Over the course of this unit, we've been close reading portions of Fahrenheit 451 to think about the book deeply and gain a better understanding of it. We've used a multitude of close reading tools to do this, but there were definitely some in particular that I want to remember in the future. Firstly, looking for ways that characters foil each other, in cases like Mildred and Clarisse, Montag and The Hound, and Montag and Clarisse, really helped to explore the characters and the ways that Bradbury wants us to view them and understand them. Characters who foil each other allow us more insight into the characters. Seeing the similarities and contrasts between characters gives us a heightened awareness of them.
We explored different types of symbols as well, which I found very useful. Bradbury purposefully repeats many metaphors, like that of books being like birds. Understanding Bradbury's use of figurative symbols also increases our understanding of the book. We also learned how characters and things, for example The Hound, are a sort of stand-alone, open-ended symbol. We have to figure out on our own what they may or may not be symbolic for - the author does not give us a straight up answer. Having this better understanding of the different types of symbols and how to approach them could come in handy going forward.
Finally, when we were doing things like discussing how Montag describes The Hound, we first recorded our observations and then drew conclusions. This is a very important tip to remember because it's easy to jump straight to the drawing conclusions part, and therefore not making as careful observations. Making careful observations first allows more information to be gathered unbiased.
No comments:
Post a Comment