Introduction
I love teaching the novel Fahrenheit 451 - I think every English probably teacher does. What’s more fulfilling than hearing a classroom of students talk about the importance of books? In a time when math, science and engineering education are lauded, it’s refreshing to have a reminder that, when it comes down to it, we know that books are important.
Last year, when I taught this text to my 9th grade class, we did a “process drama” activity in which the students assumed the roles of school board members, teachers, students and parents in a school district that was considering banning Fahrenheit 451. I’ve done this activity several times, in multiple classes a year, and it always ends the same way -- students delve into their roles, on opposing sides of the question, with relish -- but at the end of class, the board inevitably votes to keep the book in the curriculum.
This time, they voted to ban.
The activity is structured so that either possibility is feasible. Students are instructed to play their character - a “conservative” board member, a parent concerned with the book’s unsettling scenes, a student activist who values the protection of important literature - but they are allowed to be persuaded to the other side. Still, I was startled at the outcome. One of the students who held a “swing” vote on the board was swayed by the arguments of one outspoken audience member who used persuasive rhetoric to rally the room behind her.
I’ve thought a lot about the outcome of this activity over the last year and the way that Fahrenheit 451 is received by students as the years go on. Do they value books the same way that Ray Bradbury argued was necessary in 1950s America? Are alternative ways of consuming information - online newspapers, social media, e-books - making physical books less important to them? And is that necessarily a bad thing?
I stumbled upon the 2018 film Fahrenheit 451 directed by Ramin Bahrani entirely by accident. I’ve never shown students a film version of the novel, so I was intrigued. I was surprised to find, after reading up, that it received mixed reviews. Reviewers lauded its acting but criticized its use of too much modern technology, ham-handed future speak and some of the directorial choices in adding or removing content from the original. Still, there seemed to be so many questions raised in the potential of a modern remake that would be valuable to my students -- particularly given their reactions to the school board activity. Additionally, the outcome of the reviews raised questions about the expectations viewers have for film adaptations of classic literature -- that would allow students to investigate more deeply the novel and the film as separate texts.
In this unit, students will view Bahrani’s 2018 film Fahrenheit 451 in conjunction with a reading of Bradbury’s novel. As they watch, they will consider the complications of translating a dystopic novel like Fahrenheit 451 into a modern context. Students will consider how the director uses the techniques of film to tailor a message specific to a 2018 audience and whether the changes made effectively beg the viewer to question society.
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