So, we’ll first go over the quiz and note some aspects of writing, including metaphoric language and allusions.

Then, you’ll turn in your Sci-Fi stories and write a short reflection on the whole experience.

Next, I want to spend a little time preparing for a full-class graded discussion. You’ll note the questions and spend some time individually getting prepared.

F451 Preparation

1. Read these quotes and for each connect to the big ideas that Bradbury is trying to talk about.  What is Bradbury worried about?  What does he think could happen?
2. Explain how Bradbury criticizes excess entertainment, lack of literacy, lack of critical thinking, and anti-intellectualism.  What does he think is wrong about these things?
3. Why does Beatty think it’s ok to burn books when he has read them?
4. Was Montag’s decision to burn Beatty justified?  Explain.
5. Why was Montag’s capture faked? What did it suggest about the society who faked it?
6. What do you think the ending is trying to suggest about the future of society? Is it an effective ending?

Anthem Preparation

1. In many real and fictionalized totalitarian societies, children live apart from their families. Why would dictatorial leaders enforce this living arrangement?

2. What does Equality finally understand about his society when the Council threatens to destroy his invention?

3. Contrast Equality’s view of morality at the end of the novel to that of his society.

4. At first glance, most characters in Anthem appear to be near-automatons, blindly conforming to the rest of society. Upon closer study, however, we see that all of the characters in Anthem – Equality, International, Liberty, the Council members, everyone – make choices and decisions that affect their lives
and their futures, for better or for worse. In short, they all possess the choice to think or not, and that choice determines everything else. Discuss.

5. Aside from very rare exceptions (Equality, the Saint at the Pyre) there is literally no opposition to the leaders in this society. Why is this? What ideas must these men have accepted to live a life of obedience, drudgery, and fear?

6. Anthem’s theme is, in Ayn Rand’s own words, “the meaning of man’s ego.” Explain the ways in which the characters and plot in Anthem illustrate this theme.

7. To fully control a man, dictators must not only enslave his body, but also destroy his mind. Discuss how the leaders in Anthem seek to accomplish this tyrannical end.

8. Some critics have suggested that Anthem goes too far and attacks all forms of community and collective action as Totalitarian.  What do you think?  Does US society lean too much to the individualistic or too much towards the community?  Or neither.  Explain.

After we discuss, we’ll talk a bit about the final short essay exam on Thursday.