Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan

How does Bradbury introduce the reader to the alternate world of the book? What is our first sign that this is not our current reality?

Bradbury throws us into this world from the very beginning. The novel opens with Montag enjoying the fire – “it was a pleasure to burn,” Bradbury says – and within a few lines, Montag is identified as a fireman. But he is not the sort of fireman we have in our world. We see that this kind of fireman stands grinning in the glow of a pyre of burning books. His strange symbolic helmet with the number "451" also suggests something unusual, because we do not immediately know what the number symbolizes.

What do we learn about Clarisse and...