kind of stuff her parents knew
growing up in small towns in rural Mexico.
Sylvia: My mom wants me to be a typical Mexican girl. When I was younger, before I had my
cotillion, I used to start liking alternative music.
Ira Glass: Cotillion's like a coming out party when you turn 15.
Sylvia: Yeah, when you turn 15. You have a huge party. You get your own beautiful dress. It's
long, and it's big. I started liking alternative music around the age of 14, around the time they
started making my cotillion. And I remember my cousins used to say, oh, as soon as you hit your
cotillion, you're going to start liking Mexican music. And we're going to start taking you out.
Because in my family, as soon as you hit 15, you're allowed to go to Mexican dances. But you
usually go with your older cousins.
And that's where my mom wanted in me. My mom wanted me to be like my cousins. They went
to Mexican dances. They had Mexican boyfriends. I mean, she wanted me to dress like them.
She didn't want me to dress kind of alternative. And now sometimes we get into fights and I tell
my mom, I'm not like my cousins. I'm like, my cousins are already like 19, 18, and they're
already pregnant or married. I'm like, is that what you want me to do with my life?
Ira Glass: This weekend, this is a particularly urgent question in Sylvia's life. This weekend,
January 31, 1998, Sylvia turns 18. She's legally recognized as an adult, capable of deciding for
40
herself what she'll do with her life. And she and her mom have been talking about what she's
going to do. Sylvia wants to go to a four year college, wait to get married, wait to have kids. And
her mom is trying to understand.
Sylvia: Sometimes she's kind of like, yeah, do what you want. Do what you want. Become
whatever you want. And there's just times where, like, why do you want to do that? Why do you
want to do that? Why do you think you're better than everybody? Why do you think you're
special? I'm like, Ma, I don't think I'm special. I just want to do something with my life.
Ira Glass: When her mom was young, back in Tamaulipas, her mom wanted to go to school. She
was admitted to a good school nearby, but her grandfather told her no. He said the only reason
the girls go to school is to get boyfriends. So she stopped going in sixth grade. Now she spends
most of her time at home, raising Sylvia's brother and sister, taking care of the house, rarely
leaving the house.
Sylvia: My mom has lived in a box all her life, and I feel like a lot of Mexican women have.
When you live in a box, you raise your children in a box. And sometimes I'll just try to climb
out. And she's like pushing me in or I'm trying to poke a hole in the box and she tapes it right
back up.
Ira Glass: Well, today on our radio program, Escaping the Box You were Born Into. From
WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Each
week, of course, we choose a theme, bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that
theme. Today's program in three acts. Act One, An American Girl Turns 18.
Act Two, $33 Million Box, the true story of a successful Cincinnati businessman millionaire who
escaped his old life and created a new one in one single day by robbing a bank.
Act Three, The Feeling You Want and the Feeling You Get. We have an excerpt from David
Cale's funny and thrilling story of a middle-aged woman who escapes the box of her own life.
Stay with us.
Ira Glass: Act One, American Girl Turns 18. So Sylvia is living at home, senior in high school,
engaged in an ongoing discussion with her mom about what she should be after graduation in
four months and whether she'll live a life like her mom's.
Sylvia: She's too scared to get out of the box. She is. She even told me. She's just too scared. I
mean, if she has to go to my godmother's house, all she has to do do is take one bus and go
straight. And she just gets off at a certain stop and walks a block or two. That scares my mom
that she's by herself. It scares the hell out of her being by herself. It just really scares her.
And I'm always by myself. And I'm always doing things by myself. And I'm always doing things
that I want. And I think sometimes she admires me that I'm not scared, but at the same time, she
just doesn't-- it's like she admires me that I'm not scared, but I think at the same time she hates
me because she's scared.
41
Ira Glass: Describe the box that she's in.
Sylvia: I would guess it's just the typical Mexican family, where you're married and you have
children and you die together. And you travel once in a while to your homeland, and you have
usually Mexican music and laughter and drinking and partying. And all the cousins coming
together and all the aunts coming together.
Ira Glass: Do you think she's unhappy? I mean, that sounds like it could be actually kind of
nice.
Sylvia: Yeah, it could be nice, but, I mean, when you only hang around with that kind of people
and that certain people and they're-- because they're kind of also-- not like bigots or something,
but they're also really-- kind of like the way she thinks.
Ira Glass: Everybody thinks the same way.
Sylvia: Everybody thinks the same way.
Ira Glass: And they're not so crazy about people who think differently.
Sylvia: Yeah, it's kind of like I'm the outcast of the family. I'm like the black sheep. That's why I
really never depended on my parents because I really never had them when I wanted them. And
also I never really asked for anything. I never really wanted anything from them. And now that
I'm almost going to turn 18, they noticed that I really don't ask anything from them.
I remember one time. It's really specific. It happened last year. It just popped into my head. I
remember that my grandparents come every summer. And all the uncles and aunts come to the
house because our grandparents are there and stuff like that. And I was working, and when I
came home, one of my aunts came. She's the second oldest in the family, and I find her really
bitter. She's my aunt, and I love her and stuff like that, but she's really bitter. And she had told
my mom that really got me mad. This woman who I talk to maybe once or twice a year. And
because my mom was raised by this aunt-- she sees her as a mother figure, too-- she has a lot of
respect for her. She told my mom that the day that I grew up, I'm going to be ashamed of my
parents and especially of her because she has no education and because she's an immigrant of
this country.
And I told my mom, how dare she say that? She knows nothing about me. Does she want me to
become like her kids? Her oldest daughter got pregnant at 16. And her youngest son is kind of
like a drifter. He really doesn't know what he does. And I'm like, this woman has the idea that
I'm going to be ashamed of my mom because I'm going to have an education and because I'm
going to have a career?
Ira Glass: I suggest to Sylvia that her parents might understand her situation better than she
acknowledges. After all, they themselves escaped the box of their own early lives, uprooted
themselves from rural Mexico to inner city Chicago, to a country where they didn't even speak
the language. Sylvia doesn't buy it.
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But as we talk, one of the most striking things is how there's still a part of her, the biggest part of
her, that wants her parents to simply understand her and how she sees her own life. She still
wants to be part of the family.
Sylvia: It's like this, sometimes you usually see my mom and my brother talking and stuff like
that, and they're goofing off. You see my little sister-- sorry.
Ira Glass: Do you want some water?
Sylvia: No, that's OK. Usually I see my little sister and my dad talking and playing. Or
sometimes you see my mom and my little sister laughing and stuff like that. And I'm usually in
another room doing my own thing. I usually never do anything with her.
Ira Glass: And do you feel like that's mostly your choice, that that's the way that you want it?
Sylvia: Sometimes I do because a lot of the things that they want me to do, I don't want to do.
And it really hurts me that they're not really supportive. So I guess I just try to move myself
away from them so they won't hurt me as much. But they don't understand that. They think I'm
too strong to be hurt.
Ira Glass: Yeah. Yeah, but I mean they're not right about that.
Sylvia: No, they're not.
Ira Glass: But getting out of the box doesn't necessarily mean you're any happier. There are
plenty of people who start off in a life that's really in a box and get out of it and change all the
time. And that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be happy.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ira Glass: You can be happy in the box or out of the box.
Sylvia: It all depends on how you feel.
Ira Glass: Do you have a sense of what kind of job you might want to yet?
Sylvia: I have an idea. I want this job that-- because I want to do digital effects, special digital
effects.
Ira Glass: Like for movies and stuff.
Sylvia: Yeah, like Jurassic Park and Men in Black and stuff like that. I think it's so cool. I just
want one day to have a job. I usually think of myself sitting, having not like an office to myself
but usually have an open space with a lot of different equipment everywhere and sitting in front
of the computer and doing all these things on the computer and animating. And getting really
frustrated because it takes me like six months to do like a five-second little scene. It's just doing
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my own thing, not have to get dressed up, go casual, have an eyebrow ring or something on, how
my hair whatever color I want, have a real cool boss. But that's just a dream.
Ira Glass: Have you seen those specials on TV where they show here's how they make these
special effects and you see the people and what they look like who do all that work?
Sylvia: I've seen the making of Jurassic Park and Titanic and the Space Jam. And that's what I
want to do, just use my imagination and make this thing blow up or something.
Ira Glass: What's your biggest fear in trying to get out of the box?
Sylvia: Failing. That's my biggest fear is failing. Because I've done so many things. I've done so
many organizations. I've done so many clubs. I did all these classes and all these grades. And it's
just going to go to waste. That's my biggest fear that it's going to go to waste, that all that I did is
going to amount to nothing.
Ira Glass: And if you failed, what would it be? Like what would you be?
Sylvia: What would be my failure?
Ira Glass: What would happen to you? Yeah.
Sylvia: I would become working an $11 an hour job at like 25 with already two kids and a
husband and just doing that, day by day doing the same thing over and over.
Ira Glass: And what could make you fail?
Sylvia: I don't know. Sometimes I feel like my ambition's going to die out. It's kind of like you
rebel against everybody because you think you know what you're doing and you know you want
to achieve more and you want to do more. But every time you take another step, it just hits you
right in the face like, ha, ha, ha, you can't do it. Go back into your line. And after a while, you
just get really tired of all the closing of the doors and telling you, no, you can't do this. And
you're like, well, maybe they are right. One day I'll just get tired and I'll just say, you win.
Ira Glass: And do you feel like if you don't get out by the time you're 22 or 23 or 24, it's
probably at that's when it would all die, like that's when your ambition would die and you would
stay?
Sylvia: Yeah, unless I change or something, unless all of a sudden something happens and my
parents are supportive. And I don't get into fights as much anymore and I feel like I'm actually
wanted around the house or something, and then I feel like I'm happy, like I'm actually happy to
be home. Then I wouldn't mind, but I just hope that when I actually do achieve what I want, that
is, I want them to say, yeah, she did it. She did it. I guess I was wrong.
Ira Glass: Sylvia turns 18 this weekend. Happy birthday. Good luck.
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Complete the chart below while listening to the segment from “This American Life”
Sylvia
Guy Montag
How does this
person/character feel like
an outsider in society?
What do you predict will
happen to this
person/character?
Should he/she try to
escape the “box” that
he/she is in? Why/why
not?
Questions to Consider:
1. Have you ever felt like Montag or Sylvia? How hard is it to “break out of the box”?
2. Will Sylvia be happy if she leaves her society? Will Montag be happy if he leaves his society?
How important is it to be “happy”?
3. Is it better to be a Mildred or a Montag? Is it better to be a Faber or a Montag? Which is
easier?
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Quick Write
Choose one of the prompts below to discuss in your journal. Your response should be a complete
paragraph, but feel free to write more than that 

Option #1: Montag meets a group of people who are responsible for memorizing an important
book. Each person must save that piece of literature for the future. If you had to be responsible
for “saving” some part of your culture (literature, movie, song, poem, memory, etc.), what
would it be and why?

Option #2: Granger says, “It doesn’t matter what you do… so long as you change something
from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your
hands away” (157). Thinking about your own life and your plans for the future, what would you
like to change? How would you like to do this?
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