VERSION A · LYCÉE GÉNÉRAL · Première: B1+ towards B2 · Terminale: B2 (LVA) · documents reaching towards C1

Session 4: A warning from fiction: Fahrenheit 451

Part 4. What does Ray Bradbury's novel tell us about screens, books and critical thought?

Objectives

Warm-up

Fahrenheit 451 is, according to the novel, the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns. What kind of society would burn books? Students make hypotheses.

Documents

Document 7: Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag is a fireman: in his society, firemen do not put out fires, they burn books. People spend their days in front of giant wall screens. A young neighbour, Clarisse, asks him questions that change his life.
"It was a pleasure to burn."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953), first sentence of Part One, Guy Montag
"Are you happy?"
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse McClellan to Montag
"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag
"We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag to his wife Mildred
"Stuff your eyes with wonder."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Granger quoting his grandfather
Easy to find on YouTube: "Fahrenheit 451" (1966) trailer, film by François Truffaut; or "Fahrenheit 451" (2018) official trailer, HBO.

Activities

  1. Read the quotations: who speaks? What does each one reveal about the society?
  2. Essential questions in groups: Is technology the enemy of nature? Why does the state fear books? Can a society be happy without knowledge?
  3. Link to today: wall screens and our screens, algorithms that choose for us, AI that writes for us. What is similar? What is different?
  4. Creative writing: Clarisse meets a student of today. Write their dialogue (12 lines maximum).

Sentence starters

Role play

Pairs: Clarisse and Montag meet on the street. Clarisse asks questions about nature, books and happiness; Montag answers at first like a loyal fireman, then starts to doubt.

Gap-fill worksheet

QR code to this worksheet
Word bank: fireman, burn, wall screens, dystopia, critical thought, ignorance, wonder, censorship
  1. Montag is a ______ who starts fires.
  2. In this society, firemen ______ books.
  3. People watch giant ______ all day.
  4. A ______ is an imagined society that went wrong.
  5. Books encourage ______: they make people question.
  6. The state keeps people in ______.
  7. Granger says: stuff your eyes with ______.
  8. Burning books is an extreme form of ______.
Answer key
  1. fireman
  2. burn
  3. wall screens
  4. dystopia
  5. critical thought
  6. ignorance
  7. wonder
  8. censorship

Homework

Choose one quotation and explain in 120 words why it still matters in the age of AI.

Assessment grid

CriteriaLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 4
Understanding of the textMisreadsPartialAccurateAccurate and nuanced
Use of quotationsNoneCopied onlyExplainedExplained and linked to today
ArgumentUnclearSimpleOrganisedOrganised and personal
LanguageMany errorsSome errorsFew errorsAccurate and varied

Links reminder