QUICKWRITES

1. QUICKWRITES

2. Instructions • Write the title found in RED at the top of the page. • You must complete at least 5 prompts from each part of the story (1, 2, and 3) • You have to write AT LEAST ½ a page per prompt. • THESE WILL BE IN YOUR PORFOLIO

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS Bothered (part 1) Guy Montag(part 1) Bigger (part 1) Late at Night (part 1) Want (part 1) Little Things (part 1) Why (part 1) Happy (part 1) Forget (part 1) Peculiar (part 1) Eggs (part 1) Too Many (part 1) One Book (part 2) Disposable (part 1) Lilies (part 2) Dandelion (part 1) Literature (part 2) Hidden (part 1) Grow (part 2) Watching (part 1) Interesting (part 2) Same Stuff (part 1) Unnecessary (part 2) Risky (part 1) Dover Beach (part 2)

4. CONTENTS continued… The Family (part 3) Certainty (part 2) Phoenix (part 3) Lovely (part 2) Taking It In (part 3) Burn (part 3) War (part 3) Run Over (part 3) Terrorist (part 3) Alive (part 3) Silence (part 3) Fire (part 3) Innocent (part 3) Listen (part 3) Leave Behind (part 3)

5. Guy Montag PART 1 What kind of a person just walks over the hole in the fire station floor without grabbing the pole until he’s fallen halfway to the ground? What does this tell us about Guy Montag as a person?

6. Late at Night PART 1 Clarisse McClellan says that sometimes she stays out all night walking around until the sun comes up. What is the latest you’ve stayed up at night, or -- should we say -- morning? What is it like? How are the people different late at night? How does the world feel different?

7. Little Things PART 1 Clarisse pays attention to little things, like the dew on the grass and the man on the moon. List 10 little details about the world that you notice.

8. Happy PART 1 Clarisse asks Guy, “Are you happy?” and it rattles his entire existence. Now, you will answer the same question: “Are you happy?” Explain why or why not.

9. Peculiar PART 1 Tell the story of the strangest person you have ever met, the most peculiar, the most different from everybody else and from your whole life experience.

10. Too Many PART 1 Montag says, “There are too many of us, billions of us.” In what ways is he wrong? In what ways is he right?

11. Disposable PART 1 Montag says that this is the age of the disposable tissue (i.e. Kleenex). What does he mean by that? In what ways is he correct? Is he saying this is a good thing or not? Why?

12. Dandelion PART 1 What kind of emotional effect does the dandelion have on Montag? Why does a silly little flower have such an effect? And what does it mean that it is the last dandelion of the season?

13. Hidden PART 1 Take a guess at what Montag has hidden behind the ventilator grill. Why would he want to hide something like that? Why would he be afraid of his friends at the fire station knowing about his secret?

14. Watching PART 1 Clarisse likes to watch people, to sit someplace like the subway and watch people. What do you think about her doing that? Have you done that? Why? Why not? What kinds of things do you see?

15. Same Stuff PART 1 Clarisse says that when she listen to people’s conversations they don’t say anything important or different or unique. Everyone says the same stuff. Nobody is talking about new ideas. In what ways is she correct? In what ways do you disagree?

16. Risky PART 1 Why do you think Montag puts the book under his arm? Why does he risk so much? What does he think he’s going to get?

17. Bothered PART 1 Montag tells his wife Mildred, “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile. How long has it been since you’ve been really bothered by something important, about something real?” Now you get to answer Montag’s question…how long has it been for you? What was the last really important thing that bothered you?

18. Bigger PART 1 Beatty says, “The bigger the market, the less you handle controversy.” What does he mean by “market”? Why is controversy bad as your market gets bigger? Overall, what is he trying to say about ideas and the things you say in a world where you’re trying to make a buck and sell things?

19. Want PART 1 What do we want in this country, above all?

20. Why PART 1 Beatty says, “You ask why to a lot of things and you end up very unhappy, indeed.” In your experience, how has this been true? How is “Why?” a bad question? So which is better: (1) not having any answers to anything or (2) having the answers and being unhappy?

21. Forget PART 1 Beatty says, “If you don’t want a man unhappy, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him. Give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is even a problem.” In what ways is he correct? Wrong?

22. Eggs PART 1 When Montag is reading the book with Mildred, he reads, “It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.” What does this mean? How is this similar to Montag’s situation in this society?

23. One Book PART 2 If you could only keep one book in the whole world, what book would it be? Why? How would you decide? Would it be easy or difficult? Why?

24. Lilies PART 2 “Consider the lilies of the field” … when Montag reads this part from the Bible, how do you think it impacts him at this point in his story? Read the entire passage on the next slide and discuss this question. Analyze any important words, phrases, or ideas.

25. Lilies PART 2 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

26. Literature PART 2 Faber says, “The good writers touch life often. the mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.” Are his thoughts about different quality of literature correct? What do you think makes good literature? What kind of writers don’t make literature at all? If it’s not literature, what is it?

27. Grow PART 2 Faber says these are the 3 things a culture needs in order to grow: #1 - Quality of Information #2 - Leisure to Digest It #3 - The Right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of #1 & #2. How is he wrong or right?

28. Interesting PART 2 Montag says, “That’s the good part of dying. When you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want.” What does he mean? How is this the kind of interesting thing that should be put in good books?

29. Unnecessary PART 2 “The firemen are rarely necessary because the public itself stopped reading of its own accord.”Why were the firemen “necessary” in the first place? What has changed to make them unnecessary? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Would Montag’s kind of firemen be needed today? Why or why not?

30. Dover Beach PART 2 “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold 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. Why do you think this poem brings the women to tears? What is it saying? Discuss some key words, phrases, or ideas that show deeper meaning.

31. Certainty PART 2 Beatty says, “He is no wise man who quits a certainty for an uncertainty.” What does Beatty mean? Why is it unwise to quit certainty? How might it be wise?

32. Lovely PART 2 “What is there about fire that is so lovely? No matter what age we are, what draws us to it?”

33. Burn PART 3 Describe what it would feel like to have to burn your own house.

34. War PART 3 If you heard the radio announcement “War has been declared,” what kind of emotions would that stir up in you? Why?

35. Run Over PART 3 What do you think about the teenagers who almost run Montag over? Why are they doing that? What are they thinking?

36. Terrorist PART 3 What do you think about Montag’s terrorist plan to frame the firemen by hiding books in their houses and turning them in so that their houses will be burned? Why is he wanting to do this? When is it okay to do something like this? Is it ever okay?

37. Alive PART 3 Faber says that he feels alive for the first time in a long time and wonders if it’s because he’s doing the right thing. How do you feel when you do the very difficult-but-right thing? Or maybe you never have ... Why not?

38. Silence PART 3 On the river in the countryside, Montag thinks about his wife and how she would handle all of the silence. How does silence make you feel? Or do you fill up the silence with ear buds, TV walls, and friends in the parlor? How often do you have silence, real silence? Why? Why not?

39. Fire PART 3 When Montag sees the fire in the forest, how is it different for him compared to all the other fires he has experienced, or even set?

40. Innocent PART 3 How would you feel to watch an innocent man get arrested instead of you? Why? What would you do feel like doing? What would you do? What if you are innocent too?

41. Listen PART 3 Granger says, “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.” How is Granger right? How do you think he’s wrong? Has our world blown up? And have you started wondering about it yet?

42. Leave Behind PART 3 Granger says, “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies -- a child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall.” What are your thoughts about that? Must everyone leave something? What does your life mean if you don’t?

43. The Family PART 3 What are your thoughts about their society calling the people on the television “the family”? How are they Mildred’s “family”? How are they not her family? How is it ironic to call them “family”? What kind of feelings is the irony meant to stir inside the reader?

44. Phoenix PART 3 Explain how humankind has something that the legendary, mythological phoenix bird doesn’t have.

45. Taking It In PART 3 What does this novel mean? What is it saying to readers? What does the world of Guy Montag, Clarisse McClellan, and Captain Beatty have to say about our own world?