451 -" And questions give us no rest" Here are a few to ponder while reading Class discussion - 2/8

1. What does the salamander and phoenix symbolize? How do they work together?

2. “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy” (7). What allows Clarisse to give this blunt explanation? Are the traces of her ideas just a phase? What does it say about her character?

3.Why does Guy reference a power failure as an hour of rediscovery? (suspension of efficiency/ technology – allows a rediscovery of humanness)

4. Clarisse states, “You answer right off. You never stop to think what I’ve asked you.” Also, Guy admits that he wasn’t certain about knowing there was dew on the grass: “He hadn’t looked for a long time ” (9). How does this statement represent adult complacency?

5.What do the large advertisements tell the reader about the current society? (9)

6. On page ten, Guy recalls a night a year ago when he met an old man in the park and, “they had talked.” Explain the significance.

7. On page 11, He describes Clarisse as an “immense figure” and said, “what a shadow she threw on the wall with her slender body.” What does the physical description of her size suggest?

8. What is the underlying statement Bradbury makes by having men who were called to a suicide not be doctors?

9. What is the significance of juxtaposing the meeting of Clarisse with the suicide attempt of Guy’s wife?

10. Snake imagery is prevalent on the first few pages (salamander/ black cobra 14/great python 3) WHY?


11. “I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death.” How does this thought relate to Guy taking a sleeping lozenge? (Contrasting thoughts)

12. Why does he talk about the rain not being felt by Mildred and then return to it through counting the drops? (17)

More quotes

“This is the age of the disposable tissue. Blow. Wad. Flush.” 17 Connotation of disposable - throwaway, not reusable.

“Strangers come and violate you.” (So do firemen) This statement is foreshadowing
Bradbury’s purpose.


“He felt that the stars had been pulverized by the sound of the black jets and that in the morning the earth would be covered with their dust like a strange snow.” 14 – Foreshadowing too!