Use this discussion guide to inspire in-depth thinking, and jump-start a conversation about Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. There’s plenty here to set your mental wheels in motion.

1. Montag comes to understand that “firemen are rarely necessary” because “the public itself stopped reading of its own accord.” Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 – to what degree has his prediction come true today?
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2. Clarisse describes a past that had gardens, and front porches with rocking chairs, one that Montag has never known. What do the items Clarisse describes have in common, and how might their removal have encouraged the repressive society Bradbury is writing about?
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3. One of the most significant of the many literary references in Fahrenheit 451 is when Montag reads the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold. How do Mildred’s friends respond, and why does Montag kick them out of the house?
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4. Beatty justifies the new role of firemen by claiming that they’re “custodians of [society’s] peace of mind, the focus of [the] understandable and rightful dread of being inferior.” What does he mean by this?
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5. Why did Beatty program the Hound to track Montag even before he caught Montag keeping a book from the fire at the house of the woman who refused to leave? Do you think Beatty had seen Montag save books before? Or is it because Beatty sensed a change in Montag? Cite incidents in the book that support your answer.
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6. According to Beatty, how does the burning of books lead to more equality and happiness? Does his lecture to Montag sound like any of the rhetoric we hear today?
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7. What is the significance of the phrase “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out,” spoken by the woman whose house the firemen are burning her house to the ground?
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8. Once Montag becomes a revolutionary, why does the government capture a man they know to be innocent in his place, rather than continue searching for Montag himself?
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9. Why does Montag choose to memorize the Old Testament’s book of Ecclesiastes and the New Testament’s book of Revelation? How do the final two paragraphs of Fahrenheit 451 allude to these biblical books?
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10. If you had to memorize a single book or risk its extinction, what book would you choose?

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Have a gander at our take on

Fahrenheit 451: Insights into today’s epidemic of book banning.