BW: 21 October 2015

1. What’s weird about this painting?2. What’s the point? What is it trying to show?

Tension

Tension

The temple bell stops—but the sound keeps coming out of the flowers.

Bashō (1644-94) (translated by Robert Bly)

Tension

• The quality of balanced oppositesOR

• Contradictions in the text

Summer Skin (2005)Death Cab For Cutie

Squeaky swings and tall grassThe longest shadows ever castThe water's warm and children swimAnd we frolicked about in our summer skin

I don't recall a single careJust greenery and humid airThen Labor Day came and wentAnd we shed what was left of our summer skin

--On the night you left I came overAnd we peel the freckles from our shouldersOur brand new coats so flushed in pinkAnd I knew your heart I couldn't win

'Cause the seasons change was a conduitAnd we left our love in our summer skin

Objective & Purpose

• Take notes on the background to Fahrenheit 451.• By gaining background, you will better understand

the complexities of the text. _______________________________________

• Identify and explain a tension in the opening of F451.

• Learn a way that themes are developed: through tension.

Fahrenheit 451 (1953): BackgroundGenre, Author, & Archetypes/Main Ideas

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury• Raised in Los Angeles, California where he befriended celebrities.• After graduation from high school in 1938, Bradbury couldn't

afford to go to college, so he went to the local library instead. "Libraries raised me," he later said.

• A prolific writer during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. – WW2– McCarthyism & The Red Scare– The Space Race – The Cold War – 1950s America

• Famously prolific, Bradbury wrote for several hours every day throughout his entire life, allowing him to publish more than 30 books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, screenplays and plays.

Ray Bradbury

• Though Bradbury won many honors and awards throughout his life, his favorite was perhaps being named "ideas consultant" for the United States Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. "Can you imagine how excited I was?" he later said about the honor. "'Cause I'm changing lives, and that's the thing. If you can build a good museum, if you can make a good film, if you can build a good world's fair, if you can build a good mall, you're changing the future. You're influencing people, so that they'll get up in the morning and say, 'Hey, it's worthwhile going to work.' That's my function, and it should be the function of every science fiction writer around. To offer hope. To name the problem and then offer the solution. And I do, all the time."

Genre

Dystopian

Genre

• Dystopian (Reoccurring Themes) – Marred and downtrodden societies– A society worse than the society the reader lives in– Magnification of social problems– Encroachment of civil rights– "Herd" mentality, rather than individualism– Protagonist are considered leaders, rebels or saviours– Protagnists are intelligent, resourceful and courageous– The common man is dumb and wasteful– Plenty of violence– A subjective or skewed "happy ending"– Triumph over grim circumstances

Genre

Science Fiction

Genre

• Science Fiction (Reoccurring Themes) – Robots – Futuristic science and technology – Alterations of the human body and mind– Collective consciousness – End of the universe or humanity – Human fears – Identity – Isolation and Alienation – Military Conflicts – The Nature of Reality (Philosophy and Religion)

Archetypes & Main Ideas

• The Hero’s Journey • The Hero: Guy Montag • The Mentor: Faber • The Villain or The

Shadow: Captain Beatty• The Loner or Outcast:

Clarisse

• Censorship • Critical Thought • Conformity • Television and its effect

on reading

Fahrenheit 451

• While reading the opening, make a list of at least 5 tensions that you notice in the text.

Check for Understanding

• Describe Guy Montag. What is his personality? What does he look like? Etc.

• Describe the world of the novel. • Describe Clarisse. What is her personality?

What does she look like?

TensionClosure

• From one tension that you identified, explain why it is significant? (3 sentences)

Closure

• Identify a reoccurring theme from science fiction or the dystopian genre in Fahrenheit 451. Explain this reoccurring theme in the context of the novel (3 sentences). – For example, maybe you see the theme of

violence in Fahrenheit 451, as that is a universal theme of the dystopian genre. What does this violence look like in F451? Who is perpetrating it? What is the effect? What is the cause? Etc.

BW22 October 2015

• Through the course of the first 30 pages, explain Montag’s change or development. (3 sentences)

• Describe Mildred. What is she like? What does she look like?

Objective & Purpose

• Take notes on the context of Fahrenheit 451.• By gaining context (just like background), you

will better understand the complexities of the text.

_______________________________________

• Explain how themes are developed in F451.• Writing to Explain: Practice SSS, explanations,

and elaborations.

Fahrenheit 451 (1953): ContextCulture, Politics, and Society

Culture & Society of the 1950sJust What Is It …? (1956)

1950s America

• “America at this moment,” said the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945, “stands at the summit of the world.” During the 1950s, it was easy to see what Churchill meant. The United States was the world’s strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity–new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods–were available to more people than ever before.

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing. America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956. I can't stand my own mind. America when will we end the human war? I'm sick of your insane demands. When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks? America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world. Your machinery is too much for me. America why are your libraries full of tears? America stop pushing I know what I'm doing. America the plum blossoms are falling. I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder. Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine? I'm obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week. Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore. I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library. It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me. It occurs to me that I am America.

Culture & Society of the 1950sExcerpt from “America” by Allen Ginsberg (1956)

Politics of the 1950s

• The Cold War • McCarthyism – The Red Scare

Theme Development

• Through character: Clarisse and Mildred 1. What theme does Clarisse develop? Explain and

provide one quote. Work on SSS and follow this structure. – State the theme – Explanation (In other words, …)– Provide quote using SS – Explain the Significance of the quote and how it relates back

to the theme

2. What theme does Mildred develop? Explain and provide one quote.

Theme Development • Through language (specifically, figurative language)

• Close Read: p.10-18. Identify 5 examples of figurative language. Write down the quote (Bradbury 10).

3. Explain a theme that is developed through Bradbury’s use of figurative language. – State the theme – Explanation (In other words, …)– Provide quote using SS – Explain the Significance of the quote and how it relates back to

the theme

Theme Development

• Through rhetoric (specifically, repetition)

4. Explain a theme that is developed through Bradbury’s use of repetition. – State the theme – Explanation (In other words, …)– Provide quote using SS – Explain the Significance of the quote and how it

relates back to the theme

Theme Development• Through _________.

• HW—Find five other ways that Bradbury develops his themes in the book. We have discussed the following:– Tension– Character – Figurative language– Repetition

• Think—literary devices (such as symbolism) or rhetorical devices (such as rhetorical questions).

• Do research if you need, but along with the five ways, provide one quote and explanation for each. DUE TUESDAY