Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 during the Cold War era and published it in 1953. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel, which means that instead of describing an ideal or utopian world like Sir Thomas More’s Utopia,  the book depicts a world that is the stuff of nightmares. It describes a futuristic totalitarian state set in an unnamed American city in which televisions in every home instruct the citizens of the state in all they are allowed to know. Utopia, the title coined by More (1477–1535) for his satiric novel, is based on a Greek word that means “nowhere.” More was the first person to describe a “utopia” or an ideal world.

Bradbury’s novel is about censorship. Book ownership is forbidden. It presupposes an American fire department that reverses its role: Houses have been fireproofed, so instead of protecting people and their homes, firemen are responsible for burning books. The firemen are the state’s censors. Students should grasp the significance of the title, the temperature at which paper burns.

Fahrenheit 451 is an important book to explore with students entering high school for this major reason: It alerts the reader to a significant cultural development, the declining impact of and disinterest in the written word. That development, which has steadily intensified since the advent of electronic media, should worry young people growing up in today’s world, a world in which timeless books are increasingly becoming a rarity. The consensus seems to be that folks are too busy to sit down and read. Reading for pleasure seems to have been crowded out. I want to teach them to feel very, very concerned when they realize that classic literature is becoming an endangered species. As Bradbury comments in his Coda to Fahrenheit 451, “There is more than one way to burn a book.” Bradbury’s book awakens students to the reality that precious books of the ages are steadily vanishing. High school students need to be aware of this deeply troubling reality. The theme, the decline of the written word in today’s world, is introduced via the title that refers to the temperature at which paper burns.

I should insert a caveat about the book: It contains some profanity and coarse language, a detraction that will deter some teachers and parents from including the book in a freshman curriculum. Despite this considerable disadvantage, I consider the novel to be a valid choice for the reason I have mentioned in addition to its wisdom. There is much wisdom in this short novel about family and books and intellectual life, issues that are important to discuss with freshmen students.

In terms of methodology, first review the focus of the three parts into which the book is divided. Part I centers on Montag as book burner; Part 2 desribes Montag’s grief at the wholescale destruction of knowledge; Part 3 centers on his joining a community of scholars who perserve books. Read a few opening paragraphs to get students interested and ask them to complete the book during the next two weeks or so. After that, discussion begins.  Buy classroom sets of any novel to be studied and loan students a copy to ensure everyone is on the same page when reading or referring to a passage.