ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literature and Writing Videos 23 videos
Historical fiction novels like The Help can whisk you back to a place and time that you may have only read about in history books. Or... a place an...
In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Death narrates the story of one girl who lived during the Holocaust. Not surprisingly, it's kind of a downer—bu...
Brave New World is supposed be an exciting book about a negative utopia and the corrupt powers of authority. So where’s the big car chase? What's...
Fahrenheit 451 84302 Views
Share It!
Description:
Would would the world be like without books? Ray Bradbury tackles that question—and many more— in Fahrenheit 451 . Go ahead; read it on your Kindle.
Transcript
- 00:03
Fahrenheit 451, a la Shmoop.
- 00:07
The name's Guy Montag. [Montag in a forest]
- 00:09
Pleasure to meet you.
- 00:10
Who am I?
- 00:11
Well, I…I'm kind of reinventing myself right now.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
But I used to be a fireman. [Montag as a fireman]
- 00:16
And as a fireman, I took a solemn oath to uphold the universal book ban.
- 00:21
Translation?
- 00:22
I burned books.
- 00:23
So why am I here and not torching copies of Shakespeare?
- 00:27
Well, that's quite a story…and one that I don't intend to burn.
- 00:30
A while back, we received several complaints about contraband in the neighborhood. [Dog walks by a fireman]
- 00:34
We conducted a raid, and you wouldn't believe the stash we uncovered.
- 00:38
Seriously, this lady had 'quite a collection the type of books you don't burn everyday.
- 00:42
And sure maybe i pocketed one but, it was just one.. no big deal right?
- 00:47
…448, 449, 450… that's the sweet, book-burning temperature, for those of you who don't know. [Firemen collecting books]
- 00:54
Anyway, we're about to torch this lady's house, when we realize we have a small problem…
- 01:00
She won't leave.
- 01:01
She struck a match and did our job for us.. well before we knew what was happening.. the whole thing went up in flames [Woman lights a match]
- 01:10
I always enjoyed burning books, but after that?
- 01:13
Well, I wasn't feeling so hot.
- 01:15
…Pun mildly intended.
- 01:16
On my way home, I ran into my neighbor, Clarisse. [Montag bumps into Clarisse]
- 01:19
She put me on the hot seat about being a fireman.
- 01:22
She asked me if firemen used to put out fires and help people.
- 01:26
Then she asked me if I ever read the books before I burned them.
- 01:30
And finally, she asked me something I had never before considered: was I happy? [Clarisse asks Montag if he's happy]
- 01:35
Well….was I?
- 01:37
It got me thinking.
- 01:38
And pretty soon, I was thinking that maybe… it was time to close the book on my firefighting [Montag places helmet in trash]
- 01:43
career.
- 01:44
so I visited this guy named
- 01:47
Dr. Farber.
- 01:48
He was an English professor, way back when. [Dr Farber teaching English]
- 01:50
Surprisingly enough, he hadn't worked in years.
- 01:53
Dr. Farber warned me that a great war was brewing against rogue thinkers.
- 01:57
And when i later learned that Clarisse had been hit and killed by a car [Clarisse hit by car]
- 02:02
I started to think…maybe this wasn't the kind of world I wanted to
- 02:06
live in anymore.
- 02:08
Clarisse was right.
- 02:09
Our humanity was going down the tubes, and I was starting to notice. [Montag burning with books]
- 02:13
There were problems at home…
- 02:15
…and at work.
- 02:16
…And Captain Beatty was starting to read between the lines.
- 02:20
He caught me with a book, but I played cool and insisted it wasn't mine. [Captain Beatty snatches book from Montag]
- 02:24
I thought everything would be okay.
- 02:25
And I kept thinking that….right up until the fire truck stopped in front of my house.
- 02:31
But the funniest thing happened: I didn’t care anymore.
- 02:34
So what if my own wife called in the alarm? [Montag's wife and Captain Beatty stood outside house]
- 02:37
And so what if I had books?
- 02:39
I was seeing things in a whole new light.
- 02:41
And Captain Beatty?
- 02:43
Well…he won't be seeing much of anything anymore. [Montag sprays Beatty with a hose]
- 02:45
I knew I had to skip town, and fast.
- 02:48
People don’t take too kindly to burning your superiors alive.
- 02:51
So I ran, and I didn't stop running until I found these guys. [Montag running in a forest]
- 02:55
They're a bunch of intellectuals, lead by this man.
- 02:58
Goes by the name of "Granger."
- 03:00
Did I feel out of my league?
- 03:01
Sure.
- 03:02
These were people who had memorized classic literature.
- 03:05
I’ve only memorized a part of The Book of Ecclesiastes.
- 03:09
But…we all gotta start somewhere, right?
- 03:11
And now that the city's been bombed and everyone I knew is probably gone…well…somebody's [City bombed by plane flying above]
- 03:16
gotta be around to rebuild society
- 03:19
Why not me?
Related Videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
