Concept Unit Lesson Plan Template Unit Working Title: Dystopias and Utopias: Imagining a Perfect Society in an Imperfect

World Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): dystopian/utopian societies Unit Primary Skill focus: annotation Week 2 of 4; Plan #5 of 12; [90 mins.] Plan type: Full-Detail Content Requirement Satisfied: Instruction that uses AT LEAST 2 short texts as a model Critical Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Unit Preface], followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson: SWBAT: Cognitive (know/understand): 1. Students will understand that one persons utopia can be anothers dystopia. C. Students will be able to consider individual characters in texts and whether they view their society as utopian or dystopian. (8.5b, 8.5g) 2. Students will know that dystopian and utopian texts are often based off of social issues. A. Students will be able to analyze the social issues at the heart of dystopian texts. (8.5b, 8.5h) B. Students will be able to connect social issues in dystopian texts to modern society. (8.5l) Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive: 4. Students will both value and question aspects of their own society. B. Students will consider those who are advantaged and disadvantaged in their society. 5. Students will exist as part of a classroom community. E. Students will be able to collaborate successfully and respectfully. (CCSS.ELALiteracy.SL.8.1b, CCSS.8.1d) Performance (do): 6. Students will be able to analyze dystopian and utopian texts. D. Students will be able to see certain societies as both utopian and dystopian. (8.5b) E. Students will be able to analyze the central themes of dystopian literature (8.5b, 8.5h)

8. Students will be able to annotate texts. C. Students will be able to annotate dystopian excerpts in search of features of their depicted societies. (8.5b, 8.5m) SOLs: 8.5 The student will read and analyze a variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and poetry. b) Make inferences and draw conclusions based on explicit and implied information using evidence from text as support. g) Identify and ask questions that clarify various viewpoints. h) Identify the main idea. i) Summarize text relating supporting details. l) Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning. m) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process. CCSs: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly. - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1b Follow rules for collegial discussions and decisionmaking, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1d Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented.

Procedures/Instructional Strategies Beginning Room Arrangement: Students will be arranged in their five teams. 1. [20 mins.] Hook and Whole-Class Discussion: The Hunger Games: Panem as Utopia or Dystopia? Good morning, class! Today well be talking more about dystopias. As we learned yesterday, often, dystopian societies can be viewed as utopian societies to particular people. Today were going to be talking about a different characteristic about dystopian societies: social issues. In many utopian or dystopian texts, particular social issues are at the heart of the society. These social issues often draw our attention to social issues in our own society, because often, these works take a problem we have and make it explode to cause serious issues for people in this world.

To start off class today, Im going to show you all a few clips from The Hunger Games. How many of you have read The Hunger Games before? [Students will probably get excited about this, and I expect many of them to raise their hands.] Great! How about seen the movie? [Others raise their hands.] Wonderful. Lets talk about The Hunger Games for a second then. Who can tell me what the main issue is in this book? What makes Panem a dystopia and terrifying place to live? Students will discuss for a bit, then will eventually agree that the Capitol controls society by taking their children and forcing them to fight to the death. Thats right. I want you to keep that in mind as we watch, and think about the way the Capitol handles this issue. What Im going to do first is show you a Panem propaganda movie. Its from the Reaping scene in the first movie, and it gives the history behind the Hunger Games and Panems rebellion. I will show students the film clip, which demonstrates Panem as an idyllic, peaceful society. Afterward, we will talk about this depiction of the country. So, did you all think this video paints Panem in a negative or a positive light? Students will agree that this shows Panem as a positive world. Great. So, we decided that the main issue in this society is that they force their children to fight to the death for others entertainment. This video seems to promote the Games as a good thing, not a bad thing. What are their reasons for implementing the Games in the first place? Students will respond with some reasons: - To end rebellion - To make Panem peaceful again - To glorify the strong and victorious Thats great. So, this video seems to depict some positives about this society. Its peaceful, theres no war, and some people are glorified and celebrated. So, do you all think Panem could be a utopia for some people? If so, who? I expect those who have read the book or seen the movie to say that Panem is a utopia for the strong and wealthy, especially those in District 1 or 2 where fighting in the Games is seen as a great honor. They may also say that Panem is a utopia for those in control in the Capitol because they regained control over the nation. Great! Now, Im going to show you the next video. It also has the propaganda video in it, but the video is being played at the reaping ceremony in District 12. I will show students the video. This video has a completely different tone, as the strong, glorious victors in the film are contrasted with the fearful, dirty children of District 12. The soldiers keeping guard are shown as the film talks about the peace and happiness of the people of Panem.

What do you all think? Does this film show Panem in a positive or negative way? Students will discuss the films depiction of Panem in this scene. I expect they will talk about the guards, the scared children, the poverty. I hope they will compare this to the way the film depicts Panem on their own, but if they dont, I will push them to make that comparison. So, clearly Panem is a dystopian society for these people. What are the clear disadvantages of living in this society? Students will say a lack of freedom, watching children die, needless violence, poverty, etc. Great job, guys. I think youre right. Remember how I said that dystopian texts often use their social issues to draw attention to our own society? Is there anything in The Hunger Games that might be making a statement about us and our world? I want students to spend some time speculating here and I will encourage them to think critically and analytically. Id like for them to see the connection between our entertainment-obsessed culture and enjoyment of glamorized violence, but I will be interested to see the connections that the students make. 2. [5 mins.] Step 1: Activity debrief I will pull up a Google Doc with a dystopian text T-chart on it (see appendix). So what were going to do today is were going to break down several dystopian texts the way that we just did with The Hunger Games. Im going to have you all annotate excerpts of dystopian works in your teams, paying attention to important characteristics of the society. Then, you all will discuss the questions that I just asked you. I want you to figure out what the social issue of this society is, consider how this issue might apply to our own society, then think about its positives and negatives. I also want you to pay attention to what we talked about yesterday who is your society a utopia for? How about a dystopia? 3. [10 mins.] Step 2: Annotation practice Go ahead and start annotating! Ill give you guys about ten minutes to do that, then you can discuss in your groups. If you finish early, feel free to read your SSR book until everyone else is done. I will give each of the five groups double-entry journal copies of excerpts from a famous dystopian text: The Giver, Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Feed. These chosen excerpts will highlight a particular issue of the society that can be analyzed. They will individually annotate this excerpt, marking their thoughts and ideas about the text, trying to pick it apart as they move along. I will bring in the books, too, so students will be able to skim the backs and get a taste for the whole story. This will also help prepare them for their book jacket design project later in the unit.

Some of these texts are more difficult reading levels than others. Because I have seen groups work together for the past few lessons, I will have a sense at this point which groups are strongest in their analytical skills. I will give the more complicated texts, such as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, to groups who need more challenging texts. As students annotate, I will fill in The Hunger Games component of the t-chart with what students came up with. 4. [30 mins.] Step 3: Literature circles Okay guys, go ahead and switch to discussing in your groups. Make sure you remember our discussion norms! I will put our discussion norms up on the board. After students annotate individually, they will use their annotations to have a literature circle discussion in their groups. Thus, I will have students collaborate to come up with answers to the following questions: What particular social issue is highlighted in your passage? How does this relate to our own society? What are the advantages of this society? What are the disadvantages of this society? Who, if anyone, would view this society as a utopia? Who, if anyone, would view this society as a dystopia?

They will collaborate to answer these questions as a group on a worksheet. [see appendix] As they collaborate, I will walk around, answering questions and giving help as needed. I will also give each group a copy of their respective book for assistance. Here are examples of how students may complete this assignment. NOTE: These are more comprehensive than what Id expect students to know because they may not have read the entire book. The passages Ive chosen highlight one element of the society for them to discuss at lengths. Feed by M. T. Anderson o Fundamental aspect of society: people have computer feeds in their brains o Social commentary: critique against technological age and excessive ad-based consumerism o Positive: have access to information at all times, excessive intellect o Negative: people cannot/do not think for themselves, their brains are tainted with advertisements o Is this a utopia for anyone? Corporations, those invested in consumerism

o Is this a dystopia for anyone? Those invested in intellectualism, those without feeds, those under control of the corporations The Giver by Lois Lowry o Fundamental aspect of society: government has constructed a society of perfect Sameness and order. Everyone has a role in making the society function and must follow specific rules. o Social commentary: modern-day emphasis on equality, repression of emotion and desire o Positive: Lack of sadness or pain, everyone fits into the society, no one is better than anyone else, society is safe and orderly o Negative: people are ignorant and deprived of true emotion, cant see color or experience true love o Is this a utopia for anyone? People who crave safety, order, and painlessness o Is this a dystopia for anyone? People who want fuller lives of emotion and love Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury o Fundamental aspect of society: books are burnt instead of read o Social commentary: opposing censorship is bad, even if the book presents ideas that are disagreed with o Positive: lack of books prevents arguments and disparities o Negative: lack of books prevents knowledge, allows society to become passive and unquestioning like Guys wife Mildred, humans stop intellectual development and instead rely on simple entertainment that require minimal intellect or attention span o Is this a utopia for anyone? The ignorant, those invested in entertainment o Is this a dystopia for anyone? Those who own books or who are invested in intellectualism 1984 by George Orwell o Fundamental aspect of society: government is super controlling, watching everyone and changing information given to the public o Social commentary: fear of a totalitarian government, lack of privacy o Positives: passive population, fear of the government controls people into behaving the way they should

o Negatives: totalitarian government watches and manipulates the public, lack of individual thinking, lack of reading and writing, censorship, no privacy o Is this a utopia for anyone? The government, those in control o Is this a dystopia for anyone? Those who have thoughtcrime or want to exert free will Brave New World by Aldous Huxley o Fundamental aspect of society: humans are created to be a part of specific caste systems with specific functions o Social commentary: Henry Ford is revered, clear argument against mass production (assembly-line style), homogeneity, and consumerism, criticism of drugs and artificial selection (Gregor Mendels work, not genetic engineering not around yet) o Positives: genetic reproduction makes human beings efficient and created especially for their particular caste, creation of humans allows for better population control and no hunger, emphasis on caste structure leads to communal belonging, because people are placed exactly where they should be they have no envy or competition, because people are created they live good healthy lives and die feeling fulfilled without sadness o Negatives: human beings have no control, no emotion, no real human connection, no choice all is falsified and constructed o Is this a utopia for anyone? Those at the top of the caste (Alphas) o Is this a dystopia for anyone? Those at the bottom of the caste 5. [15 mins.] Step 4: Class sharing Great job in discussion, guys! Which group wants to go first to share what you discovered through your excerpt? Each group will choose a student from their group to present on their findings. I will pull up the T-chart on the computer. Each group will explain their findings, then we will fill in this chart together. I will ask students to give evidence for what they came up with. If they are incorrect, I will try to point them to particular parts of the text to push them in the right track. 6. [10 mins] Closure: Freewrite cool-down activity For the next ten minutes, I want you all to spend some time reflecting on social issues not in dystopian fiction, but in our own society. Take some time to think about the way our own society

is structured. Then, I want you to answer the following question: What is an aspect of our society that advantages some people and disadvantages others? Students will write for ten minutes in their journals. I will have them keep their journals in the classroom instead of taking them home so I can read what theyve written and how well theyve applied their knowledge to the real-world. Methods of Assessment: My observation of whole-group discussions and small-group discussions will help me assess how well students are collaborating and participating. (Objective 5E) Students analysis of The Hunger Games with my assistance will help me assess how well students are able to pick apart features of dystopian fiction and recognize the deeper underlying social issues (Objective 1C, 2A, 2B, 6D, 6E) Students finished group worksheets and explanation of the features in their dystopian excerpts will help me assess students ability to apply their textual analysis skills in relation to dystopian fiction (Objective 1C, 2A, 2B, 6D, 6E) Students journal entries will show me how well students can apply knowledge of social issues to the real world (4B) Students annotated excerpts will show me how well they are able to annotate dystopian texts for social characteristics (8C) Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students: Pin Zhang is an English Language Learner who moved to the US from Beijing two years ago. Pin Zhang, determined and sharp, has made significant gains toward his English development since coming to America. However, he still needs a lot of assistance in his language growth. He speaks very well but has difficulty writing and reading, particularly with in-depth reading comprehension. While other students are able to grasp basic thematic meaning from the texts they read, Pin Zhang often struggles just to get through the work. However, he is very lively during class discussion. He enjoys participating and generally gives good answers to fact-based questions. I anticipate that Pin Zhang will struggle with the textual analysis that occurs in this unit. As I mentioned previously, I will try to coordinate excerpts between reading levels of groups. I will probably give Pin Zhangs group a copy of The Giver because its language is easier to understand. In my construction of teams, I will have accounted for Pin Zhang as an English Language Learner student. If there are other students in the class who know Chinese, I will pair him with that student to provide assistance in Pin Zhangs native language if needed. I will also try to provide him with increased support throughout the unit.

In the annotation exercise, I may encourage him to annotate the text in Chinese the first few times he attempts to annotate. Because the purpose of annotation is to communicate with the text, forcing Pin Zhang to do so in English will stunt his communication and understanding. I think allowing him to complete this exercise in Chinese will enhance his grasp on the activity and textual analysis. Materials Needed: Computer and projector Student journals Student writing utensils Google Doc with T-chart Handouts of double-entry journal dystopian excerpts for students (The Giver, Feed, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World) 5 copies of dystopian text worksheets, one for each group Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers, handouts, etc.) Panem Propaganda from The Hunger Games film Propaganda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ6y98meKeU Propaganda in context: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl9aqZk4kFU Dystopian Text T-Chart The Hunger Games Issue Social commentary Advantages Disadvantages Utopia? Dystopia? Dystopian Text Worksheet Write the names of your group members here: The Giver Feed 1984 Brave New World Fahrenheit 451

What is your groups text?

What particular social issue is highlighted in your passage?

How might this text relate to our own society?

What are the advantages of this society?

What are the disadvantages of this society?

Who, if anyone, would view this society as a utopia?

Who, if anyone, would view this society as a dystopia?

Double-Entry journal excerpts from The Giver, Feed, Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451

The Giver by Lois Lowry Jonas closed his eyes again. He took a deep breath and sought the sled and the hill and the snow in his consciousness. There they were, with no effort. He was again sitting in that whirling world of snowflakes, atop the hill. Jonas grinned with delight, and blew his own steamy breath into view. Then, as he had been instructed, he looked down. He saw his own hands, furred again with snow, holding the rope. He saw his legs, and moved them aside for a glimpse of the sled beneath. Dumbfounded, he stared at it. This time it was not a fleeting impression. This time the sled had and continued to have, as he blinked, and stared at it again that same mysterious quality that the apple had had so briefly. And Fiona's hair. The sled did not change. It simply was whatever the thing was. Jonas opened his eyes and was still on the bed.

The Giver was watching him curiously. "Yes," Jonas said slowly. "I saw it, in the sled." "Let me try one more thing. Look over there, to the bookcase. Do you see the very top row of books, the ones behind the table, on the top shelf?" Jonas sought them with his eyes. He stared at them, and they changed. But the change was fleeting. It slipped away the next instant. "It happened," Jonas said. "It happened to the books, but it went away again." "I'm right, then," The Giver said. "You're beginning to see the color red." "The what?" The Giver sighed. "How to explain this? Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color. "There were a lot of colors, and one of them was called red. That's the one you are starting to see. Your friend Fiona has red hair quite distinctive, actually; I've noticed it before. When you mentioned Fiona's hair, it was the clue that told me you were probably beginning to see the color red."

"And the faces of people? The ones I saw at the Ceremony?" The Giver shook his head. "No, flesh isn't red. But it has red tones in it. There was a time, actually you'll see this in the memories later when flesh was many different colors. That was before we went to Sameness. Today flesh is all the same, and what you saw was the red tones. Probably when you saw the faces take on color it wasn't as deep or vibrant as the apple, or your friend's hair." The Giver chuckled, suddenly. "We've never completely mastered Sameness. I suppose the genetic scientists are still hard at work trying to work the kinks out. Hair like Fiona's must drive them crazy." Jonas listened, trying hard to comprehend. "And the sled?" he said. "It had that same thing: the color red. But it didn't change, Giver. It just was." "Because it's a memory from the time when color was." "It was so oh, I wish language were more precise! The red was so beautiful!" The Giver nodded. "It is." "Do you see it all the time?"

"I see all of them. All the colors." "Will I?" "Of course. When you receive the memories. You have the capacity to see beyond. You'll gain wisdom, then, along with colors. And lots more." Jonas wasn't interested, just then, in wisdom. It was the colors that fascinated him. "Why can't everyone see them? Why did colors disappear?" The Giver shrugged. "Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences." He thought for a moment. "We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others." "We shouldn't have!" Jonas said fiercely. The Giver looked startled at the certainty of Jonas's reaction. Then he smiled wryly. "You've come very quickly to that conclusion," he said. "It took me many years. Maybe your wisdom will come much more quickly than mine."

Feed by M. T. Anderson I missed the feed. I dont know when they first had feeds. Like maybe, fifty or a hundred years ago. Before that, they had to use their hands and their eyes. Computers were all outside the body. They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe. People were really excited when they first came out with feeds. It was all da da da, this big educational thing, da da da, your child will have the advantage, encyclopedias at their fingertips, closer than their fingertips, etc. Thats one of the great things about the feed-that you can be supersmart without even working. Everyone is supersmart now. You can look things up automatic, like science and history, like if you want to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit. Its more now, its not so much about the educational stuff but more regarding the fact everything that goes on, goes on the feed. All of the feedcasts and the instant news, that's on there, so theres all the entertainment I

was missing without the feed, like the girls were all missing their favorite feedcast, the show called Oh? Wow! Thing! which has all these kids like us who do stuff but get all pouty, which is what the girls go crazy for, the poutiness. But the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are. It can tell you how to get them, and help you make buying decisions that are hard, Everything we think and feel us taken by the corporations, mainly by data ones like Feedlink and Onfeed and American Feedware, and they make a special profile, one thats keyed just to you, and then they give it to you, and they give it to their branch companies or other companies buy them, and they can get to know what it is we need, so all you have to do is want something and theres a chance it will be yours. Of course, everyone is like, da da da, evil corporations, oh theyre so bad, we all say that, and we all know they control everything. I mean, its not great, because who knows what evil shit theyre up to. Everyone feels bad about that. But theyre the only way

to get all this stuff, and its no good getting pissy about it, because theyre still going to control everything whether you like it or not. Plus, they keep like everyone in the work employed, so its not like we could live without them. And its really great to know everything about everything whenever we want, to have it just like, in our brain, just sitting there.

1984 by George Orwell The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometre of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorillafaced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons. Winston turned round abruptly. He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen. He crossed the room into the tiny kitchen. By leaving the Ministry at this time of day he had sacrificed his lunch in the canteen, and he was aware that there was no food in the kitchen except a hunk of dark-coloured bread which had got to be saved for tomorrow's breakfast. He took down from the shelf a bottle of colourless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese ricespirit. Winston

poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine. Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. The next moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to look more cheerful. He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out on to the floor. With the next he was more successful. He went back to the living-room and sat down at a small table that stood to the left of the telescreen. From the table drawer he took out a penholder, a bottle of ink, and a thick, quartosized blank book with a red back and a marbled cover. For some reason the telescreen in the living-room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as was normal, in the end wall, where it could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting, and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold

bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went. He could be heard, of course, but so long as he stayed in his present position he could not be seen. It was partly the unusual geography of the room that had suggested to him the thing that he was now about to do. But it had also been suggested by the book that he had just taken out of the drawer. It was a peculiarly beautiful book. Its smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age, was of a kind that had not been manufactured for at least forty years past. He could guess, however, that the book was much older than that. He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it. Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary shops ('dealing on the free market', it was called), but the rule was not strictly kept, because there were various things, such as shoelaces and razor blades, which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way. He had given a quick glance up and down the street and then

had slipped inside and bought the book for two dollars fifty. At the time he was not conscious of wanting it for any particular purpose. He had carried it guiltily home in his briefcase. Even with nothing written in it, it was a compromising possession. The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp. Winston fitted a nib into the penholder and sucked it to get the grease off. The pen was an archaic instrument, seldom used even for signatures, and he had procured one, furtively and with some difficulty, simply because of a feeling that the beautiful creamy paper deserved to be written on with a real nib instead of being scratched with an ink-pencil. Actually he was not used to writing by hand. Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speakwrite which was of course impossible for his present purpose. He dipped the pen into the ink and then faltered for just a second. A tremor had gone through his bowels. To mark the paper was the decisive act. In small clumsy letters he

wrote:

April 4th, 1984.

He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984. It must be round about that date, since he was fairly sure that his age was thirty-nine, and he believed that he had been born in 1944 or 1945; but it was never possible nowadays to pin down any date within a year or two.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The nurses stiffened to attention as the D.H.C. came in. "Set out the books," he said curtly. In silence the nurses obeyed his command. Between the rose bowls the books were duly set outa row of nursery quartos opened invitingly each at some gaily coloured image of beast or fish or bird. "Now bring in the children." They hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eightmonth-old babies, all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky Group, it was evident) and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki. "Put them down on the floor." The infants were unloaded. "Now turn them so that they can see the flowers and books." Turned, the babies at once fell silent, then began to crawl towards those clusters of sleek colours, those shapes so gay and brilliant on the white pages. As they

approached, the sun came out of a momentary eclipse behind a cloud. The roses flamed up as though with a sudden passion from within; a new and profound significance seemed to suffuse the shining pages of the books. From the ranks of the crawling babies came little squeals of excitement, gurgles and twitterings of pleasure. The Director rubbed his hands. "Excellent!" he said. "It might almost have been done on purpose." The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal. Small hands reached out uncertainly, touched, grasped, unpetaling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books. The Director waited until all were happily busy. Then, "Watch carefully," he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal. The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever. There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded. The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror.

"And now," the Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), "now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock." He waved his hand again, and the Head Nurse pressed a second lever. The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires. "We can electrify that whole strip of floor," bawled the Director in explanation. "But that's enough," he signalled to the nurse. The explosions ceased, the bells stopped ringing, the shriek of the siren died down from tone to tone into silence. The stiffly twitching bodies relaxed, and what had become the sob and yelp of infant maniacs broadened out once more into a normal howl of ordinary terror. "Offer them the flowers and the books again." The nurses obeyed; but at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa black

sheep, the infants shrank away in horror, the volume of their howling suddenly increased. "Observe," said the Director triumphantly, "observe." Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocksalready in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly. What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder. "They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives." . The Director walked slowly down the long line of cots. Rosy and relaxed with sleep, eighty little boys and girls lay softly breathing. There was a whisper under every pillow. The D.H.C. halted and, bending over one of the little beds, listened attentively. "Elementary Class Consciousness, did you say? Let's have it repeated a little louder by the trumpet."

At the end of the room a loud speaker projected from the wall. The Director walked up to it and pressed a switch. " all wear green," said a soft but very distinct voice, beginning in the middle of a sentence, "and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta." There was a pause; then the voice began again. "Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able " The Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows. "They'll have that repeated forty or fifty times

more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson."

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury "Now let's take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic-books survive. And the three-dimensional sex-magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no

declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade-journals." "Yes, but what about the firemen, then?" asked Montag. "Ah." Beatty leaned forward in the faint mist of smoke from his pipe. "What more easily explained and natural? With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word `intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar. Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally 'bright,' did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn't it this bright boy you selected for beatings and tortures after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there

are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won't stomach them for a minute. And so when houses were finally fireproofed completely, all over the world (you were correct in your assumption the other night) there was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors. That's you, Montag, and that's me." The door to the parlour opened and Mildred stood there looking in at them, looking at Beatty and then at Montag. Behind her the walls of the room were flooded with green and yellow and orange fireworks sizzling and bursting to some music composed almost completely of trap-drums, tom-toms, and cymbals. Her mouth moved and she was saying something but the sound covered it. Beatty knocked his pipe into the palm of his pink hand, studied the ashes as if they were a symbol to be diagnosed and searched for meaning.

"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these." "Yes." Montag could lip-read what Mildred was saying in the doorway. He tried not to look at her mouth, because then Beatty might turn and read what was there, too. "Coloured people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Bum the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator. Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too. Five minutes after a person is dead he's on his way to the Big Flue, the Incinerators serviced by helicopters all over

the country. Ten minutes after death a man's a speck of black dust. Let's not quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them. Burn them all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean."