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Liz Lockhart

Ms. Purcell

Survey of American Lit

2 April 2009

Annotated Bibliography:

The Big Read. About the Book Fahrenheit 451. 4 March 2008.

<http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/circ/advisory/onebook/aboutthebookF451.htm>.

People around the world, even today, are intrigued by Fahrenheit 451and the message

that it sends to its readers. This source contains the summary of the book from the book cover, a

longer, more detailed summary, and also a few paragraphs on the historical context of the work

and a bit of history about the piece. This source examines why Fahrenheit and Bradbury were

placed in the genre, sci-fi for this book and how the book expands the concept of a short story

titled Bright Phoenix.

This source was very basic and contained large text with small words that a middle

school student could understand; however, it is from a library, giving it academic authority. The

most helpful aspect of this source was the section about the history of the time period in which

this book was written. It is nice to be able to put things into perspective and learn about what the

author was dealing with in everyday life. Other than the history, the source contained a pretty

accurate and detailed summary that was very helpful in the formation of my summary.

"Bradbury, Ray." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online School

Edition. 18 Mar. 2009 <http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9016104>.

The Encyclopedia Britannicacontains a brief biography and writing history of the great

Ray Bradbury. They keep it nice and brief but cover all of his writings everywhere from Dark

Carnivalin 1947 to Death Is a Lonely Business in 1985.

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The Britannica source was a nice tool when I was examining Bradbury’s works and really

wanted to see how much he wrote and from what time to what time in history he was most active

as a writer. The article was short and sweet, yet informative. This source is very reliable for

figuring out exactly what and when Bradbury’s works were published. The Encyclopedia

Britannica has the authority and proper credibility to talk about Bradbury’s works in a very

critical way because of the immense amount of research and time somebody has to put into

writing an accurate Encyclopedia entry.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheiht 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.

Bradbury’s piece Fahrenheit 451 is thought to beabout censorship and the effect it has on

our lives and the people around us. The book examines literacy, and learning and how important

knowledge and learning is to our society. This is a sci-fi book and it is set in the future in a

society where owning books are illegal. The main character, Guy Montag, a firemen, realizes

that books are not all that bad and that learning and knowledge is a good thing. I have read parts

of this book and find it to be very interesting and containing many different messages including

teachings on censorship, and the way the media influences our lives.

The greatest source in writing an essay or analysis on a book is always the book itself.

This is because all the other sources are based on this book and are trying to tell the reader all

about the book without making the reader actually read the book. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a

fantastic source for this paper, it is the actual text. The text was extremely useful for finding

quotes and to be able to read the exact text that other summary and review sites were talking

about. I give myself authority to review and critique this book because I have read sections of

the piece.

Crain, Caleb. "Twilight of the Books." 24 December 2007. The New Yorker. 1 April 2009

<http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain>.
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In 1982, 56.9 per cent of Americans had read a work of creative literature in the previous

twelve months. The percentage fell to fifty-four per cent in 1992, and to 46.7 per cent in 2002.

Caleb Crain’s Twilight of the Books talk about how reading is dead in this country and how there

has been a steep decline in literacy among schoolchildren and adults alike. He also examines

newspaper usage in this country. He says since 1990, circulation of hard print newspapers has

declined steadily, and in 2006 there were just 52.3 million weekday papers, that is about 0.17 per

person. This article overall summarizes how reading books and newspapers in America and the

rest of the world is becoming an extinct pastime. The media on TV and the internet are taking

over; maybe it’s time to fight back.

Crain is a highly respected authority in reporting and analyzing of literature nationwide.

He has a PhD from Columbia University in English. This gives him a lot of credibility when

reviewing books and talking about reading and literature. You can tell that he did a lot of

research for this article and that it is scholarly because of the research he had to do for this article

as indicated by the statistics on reading and literacy. I found this article very interesting to read

and it really made me examine myself and realize that I don’t read enough. Without reading and

literature a lot of our culture would go missing.

Gradesaver LLC. Fahrenheit 451 Study Guide. 3 February 2009.

<http://www.gradesaver.com/fahrenheit-451/study-guide/short-summary/>.

This very informational source is intended to give a summary of the book for students

that didn’t exactly read the book. This website includes a “short summary”, “character list”that

includes all the main characters such as Guy Montag, his wife, Captain Beatty, and the

Mechanical Hound. This source even includes a“theme guide”, short quizzes and summaries of

each section of the book in detail. This would be a fantastic source for a student who didn’t

exactly read the book but needs to know all about it for a class. This source is written for an
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audience that wants to know as much as they possibly can about the book without having to

actually read the book. They go into different themes of the book and even suggest some essay

questions for students to use for practice.

Gradesaver was very informative. Gradesaver’s credibility is very well known, they are

amulti-page website that contains tons of notes on a ton of different books. For each book there

are different things you can learn about. Gradesaver’s writers write for a high-school level

audience, telling of a lot of the details of the book and also examining themes, characters, and

irony. While Gradesaver’s study guides on the book are a good place to start, it is also

recommended that someone look into a more scholarly source when doing research.

Johnston, Amy E. Boyle. "Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted." 31 May 2007.

www.laweekly.com. 4 March 2008. <http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-

bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/>.

Johnston in this article from the popular LA Weekly examines Ray Bradbury’s win of the

Pulitzer Prize and how Bradbury is being misinterpreted constantly and how he was very upset

when he couldn’t give a speech, or even say a few words when he won his Pulitzer Prize. This

source even examines the theory that Fahrenheit 451 is a story about how television destroys

interest in reading literature.

I found this source to be very interesting, especially the quotes from Bradbury himself. I

found it to be quite informative and I think it shed a new light on both Mr. Bradbury and his

works. I found this source to be a bit bias towards the theme of how the media influences out

lives. However, this source was helpful to me when I was writing about theme because it helped

me examine multiple themes for the book and helped me select which theme I found to be

dominant.
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Gurwitz , Jonathan. . "Dwindling the demands of thinking. " San Antonio Express-News [San

Antonio, Tex.] 18 Mar. 2009,B.7. ProQuest Newsstand. ProQuest. BBHS, Seattle, WA.

18 Mar 2009. <http://www.proquest.com/>.

This source examines why Fahrenheit 451was chosen to be the 2009 “Big Read”. It

examines why books are burned because they are complicated and summarizes parts of the book.

This source uses examples from common day to back up its statements, including issues such as

the 2008 election and current television. This source was nice to be able to see why people are

honoring Fahrenheit 451 still to this day.

Gurwitz’s article about Bradbury’s book was very informational and really showed why

people are behind this book and how the media influences it all. Gurwitz writes for a more

mature audience,indicated by his vocabulary. He examines how so much is lost with the use of

media instead of older tactics of communication and spreading culture. Gurwitz writes for the

San Antonio Express News as a staff reporter which gives him some authority over this subject.

Novelguide. Fahrenheit 451. 28 March 2009

<http://www.novelguide.com/fahrenheit451/themeanalysis.html>.

This website offers a Novel Summary, Character Profiles, metaphor Analysis, Theme

Analysis, Quotes, and a Biography of the Author for Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The theme

analysis takes a few different angles about theme including censorship and how the media

influences people. The quotes are very well thought out and really accuratelycapture the essence

of the book. The greatestsupport for a reader that is given from this website is the information

regarding metaphor analysis. Metaphor Analysis has always been something I have struggled

with and this website explains what different symbols mean when I don’t always pick up on

them.

I found this to be a very informational source; my favorite part was the metaphor

analyzer part of the web page. It really helped open my eyes to what Bradbury is saying in his
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book with the use of the salamander ect. This website seems to be intended for a High School

audience because it uses terms and language that I can understand and interpret.

Schellenberg, James. Review of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. 22 February 2004. 3 February

2009. <http://www.challengingdestiny.com/reviews/f451.htm>.

James Schellenberg’s page on the summary and a review of Fahrenheit 451is very

informational and interesting. This critical review compares Fahrenheit 451with other Bradbury

pieces and talks about some of the issues included in the book as well as a few important quotes.

This is a very informational source that is very to the point; I think that is what makes it so

popular.

I found this source very helpful both in writing a summary of the book and a review.

Schellenberg also reviews some themes of the book and compares the story to that of Brave New

World. This site and its quality articles originate from a Canadian science fiction and fantasy

short story magazine called “Challenging Destiny. This article and the entire site has some

credibility because it used to be a popular magazine.

Schuessler, Jennifer. "The Death of Reading, Continued..." 25 January 2008. The New York

Times. April 1 2009 <http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/the-death-of-

reading-continued/>.

Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times writes and has the authority to talk about,

how reading is dead in this country and how that influences our countryand most importantly our

children. She says that the “hedonists”, the people who love to disappear into books are

declining and social reading which is stated to be the kind we do in order to have

“nonthreatening, unloaded, sociable conversations with casual acquaintances” is dying. Gone

are the book clubs and book of the month parties. “In 1841, strangers on the train could chat

about whether Little Nell was going to be written out of Dicken’s latest serial. Today, we huddle
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by the water cooler debating whether Tony Soprano got whacked.” Schuessler references

Crain’s essay from the New Yorker about the death of reading and even goes as far to say that

“According to one 2005 survey of leisure activities, Americans engaged in the reading of books

about as often as they barbecued, twice a week.”.

This source was very interesting and somewhat depressing at times. It examined how

people in this country are ceasing to read for fun in their own spare time. This article is popular

and well supported because it references Dr. Caleb Crain’s essay about the death of reading and

even uses some of his research in statistics. I found this source helpful in reflecting on the theme

in Fahrenheit 451 of how the media influences our lives and how “reading is dead”.