By: Ray Bradbury

1. By: Ray Bradbury

2. "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.“Ray BRADBURY

3. The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns…

4. Ray Bradbury • Born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920. • His family moved frequently when he was young, but they finally settled in Los Angeles (1934). • As a young boy, Bradbury was interested in magic and had aspirations of becoming a magician. This interest in magic later turned into a love for writing. • Began writing stories at age eleven. He received no formal education beyond high school (1938).

5. His Work • Weird Tales, a famous pulp science fiction (1940). • The Martian Chronicles, launched his writing career (1950). • Most famous to date is Fahrenheit 451 (1953) • Pub. over 500 short stories, novels, plays, and poems in his career

6. His Work (con’t) • wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents & The Twilight Zone, & the screenplay for John Huston’s Moby Dick • helped design Spaceship Earth ride for Disney World’s EPCOT Center

7. F451-The Beginning • It began as story about a fireman, GUY MONTAG in a short story “The Fireman” • 1953 expanded into the novel • Classified as science fiction

8. Personal Criticism • Written to protest what Bradbury believed to be the invasiveness of editors • Editors had strict control of books printed. • Bradbury felt it impaired originality and creativity of writers.

9. Social Criticism • Warns against the danger of suppressing thought through censorship • Oppressive government, left unchecked, can do irreparable damage to a society by limiting creativity of its people • “dystopia” – an imaginary world in which the desire for order results in harmony at the expense of individual rights

10. Fahrenheit 451 Themes • Knowledge versus Ignorance • Destroy knowledge to promote ignorance • Search for knowledge destroys ignorance • Conformity versus Individuality • Conforming to the norms of our society • What are the norms of our society? • Does it endanger society’s well-being? • Does it help our society? • Censorship…

11. Censor • A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material & to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable. • An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security. • One that condemns or censures.

12. Time of the novelCensorship • Fahrenheit 451 released in 1953 • Senator Joseph McCarthy • Leading witch hunt to find suspected Communist sympathizers in gov’t, writers, moviemakers, and performers • Most findings unfounded • Ruined careers of many people because of link with Communism • “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller

13. A Few of the Accused • Leonard Bernstein, composer & conductor • Charlie Chaplin, actor • Bartley Crum, attorney • W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights activist & author • Langston Hughes, author • Arthur Miller, playwright and essayist • Clifford Odets, author • J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, "father of the atomic bomb“

14. More Accused • Paul Robeson, actor, athlete, singer, author, political & civil rights activist • Edward G. Robinson, actor • Waldo Salt, author • Pete Seeger, folk singer • Artie Shaw, jazz musician • Howard Da Silva, actor • Paul Sweezy, economist & founder-editor of Monthly Review • Tsien Hsue-shen, physicist • Orson Welles, actor, author & director

15. Let us Travel back in history…to censorship

16. Nazi Book Burning May 10, 1933

17. One way the Nazis cleansed the country of "un-German" thoughts was through censorship. A "brown shirt" (member of the SA) throws some more fuel--"un-German" books-- into a roaring fire on the Opernplatz in Berlin - May 10, 1933.

18. In Berlin • 20,000 books were burned during a student rally. • The suppression of free speech and ideas was a tactic of Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda. • Target this time was anti-Nazi, Jewish-authored, and so-called "degenerate" books, but it would escalate.

19. Where they have burned books,they will end in burning human beings."Heinrich Heine

20. Where do we see censorship in our own lives?

23. Back to Fahrenheit 451

25. Symbols Objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concept

26. Fahrenheit 451 Symbols • Blood • Symbol of human beings repressed soul or primal, instinctive self • The snake machine • “The Hearth and the Salamander” • Hearth (fireplace, heats the home) – symbolizes home • Salamander (official symbol of firemen) • Ancients believed that the salamander lives in fire and is unaffected by flames. • fire

27. Symbols continued • Mirrors • Self-understanding • Seeing oneself clearly

28. The Characters

29. Guy Montag protagonist, 30 yrs old fireman who makes his living by burning books and the houses where the books are kept illegally. He experiences a drastic change in the novel.

30. Mildred Montag“Millie” married to Montag for 10 yrs, epitomizes shallowness and complacentness of society

31. Clarrise McClellan 16 yr. old girl; Montag is drawn to her, opposite of Millie; embodies what is positive about the human spirit

32. Captain Beatty antagonist; head of the Fire Dept. whose sole purpose is to destroy books; “big brother” character

33. Professor Faber aging intellectual in a world with no place for him, disapproves of society but lacks courage; inspires Montag

34. Granger intellectual & former author; leader of group of hobos; takes Montag under his wing.

35. Mechanical Hound terrible “triumph” of modern technology; programmed to track down and destroy any victim that his sensors are set to

36. Mrs.Phelps & Mrs.Bowles Millie’s friends; just as ignorant and silly as she is The “family”