Holly Madden

Warner

English 112B

9 May 2011

The Understanding of Governmental Regulation and Control: Fahrenheit 451

Why I Chose Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury:

Young adults start to think deeper about the control that they have, and their place in the world. Dystopian novels allow an advantage to young adults because the information and knowledge is fresh to them. While it may not make perfect sense, young adults can understand that dystopian novel and the dystopian lifestyle is not something that is impossible. The possibility of living in a dystopia may urge students to get involved politically, and realize that their vote does count. Young adults will hopefully see that they do have a voice in matters, and as they near 18 they can let that voice be heard.

Fahrenheit 451 is an extreme dystopian novel, but I remember reading it in high school and feeling like it was a very adult novel. The underlying themes are very intense and cover a wide variety of issues, which include; depression, panic, relationships, and friendships. Dystopian novels are particularly good for young adults because they are generally open ended and leave room for young adults to use their minds to problem solve, and understand. The heavy themes in the novels might pull young adults into their story lines.

Launching the Unit:

Before reading Fahrenheit 451 begin a journal with students. Ask students to read the newspaper and find articles that have a controlling, misleading, or regulatory feel to them, and ask them to paste them into their journals. After a week of finding articles have a �share� day, and then begin reading the centerpiece novel.

Review Poems and begin literary analysis

Poem One:

To the machines, should they decide to take over Matt Ford Eventually you will discover solitude, The prop inserted between walls Threatening to collapse inwards: A memory space on all sides zero, Unaddressable, and perfectly encrypted. Installed there you will begin to notice Something about silence: An atonal hum smeared around Edges and elements of the array, All the time threatening to emerge like Solutions to a paradox. Then you will begin to wonder: Are these the ghosts Of long dead contradictions, murmuring No answer, whispering confusion? By then, of course, you will have All the paradoxes safely constrained In glass cases (With a system of mirrors So you can inspect head and tail Without the danger of making some connection), And you will try to blame leftover Human echoes – With only regret for the day Integral chips were activated. But one thing will go on haunting you: The unclean silence that obscures Zero-point perfection - It is more that just Some human legacy, the noise of solitude, It will defy you. A ll you will discover is The infinite echo of your networks emulating death.

Poem Two:

Emily Dickinson's Poem Number 512

SOON

I saw no Way-the Heavens were stitched-

I felt the Columns close-

The Earth reversed her hemispheres-

I touched the Universe.

There is no first and last here;

all is forever, the feeling near,

noon and centre and a tear,

more than one, for all that�s

gone before and what is to come.

There is a taste of immortality

on these tall marble columns,

the beginnings of a touch of gold

that one senses deep down will

be forever. Many will be the words

that try to describe the trip, but wordless

the conception, tenacious my feeble grip.

When this brief drama in the flesh

shifts beyond our mortal coil,

I hope that I can hover here

in my sub-atomic soul so fresh

where I can juxtapose this time

and immortality in some eternal rhyme.

Meanwhile I�ll take the angles on this place

as they accost my open eye,

�tis more than walls and gardens green,

more than land and sky.

One beauteous line that I espy

a spider sewed at night,

an arc of light, an arc of white,

such precision in his sight.

Sometimes a bird will walk along

and drink a dew from grass;

with rapid eyes he�ll hurry �round

and stir in his sweet song, alas:

he divides this silver world with wings

as he goes splashing past.

So do the butterflies float by

among these banks of noon;

their wings dance through this ocean

and gently they sing of soon!

Critical thinking/critical questions to ask students:

v Choose one poem and discuss how it relates to dystopias?

v How does the chosen poem make you feel in regards to dystopias?

v Can you compare and contrast Matt Fords poem versus Emily Dickenson�s poem, and write about which poem resonates with you personally?

Helping students think critically about dystopian life is important in this unit. Our goal is to help students become more politically aware, and realize the levels of government control. Not for rebellion, but for knowledge. Helping s student understand dystopias and how they are presented in a positive light vs. negative light is important. Once the teacher is done reviewing the student responses they can get a feel for how the students view dystopias.

Extending the Unit:

v To extend the unit have students watch Gattaca (1997) and review what they see in the movie. Again have them revisit the idea of how Gattaca can be categorized as a dystopian film.

v After reviewing the articles chosen for journal entries in the beginning of the unit have students chose 1 article that they have in their journals that somehow relates to dystopias, have an open discussion/Socratic seminar using the articles.

v Read more novels from the chosen list, and have students create their own dystopian society within the classroom. Develop a �dystopia for a day� dynamic that all students must participate in.

Novels:

Centerpiece:

Fahrenheit 451 By: Ray Bradbury

http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345342968/ref=pd_sim_b_3

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.

Matched By Ally Condie

http://www.amazon.com/Matched-Ally-Condie/dp/0525423648

Matched follows Cassia, a girl living in a Utopian/Dystopian society where everything is predicted and controlled by the government including who they will be mated with for life. Cassia's government mandated match is a lifelong friend of hers but when she plugs her data card in to see his information another face pops up on her screen. Cassia falls for Ky and starts to question the rules of her society.

Nineteen-Eighty-Four By George Orwell

http://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-Eighty-Four-George-Orwell/dp/0452284236

Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.

Feed by MT Anderson

http://www.amazon.com/Feed-M-T-Anderson/dp/0763622591

This brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by constant customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.

Anderson gives us this world through the voice of a boy who, like everyone around him, is almost completely inarticulate, whose vocabulary, in a dead-on parody of the worst teenspeak, depends heavily on three words: "like," "thing," and the second most common English obscenity. He's even made this vapid kid a bit sympathetic, as a product of his society who dimly knows something is missing in his head. The details are bitterly funny--the idiotic but wildly popular sitcom called "Oh? Wow! Thing!", the girls who have to retire to the ladies room a couple of times an evening because hairstyles have changed, the hideous lesions on everyone that are not only accepted, but turned into a fashion statement. And the ultimate awfulness is that when we finally meet the boy's parents, they are just as inarticulate and empty-headed as he is, and their solution to their son's problem is to buy him an expensive car.

The Carbon Diaries, 2015: Saci Lloyd

www.schoollibraryjournal.com/carbondiaries/stacilloyd

It's five years into our future and the world's on high alert because massive storms have battered Earth. Efforts to stop global warming are at the center of the world's attention and the United Kingdom has volunteered to be the guinea pig for a huge carbon reduction program. Staci Lloyd's novel tells the story of Laura, a teen living in the UK, who must learn to live with these new carbon rules -- and how she'll survive when the storms come back.

Concluding the Unit:

Students should fully understand dystopias by the end of the unit. The unit may take anywhere from 2 weeks to a semester long. The unit can comprise many aspects of literary analysis. Students should be able to critically think about dystopias, and make beginning analysis on our own governmental institutions. Students also will understand the difference between our current societal status and dystopias in a general sense.

Works Cited

Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print

Condie, Allyson Braithwaite. Matched. New York: Dutton, 2010. Print.

Lloyd, Saci. The Carbon Diaries 2015. New York: Holiday House, 2009. Print.

Orwell, George. 1984. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. "Emily Dickinson's Poem Number 512 - Literature Network Forums." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. 15 June 1995. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2874

Ford, Matthew. "Dystopian Poetry." Lizard Logic Limited. 26 July 2008. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.lizardlogic.co.uk/~mattf/poetry_index.html>.