The major character: Huck Finn

From the beginning of the novel, Huck is a boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. His father is a drunk and a ruffian who disappears for months on end. Huck himself is dirty and frequently homeless. Although the Widow Douglas attempts to “reform” Huck, he resists her attempts and maintains his independent ways. The community has failed to protect him from his father, and though the Widow finally gives Huck some of the schooling and religious training that he had missed, he has not been indoctrinated with social values in the same way a middle-class boy like Tom Sawyer has been. Huck’s distance from mainstream society makes him skeptical of the world around him and the ideas it passes on to him.
        
         Huck’s distrust and his experiences as he travels down the river force him to question the things society has taught him. According to the law, Jim is Miss Watson’s property, but according to Huck’s sense of logic and fairness, it seems “right” to help Jim. Huck’s intelligence and his willingness to think through a situation on its own merits lead him to some conclusions that are correct in their context but that would shock white society. For example, Huck discovers, when he and Jim meet a group of slave-hunters, that telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action.
          
          Because Huck is a child, the world seems new to him. Everything he encounters is an occasion for thought. Because of his background, however, he does more than just apply the rules that he has been taught—he creates his own rules. Yet Huck is not some kind of independent moral genius. He must still struggle with some of the preconceptions about blacks that society has ingrained in him, and at the end of the novel, he shows himself all too willing to follow Tom Sawyer’s lead. But even these failures are part of what makes Huck appealing and sympathetic. He is only a boy, after all, and therefore fallible. Imperfect as he is, Huck represents what anyone is capable of becoming: a thinking, feeling human being rather than a mere cog in the machine of society.

About the Author: Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens was born on November 30‚ 1835 in Florida‚ Missouri‚ the sixth of seven children. At the age of 4‚ Sam and his family moved to the small frontier town of Hannibal‚ Missouri‚ on the banks of the Mississippi River.Missouri was also a slave state. Sam’s father owned one slave and his uncle owned several. In fact‚ it was on his uncle’s farm that Sam spent many boyhood summers playing in the slave quarters‚ listening to tall tales and the slave spirituals that he would enjoy throughout his life. In 1847‚ when Sam was 11‚ his father died. After father's death he left school‚ having completed the fifth grade‚ to work as a printer’s apprentice for a local newspaper. His job was to arrange the type for each of the newspaper’s stories‚ allowing Sam to read the news of the world while completing his work.

     At 18‚ Sam headed east to New York City and Philadelphia‚ where he worked on several different newspapers and found some success at writing articles. By 1857‚ he had returned home to embark on a new career as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, his pilot career came to an end. In search of a new career‚ Sam headed west in July of 1861‚ at the invitation of his brother‚ Orion‚ who had just been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Along the journey Sam encountered Native American tribes for the first time as well as a variety of unique characters‚ mishaps and disappointments. These events would find a way into his short stories and books‚ particularly Roughing It. After failing as a silver prospector‚ Sam began writing for the Territorial Enterprise‚ a Virginia City‚ Nevada‚ newspaper where he used‚ for the first time‚ his pen name‚ Mark Twain. Wanting a change by 1864‚ Sam headed for San Francisco where he continued to write for local papers. In 1865‚ Sam’s first “big break” came with the publication of his short story‚ “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog ” in papers across the country. 

A year later‚ Sam was hired by the Sacramento Unionto visit and report on the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). His writings were so popular that‚ upon his return‚ he embarked upon his first lecture tour‚ which established him as a successful stage performer. Hired by the Alta California to continue his travel writing from the east‚ Sam arrived in New York City in 1867. He quickly signed up for a steamship tour of Europe and the Holy Land. His travel letters‚ full of vivid descriptions and tongue-in-cheek observations‚ met with such audience approval that they were later reworked into his first book‚ The Innocents Abroad in 1869. It was also on this trip that Clemens met his future brother-in-law‚ Charles Langdon. Langdon reportedly showed Sam a picture of his sister‚ Olivia‚ and Sam fell in love at first sight.

After courting for two years‚ Sam Clemens and Olivia (Livy) Langdon were married in 1870. They settled in Buffalo‚ New York‚ where Sam had become a partner‚ editor and writer for the daily newspaper the Buffalo Express. While living in Buffalo‚ their first child‚ Langdon Clemens‚ was born. After their daughter Susy was born, Langdon died of two forms of Diphtheria. Although Sam enjoyed financial success during his Hartford years‚ he continually made bad investments in new inventions‚ which eventually brought him to bankruptcy. In an effort to economize and pay back his debts‚ Sam and Livy moved their family to Europe in 1891. When his publishing company failed in 1894‚ Sam was forced to set out on a worldwide lecture tour to earn money. In 1896‚ tragedy struck when Susy Clemens‚ at the age of 24‚ died from meningitis while on a visit to the Hartford home. Unable to return to the place of her death‚ the Clemenses never returned to Hartford to live.

In these later years‚ Sam’s writings turned dark. They began to focus on human greed‚ cruelty and questioned the humanity of the human race. His public appearances followed suit and included a harshly sarcastic public introduction of Winston Churchill in 1900. Even though Sam’s lecture tour had managed to get him out of debt‚ his anti-government writings and speeches threatened his livelihood once again. Labeled by some as a traitor‚ several of Sam’s works were never published during his lifetime either because magazines would not accept them or because of a personal fear that his marketable reputation would be ruined. In 1903‚ after living in New York City for three years‚ Livy became ill and Sam and his wife returned to Italy where she died a year later. After her death‚ Sam lived in New York until 1908 when he moved into his last house‚ “Stormfield”‚ in Redding‚ Connecticut. In 1909‚ his middle daughter Clara was married. In the same year Jean‚ the youngest daughter‚ died from an epileptic seizure. Four months later on April 21‚ 1910‚ Sam Clemens died at the age of 74.

 Link to video

Fahrenheit 451 theme handout

Theme Four Handout

Alana Goukler, Aiswarya Ravikumar, Andrew Wahl, Sydney Hood, & Elyse Miller

Theme Statement:

Engaging with difficult, uncomfortable thoughts and experiences is the only route to true happiness.

Timeline

Quotes

“They walked the rest of the way in silence, hers thoughtful,his kind of clenching and uncomfortable silence ..” (Bradbury 7)

“ ‘See what you’re doing? You’ll ruin us! Who’s more important, me or that Bible?’ She was beginning to shriek..” (Bradbury 72)

“And when it came to his turn, what could he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier.” (Bradbury 158)

How does our theme connect to today’s society?

Our theme connects to today’s society through the idea of censorship and government control, as a major issue in the U.S. today is that many programs and organizations  such as the NSA are making many people feel that the government has an excessive amount of power.

Why is our theme important to the understanding of the story?

The theme helps the readers to comprehend Montag’s emotions throughout the story, from the beginning to the end and allows us to better understand the actions that he took in regards to various characters and situations.

Fahrenheit 451 : Symbols

        . The Hearth and the salamander is a important symbol in this book. Both of these symbols have to do with fire, the dominant image of Montag’s life. The hearth because it contains the fire that heats a home, and the salamander because of ancient beliefs that it lives in fire and is unaffected by flames. The hearth, or fireplace, is a traditional symbol of the home; the salamander is one of the official symbols of the firemen, as well as the name they give to their fire trucks
           The phoenix also is a major symbol. After the bombing of the city, Granger compares mankind to a phoenix. Phoenix is a bird that burns itself up and then rises out of its ashes over and over again. Remembering the mistakes of the past, Granger and the group have set a mind that they will rise up one more time. They believe that individuals are not as important as the collective mass of culture and history. The symbol of the phoenix’s rebirth refers not only to the cyclical nature of history and the collective rebirth of humankind but also to Montag’s spiritual resurrection.

The fault in our stars: Metaphors

         Augustus and Hazel, frequently use metaphors to talk about emotionally overwhelming subjects. For example, Augustus describes shooting “existentially fraught” free throws on the day before the amputation of his leg. The free throws in this instance become a metaphor for Augustus's sense of purpose, since prior to his amputation he was an all-star basketball player, and losing his leg meant an end to sports. He suddenly began to question why this activity was so important, but the implication is that he suddenly began wondering what his purpose might be more broadly. 
            He often keeps an unlit cigarette in his mouth in order to symbolize his control over a thing that can kill him, namely cancer. Augustus relies on the significance of the cigarette symbol to give him strength in times of fear and uncertainty. Hazel has her own frequently used metaphor. She likens herself to a grenade when she imagines the pain she will cause to her loved ones when she dies. In each instance the metaphor allows the character to deal with the subject at hand, Hazel's impending death for example, without having to call it by name.

About John Green: The Fault in our stars

I am reading the book fault in our stars by John Green. John Green is an author of young adult fiction and a YouTube blogger. He is also a #1 Best Selling author on the New York Times Bestseller list. He was born on August 24, 1977 in Indianapolis,Indiana. He grew up in Florida. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious Studies. Green lived for several years in Chicago, where he worked for the book review journal Booklist as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska. While there, he reviewed hundreds of books, particularly literary fiction and books about Islam or conjoined twins. He has also critiqued books for the New York Times Book Review and written for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. He lived in New York City for two years while his wife attended graduate school. 

                 John Green's first novel was Looking for Alaska (based on his own boarding school experience) and won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association, and made the ALA 2005 Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults. His second novel, was An Abundance of Katherines , and was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and may also be made into a movie in the future.Green's third novel, Paper Towns , debuted at number 5 on the New York Times bestseller list for children's books, and the movie rights to Paper Towns have been optioned, with Green hired to write the screenplay. Paper Towns was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel and the 2010 Corine Literature Prize.