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The question: show how the belief of faith is represented in 2 of the works you have read. Compare and contrast how this is done and how it might be interpreted.

Fahrenheit 451

• Montag wants to save the bible. He doesn’t intentionally think of faith as something extremely important and significant, represented through his blind and mindless attempts to memorize the passage. He is disturbed by the dentist’s ad in the transport, which represents how desperate he is that he does not understand the passage's meaning.

• The TV show that Mildred watches have a god

• The government has replaced religion

• Montag’s curiosity about religion begins when he steals the bible

• The first book anyone tries to memorize is the Bible. Different from Frederick Douglass, 451 does not focus on religion but is more of a side theme

• Faber and Montag’s conversation about the bible; their conversation about the importance of books starts when Montag brings the bible to Faber

• When Faber sees the bible, he responds to its cultural significance.

• Religion has been commodified and commercialized.

• “Dover Beach” is about religion and, by extension, values disappearing from the world.

• “Book of Job” was a metaphor for Montag’s situation to the revelations at the end, examples of how literature helps us make sense of the world.

Frederick Douglass

• Covey is always referring to religion as well as Frederick Douglass. Because

• They call themselves Christians, but at the same time, they weep for slaves.

• People use Christianity to excuse enslaving people

• Claims often, the Christian slaveholders were even more violent

• Scripture quoted (descendants of Ham) to justify slavery (twisted in FD’ opinion: slaveholders were twisting the passages to meet their needs)

• Christianity of the land vs Christianity of Christ

• Douglass believed that you could not be Christian and be a slaveholder

• Douglass believed that it was God’s plan for him to escape

• Sabbath school for teaching reading

Similarities and differences

• Both consider Christianity important as a source of values

• Both works criticise their settings by pointing out that it’s incompatible with Christian values

• • Frederick Douglass: “Christianity of land” vs “Christianity of Christ. Clearly states that Christianity is incompatible with slavery and believes God helped him escape. The criticism is stated directly, often with sarcasm; Narrative is a political work, and Douglass states what his message is directly

  • 451: Jesus as a commercial figure in the “family”, “Lilies of the Field” parable being disrupted by the Denham Dentifrice commercial ⇒ Christianity vs Consumerism. Characters talk about missing values; Faber mentions Christ on TV. Also, Dover Beach is read without explanation; more literary approach, readers have to interpret and come to their thoughts

• Douglass makes it crystal clear that he believes in God, while Bradbury doesn’t

• 451 states that you can be not religious and yet admit the impact of religion, while Frederick Douglass says that every person in a Christian country is Christian

How does the incompatibility with Christianity take shape?

Douglass: individuals who do not act according to Christian values (Covey) while calling themselves Christian

451: society’s lack of values in general, Jesus on TV etc.; no individuals who call themselves Christians and do not act accordingly. An old woman’s suicide is compared to dying for one’s religious beliefs through the reference to Latimer

What is the role of scripture in the two works?

Douglass: typically quotes it to show how slaveholders abuse it to serve their needs; scripture is very present in this society but is misinterpreted

451: the bible is one of the most central books in the novel; it’s the one Montag most wants to save but fails, only to see Beatty toss it into the incinerator. The “Lilies of the field” parable is one example of how books help us make sense of the world. Seen by Faber as an essential cultural artefact, not necessarily as a source of “belief” in the religious sense.

When are these things raised? How are they raised? How does it shape the book?

The important difference between the 2 works: Frederick Douglass wants to portray what is wrong with religion as what society is doing. Bradbury’s point is that society as a whole lacks values. There are no Christians in 451, and no one says that someone is religious. The only character that identifies herself as religious is the woman. She sees herself as similar to Latimer. She is closely associated with religion. Faber thumbs through the bible, he read the Bible before, but he is not religious.

What’s the role of the scripture?

Religion is a source of values. Frederick Douglass claims that it was god’s plan for him to escape. While in 451, there aren’t any similar touches because society doesn’t have values. Douglass says how the bible is twisted to make excuses for slavery. Everyone reads the bible on their own. In 451, the bible still plays a significant role but is not a wide source of culture. Montag thinks of the bible as something important. The fact that Beatty (the bible symbolizes the values that society lacks), Beatty does not care about the bible; he burns the book without even looking at it. At the same time, Montag and Faber are taking care of the bible as a source of knowledge and values. Beatty is the highest authority figure that appears in the book. Hence, it is symbolic of the lacking of values in society.

In the scene in the subway, Montag is trying to remember the passage from the bible. If he understood it, it would help him to understand the word better. The Bible in Frederick Douglass is present but is abused to strengthen and justify wrong things in society. In 451, people see commercialized, and they are not reading the true books and the true bible. If no one reads anymore, there are no values. Douglass says that just reading the bible is not the same as deriving the right values from the book. Faber sees the Bible as a cultural artefact because it saves our values and thoughts. Bible is that society is diluting itself. Douglass is saying that people are getting the wrong conclusions from the bible because the justification of slavery is not one of the points of the bible, and using it to justify slavery is not its purpose.

Organization:

1. Intro

   1. General intro (Authors generally tend to mention religion as a significant theme of their works. Pointing out that they were devoted to Christian values. Christianity is a source of values: for future society or the institution of slavery. When Beatty, through the Bible, in the initiator, we understand that he is the main evil in the novel; it is meant to show how bad things got in this society and how the values are devoted in the society. )

2. The role of the bible

   1. Slavery is wrong because it is incompatible with Christianity (Frederick Douglass)

   2. Christian values == good values, no matter whether you believe in god or not

   3. Christianity as a source of values

   4. Both books are very American, but they have different backgrounds.