FAHRENHEIT
451 PACKET
My name is_______________________________________________, and I pledge that I will not be a
passive learner. I promise to read diligently and actively, and I swear I will interact with the text and
this packet. Finally, I vow that my notes will be reflective, clear, and efficient.
Table of Contents
Pre-Reading
Theme Teams_______________________________________________________3
Theme Notes_______________________________________________________4,5
Fahrenheit 451 Background Information Notes___________________________________6
Reading Schedule for Fahrenheit 451_________________________________________7
Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander
Vocabulary List_______________________________________________________8
Questions________________________________________________________9-12
Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand
Vocabulary List______________________________________________________13
Questions________________________________________________________14-16
Part Three: Burning Bright
Vocabulary List______________________________________________________17
Questions________________________________________________________18-20
2
Theme Teams
For Fahrenheit 451, everyone in class will be assigned to a specific theme team. You will trace your
assigned theme through the double-entry notes sheet provided (on page 5 and 6). You will meet with this team to
discuss what you have found.
Directions: On your sheet, you will be tracing one of the five themes. You will need to find AT LEAST three
examples (quotes) from each part that have to do with your specific theme. Remember, the more quotes you
have, the better! This material will help you write your essay at the end of the unit. Plus, taking these notes will
help you read actively and “get” the book! Make sure you cite the quote, including the page number, and mark
your book with a post-it note if possible.
A Block
Censorship
Entertainment/Media
Individuality/Conformity
Distraction vs. Happiness
Action vs. Inaction
B Block
Censorship
Entertainment / Media
Individuality / Conformity
Distraction vs. Happiness
Action vs. Inaction
Distraction vs. Happiness
Action vs. Inaction
Distraction vs. Happiness
Action vs. Inaction
Alex
C Block
Censorship
Entertainment / Media
Individuality / Conformity
D Block
Censorship
Entertainment / Media
Individuality / Conformity
Jacques
Danny
Talia
Mia
Joe
3
Theme Notes
Directions: With your specific theme in mind, find quotes throughout Fahrenheit 451 that fit your theme
and then explain how/why it fits your theme and what is says about it. Make sure you are tracing your
theme through the book!
Theme: _______________________________________________________________________
Quote
Page
Number
Reactions/Connections/Questions
What does it fit the theme? What does it say about it?
4
5
Fahrenheit 451 Background Information Notes
According to Article 19 in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
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Elements of Science Fiction:
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Dystopia Definition:
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What are five important things that happened in 1953 (when Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451)?
1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6
TENTATIVE Reading Schedule
November 2014
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Friday
10
11
12
14
In class: Pages 1-14
NO SCHOOL
Homework: Pages 14- Veteran’s Day
21
17
18
Pick your favorite
scene from Part One
and illustrate it. Make
sure to include a
quote on the drawing
from the scene.
NO SCHOOL
24
25
In class: Pages 102110
Homework: Pick your
favorite scene from
Part Two and
illustrate it. Make
sure to include a
quote on the drawing
from the scene.
Dec 1
In class: Pages 137145
Homework: None
Thursday
13 In class: Pages
In class: Pages 21- 48-54
32
Homework: In
Homework: Pages class: Pages 5432-48
63
20
21
In class: Pages
71-76
Homework:
Pages 77-80
In class: Pages 80-91
Homework: Pages 91-top of
102
26
27
Early Release
28
THANKSGIVING THANKSGIVING BREAK
BREAK
3
4
5
Discuss
Fahrenheit 451
Pick your
favorite scene
from Part Three
and illustrate it.
Make sure to
include a quote
on the drawing
from the scene.
Begin Final Paper
Free Read Friday
19
STAY DAY
In class: Pages
113-125
Homework: Pages
125-136
2
In class: Pages
145-160
Homework: Pages
160-165
Homework: Pages 63-68
8
9
10
11 Delayed opening
451 paper
451 Paper
451 Paper
451 Paper Draft
Due
7
Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander
Vocabulary List
Directions: For each part of Fahrenheit 451 we read, find ten (10) words that you do not understand or are new to
you. In the chart below, write down the word in the left column, the part of speech in the next column, definition
in the middle column, and make up a sentence using the word in the right column.
Word
Part of
Speech
Definition
Sentence using word
8
The Hearth and the Salamander Questions (Page 3-68)
 Stop on page 3
1. What is “great python” a metaphor for?
2. The narrator calls the helmet numbered 451 symbolic. What does is symbolize?
 Stop on page 4
3. How does Montag feel about being a fireman? How do you know? Describe your first impressions of
him.
4. Describe your first impressions of him.
 Stop on page 11
5. Who is Clarisse and how is she different?
 Stop on page 14
6. Summarize what has happened so far.
9
7. Interpret the following quote: “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the
lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back” (12).
8. What does Montag actually feel about being a fireman?
9. Montag describes his wife sleeping in their room, yet says that, “the room was indeed empty,” explain
this paradox (12).
10. Who is Mildred? What happened with Mildred?
11. After Guy has called the emergency hospital, two technicians show up with two different machines.
What are the functions of these machines?
12. After working on Mildred, the machine operator tells Montag that they “get these cases nine or ten a
night." What does this reveal about the emotional stability of the populace?
10
 Stop on page 20
13. What is the way in which Mildred is entertaining herself? How does it work?
 Stop on page 24
14. What does Clarisse say to Guy about dandelions, and what does she show him how to do with one?
What does it show about Montag and Mildred?
15. Why do you think they make Clarisse go to a psychiatrist? Who do you think ‘they’ are?
16. Based on what Clarisse says about how it’s strange to her that Guy is a fireman, that it does not seem
like the right profession for him, given that he looks at her when she talks, and looked at the moon when
she said something about the moon, and has never threatened her, and has made time for her and put
up with her, what does Clarisse seem to think about firemen in general, versus about Guy specifically?
17. Describe the Mechanical Hound.
 Stop on page 29
18. What is the difference between Clarisse’s definition of “social” and that of the school?
11
19. What is school like in their society?
 Stop on page 32
20. Make a prediction: what do you think happened to Clarisse?
 Stop on page 40
21. Describe what happens at the woman’s house.
22. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley refused to become Roman Catholics and were burnt alive for going
against the larger group in England. Why would the woman recite this before dying? How is related to
Fahrenheit 451 in general?
 Stop on page 47
23. What happened to Clarisse? Was your prediction correct?
 Stop on page 52
24. Describe the conversation between Montag and Mildred.
 Stop on page 61
25. On a separate piece of paper, list three things Beatty talks about in his speech to Montag that are true
of our world.
 Stop on page 68
26. Summarize the end of Part One.
12
Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand
Vocabulary List
Directions: For each part of Fahrenheit 451 we read, find ten (10) words that you do not understand or are new to
you. In the chart below, write down the word in the left column, the part of speech in the next column, definition
in the middle column, and make up a sentence using the word in the right column.
Word
Part of
Speech
Definition
Sentence using word
13
The Sieve and the Sand Questions (Pages 71-110)
 Stop on page 75
1. Montag, unlike Mildred, believes that books are important. What reason does he give to Mildred to
explain why reading is more important than watching the screens in the parlor?
2. Explain Montag’s flashback. Who is Faber?
 Stop on page 77
3. Montag does not know which book he should turn in to Beatty. What are some of his concerns in
deciding which book to turn in?
4. What does Montag ask Mildred? Who is the ‘family’ to which Montag is referring?
 Stop on page 79
5. What is the connection between a sieve and sand and Montag’s reading?
14
6. Montag is reading a passage from the New Testament of the Bible. (“And why are you anxious about
clothing? Consider the lilies in the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin.”) What is distracting
Montag as he tries to read this passage of the Bible?
 Stop on page 85
7. Montag asks Faber, “’Where do we go from here? Would books help us?’” What does Faber say in
response? (Hint: what are the three things missing from people’s lives according to Faber?)
 Stop on page 89
8. Montag wants to do something, but Faber is reluctant to act. Faber does, however, suggest a scheme.
Describe that scheme.
9. What does Montag do to the Bible to try to get Faber to agree to help?
 Stop on page 91
10. What dos Montag give Montag to help him out with his meeting with Beatty? Who invented this device?
15
 Stop on page 97
11. How did the women vote? What did they use for criteria when voting for the president?
 Stop on page 100
12. What is the name of the poem Montag reads? How does the poem reflect their current society?
 Stop on page 106
13. There are many examples of literary allusions in this passage. Why is Beatty quoting lines from books to
Montag?
 Stop on page 110
14. What house do the firemen visit at the end of Part 2? Predict what will happen next.
16
Part Three: Burning Bright
Vocabulary List
Directions: For each part of Fahrenheit 451 we read, find ten (10) words that you do not understand or are new to
you. In the chart below, write down the word in the left column, the part of speech in the next column, definition
in the middle column, and make up a sentence using the word in the right column.
Word
Part of
Speech
Definition
Sentence using word
17
Burning Bright Questions (Pages 113-165)
 Stop on page 116
1. Who was the one that called in the alarm on Montag?
2. What does Beatty make Montag do?
 Stop on page 120
3. What does Montag do once Beatty discovers his two-way radio?
4. Explain what happened between Montag and the Mechanical Hound.
 Stop on page 124
5. Montag thinks that Beatty wanted to die. Do you believe this? Is Montag just convincing himself?
18
6. What does Montag hear in the Seashell?
 Stop on page 130
7. What does Montag do to the Black family?
 Stop on page 132
8. Where does Faber suggest Montag go? Who lives there? Why doesn’t the government bother them?
 Stop on page 140
9. Montag tells Faber to “Wipe down the furniture with alcohol, wipe the doorknobs. Burn the throw rug in
the parlor” (135). Why?
10. What do the police suggest everyone do at the same time? What does this request suggest about their
society?
11. What did Montag do when he got to the river? What do you think the river might symbolize?
19
 Stop on page 149
12. The announcer on the screen declares that “The search is over, Montag is dead; a crime against society
has been avenged” (149). Montag, of course, is not actually dead. What do they do to make it seem as
though he is?
 Stop on page 152
13. How can Granger and the other book people be considered book burners?
 Stop on page 160
14. What does Montag see happening in the city?
15. Describe the effects of war on Mildred and on the city as Montag imagined them.
 Stop on page 163
16. Why does Granger say the phoenix “must have been first cousin to Man?”
17. Why does Granger suggest building a mirror factory?
20
18. What is the promise at the end of the novel? In other words, what will happen to the book people and
the city?
21