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You are here: Home / Teacher Posts / Fahrenheit 451 Free Audiobook! What? What? What?

Fahrenheit 451 Free Audiobook! What? What? What?

November 13, 2013 By Mr. D'Amato

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So, if you haven’t been in class lately (shame, shame), I’ve found and been utilizing a free audiobook of Fahrenheit 451 narrated by none other than Ray Bradbury himself. We’ve been focusing on Montag’s character transformation, how it’s becoming more complete, how his uses of fire have changed since his childhood flashback, and how his character transformation is an empowering message to us as readers.

Let’s start with the first one here. Put this in your notebook (in your own way) if you haven’t been around for the classroom discussions:

Montag’s Character Transformation

Throughout the novel Montag hears multiple voices in his head, mostly Captain Beatty’s and Clarisse’s. However, here at the end of the novel he hears his own. He’s quite literally becoming de-institutionalized as his thoughts become his own (empowering stuff, eh?).

Also, we’ve frequently discussed Innocence versus Experience as a theme and how one can reclaim his or her own innocence through thoughtfulness and not conforming. In class, we’ve paired this theme with another theme: Fire. As we’ve paired it, we’ve looked at how fire is used at each stage.

Montag’s flashback to childhood and when he was innocent showed us that the Innocent individual uses fire for illumination, to guide the way through the dark. However, as an Experienced man, Montag’s use of fire is for destructive purposes.

That leaves us with who Montag is now: the Enlightened man. How does the Enlightened man use fire?

Well, listen to the audiobook and you tell me: http://mravella.weebly.com/audiobook2.html

You can find it under the first two listening portions of “Burning Bright.”

Ask yourself: How does the de-institutionalized man, the Enlightened man, use fire? How is it different from his previous uses as the symbolic representation of Innocence and Experience? How is this transformation empowering to us as readers since I’ve frequently asked you to be a Montag in your own world?

If you answer these questions on a sheet of paper with full sentences, I’ll give you partial credit for missed exit slips.

Also…Vocabulary Quiz on Monday!!! Here’s the words:

Perspective: someone’s point of view

Institutionalized: to adopt an institutions ways of thinking and doing as your own

Bias: prejudice or opinion

Hearth: the fireplace of a home, thought of as a symbol of the home and the life of the family who live in it

Subjective Reality: understanding of truth from a personal perspective

Objective Reality: the state of truth outside one’s feelings, thoughts, or bias

Sieve: a strainer used to separate different things

Enlightenment: the act of obtaining greater knowledge or understanding

Institution: a grouping with a social purpose that governs the behavior of individuals in that group

History of the Salamander: was once believed to live in fire without being burnt by it

History of the Phoenix: mythological fire bird that symbolizes rebirth

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Mr. D'Amato

About Mr. D'Amato

Mr. D'Amato is the Assistant Principal of the Humanities Department (English, Foreign Language and Social Studies) at Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design. He can be reached at 718-388-1260, extension 2043, or Damato@whsad.org.

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