Paper 2 - 1
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Fahrenheit 451
Clarisse
She is presented to look like a normal person āaliveā: she is asking questions and is interested not in how but why things are working this way.
Beatty
Beauty did not just burn the books as a fireman but also understood their nature. He is one of the smartest characters, and his ability to quote books is not random. He understood not the content of the books but their purpose, which was unacceptable and would collapse society. Emotions of Montag
The effect of the woman on Montag forces him to start thinking and questioning the system he is currently in. This is mainly illustrated within Montagās thoughts, where each sentence contradicts the previous idea.
Totalitarianism society
The government is presented as one big institute created to control humans to make a perfect society. Therefore, they use firefighters, television, and higher temp of life to achieve their purposes.
Montag against the regime
He is the only one facing the regime and trying to change himself and the people around him through attempts to understand the root nature of totalitarianism and why they burn books in particular.
Frederick Douglass
Dehumanising effect
The slaves were dehumanised in every way possible, which made them nothing more than a working force.
The role of the book as a critical factor in education
Books were prohibited because they allowed gaining knowledge. Therefore, the slaveholders wanted to destroy it, but the slaves who reached it could think rationally because it gave them some thought.
Total control over all the slaves
Masters attempted to achieve the same aim as the government in āFahrenheit 451ā, but the methods were a bit different. They were focused on dehumanizing slaves to make them a utility but not a separate identity.
Frederick Douglass is the one who does not match the others
Douglass did not escape just because he was lucky. A set of reasons resulted in it: Baltimore, learning how to read, a fight with a slaveholder, and the new master that was nice to him and treated him as a human.
General notes
Characters in oppressive systems get fed up and do what they believe is right, despite the danger. Montag, Demby, Douglass, the woman, Clarrise, Faber All these characters behave in a way that the reader can understand and identify with
The settings of Fahrenheit 451 are designed to alienate readers, not for them to identify with
Ways in which these works are fundamentally American; the importance of free thought and the freedom to act on oneās thoughts is self-evident to an American audience.
In both worlds, we have characters who face either death or deadly danger to escape the oppressive system for reasons that are presented in a way that readers can identify with them.
Protagonists (Identification with protagonists and their reasons for wanting to escape)
Ultimately Frederick Douglass goes through the same process; he becomes so fed up with the unfairness and cruelty of slavery that he escapes despite danger and has to leave all his friends behind. When he tries to escape for the first time, his master warns him of most likely being murdered. Like Frederick Douglass, Montag has to leave his life behind as well. His wife, his best friend Beatty and his house in the city are traded for a campfire in the woods. Montagās escape is different - he has no choice because he lives in a totalitarian society. Douglass presents his escape as inevitable because he cannot bear his situation anymore. Montag becomes a fugitive from the law after the murder. Montag lives in a hypothetical future society that persecutes its citizens
Supporting characters
The Dust-Jackets and Clarisse are designed for the audience to identify with them because they enjoy learning, thinking, and real conversations, unlike the āgood citizensā of the novelās world; and for both, we are shown that if you are like this, you cannot exist in this society.
Demby - readers understand the horrific nature of the situation. He is fed up, but not that he dies for it. Illustrates the extreme situation and how abusive power is overused. Covey threatens to kill him after counting to 3, and then he has to go through with it to assert his authority. The point is that we understand the situation and that, in his case, itās the case so extreme that he would rather die; we identify with Demby on a human level (slaves are dehumanised, but as readers, we understand that they are humans)
The old woman who quotes Latimer is almost in the same situation as Demby. The authorities are counting to 10, and then she lights herself on fire. Montagās reaction mirrors the readerās reaction to the scene in Frederick Douglass. After this experience, he begins to think of how important books are. While in Frederick Douglass, only the readers are supposed to react.
Books as a symbol of knowledge
Both works use the idea of reading as a general symbol for learning. Douglass, with his desire to learn how to read and his obsession with The Columbian Orator, Fahrenheit 451 with the notion of book burning and several books that are presented as being important, allow Montag to question his society > compare this also to what Faber says is important about books: texture and detail, time to digest, ability to act on what youāve learned.
Readers are meant to identify with Douglassā desire to learn and educate himself and to see that this is incompatible with slavery > heās not allowed to learn how to read and write.
Structure:
Start with this because it is a general similarity between the two works
Identification with other characters, particularly Demby and the old woman who both commit suicide in similar ways,
follows the first paragraph because there are other characters that we also identify with for very similar reasons
Identification with a desire to learn, think and be free. Books are the general symbol of knowledge, ignorance as a tool of oppression, and knowledge as a path to freedom.
A third body paragraph is like a pre-conclusion; it follows the previous 2 paragraphs that the books are thematically similar in symbolism.
Intro:
-why literature wants us to identify with ideas, characters or situations: identification leads to an emotional response, and thus we understand the message of the work
Briefly introduce both works: Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury in 1954; The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass in 1845. Even though the two works are over a century apart, they share many ideas because they are both about breaking free from brainwashing in a totalitarian society.
Thesis
Both books have the message that no thinking human being wants to be a slave. The desire to learn and think for oneself is presented in many different ways readers can identify with: through the protagonists, supporting characters and books as a symbol of knowledge.
Remember: to focus on how and why we are made to identify with all of these elements, i.e How are these works written, and for what
General introduction, title, genre, author, year of publication, then the thesis
It must be a side-by-side comparison.
For instance, Demby and an old woman - one paragraph. In each paragraph, there must be a comparison between the 2 books. āOne book contains this; the other one does not have it. Here is why this is so.ā
Feedback for paper 2 - 1:
The overall approach of paper 2 - comparison of 2 books. However, it is also important to directly address the question
You must focus on the plot and stylistic choices to score more points on B. And also should compare both works.
For C: The essay maintains a mostly clear and sustained focus on the task; the treatment of the works is balanced. The development of ideas is logical; ideas are cohesively connected. You must point out your previous ideas and compare them to what you said or list and link them.