We've covered several aspects of censorship so far this year, but none so violent and dramatic as those addressed in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. To start, we took some notes over Bradbury's life, talked about the definition of a dystopia, and brainstormed periods in history where the notion of a dystopia might fit. After this, we took some notes and discussed the history of book burnings.
After we had our minds all wrapped around these issues and facts, we took a closer look at the cover of Fahrenheit 451. You noted that it depicts:
A man made of newspaper and book pages
The man is on fire
There's a small lizard on one of the book pages
He's standing on a pile of burning books
From these observations, we determined that this book was going to discuss book burnings and that a man was going to either take part in them or become a victim of a book burning.
We started the book and read to page 12. I have to say that I was impressed with your observations of the characters in this short reading. We'll create some character brainstorms at the beginning of next class to record your observations. Good work, folks!
