Essay: Fahrenheit 451

Essay on Fahrenheit 451

(Must include at least on example from any of the following I, Robot, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Hamlet, or Ender’s Game; you may also use 1984 or Brave New World; list on works cited)

Mon. Feb. 3 Finish reading text

By Wed., Thu, and Mon, (Jan. 28-29, and Feb. 3): at least two blogs exploring your essay topic. Frame your own question.

Drafting in-class and at home Feb. 3-6

Due: Mon. Feb. 10, 3-5 page essay, college level, few if any errors per page, MLA headers, works cited page, strong intro and argument-like thesis, backed up with quotes and evidence from the text and perhaps other reading we have done.

Possible topics:

1.       How do Sci-Fi authors create a defamiliarized world that readers eventually enter into and immerse themselves? Trace the reader’s journey in entering that world with examples from different texts.

2.       To what extent are protagonists of Sci-Fi novels insiders or outsiders? What makes them outsiders, if they are? How much do readers sympathize with the protagonist and how do protagonists resist sympathy?

3.       To what extent do Sci-Fi authors portray futuristic societies as dysfunctional? Is this dysfunction meant to be a warning, satirical, or a prediction? Are readers merely entertained by dystopian novels or do such novels wake them up?

4.       Form your own question (with instructor’s approval).

Room to plan your essay (later blog your notes)                     

·         Form your own question

·         Lay out examples

·         Prepare a working thesis (with a strong point of view, argument, or claim)

Sketch preliminary structure