Fahrenheit 451, the Butchery of Figurative Language, and the CCSS

Every time that I’ve taught Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, one of my opinions of the book remains the same: Bradbury kidnaps the use of figurative language, beats it to death, and then lights it on fire and defenestrates it. Once I finish reading Fahrenheit each year, I don’t want to see another example of simile, metaphor, or personification for at least a few months.

Why Teach a Book You Don’t Enjoy?

The first reason that I read Fahrenheit with my students is because it’s part of the standard Freshman Comp & Lit curriculum at our school. I want my students to be a part of conversations that are larger than my class and that extend beyond my class. Similarly, I want their future teachers to have an easy time finding a reference point, and novels shared across a grade level provide such common ground.

Another reason I teach the book is because it is fertile ground for all kinds of great debate. Though Bradbury seems to do his best to hide what he’s talking about beneath his lavish use of figurative language, this book could be used as a diving board into debates on topics as wide-ranging as whether political involvement matters, the dumbing down of politics in the USA, the effects of widespread pornography use, the dumbing down of reading, the dumbing down of school, whether its all right to feel dumb sometimes, the effect of technology on our society, and is fun everything? These are all arguments that can be based solidly in the text itself and extratextual sources (I recommend starting at TheWeek.com, and they don’t pay me to say that).

But finally, I teach Fahrenheit because, despite my dislike for Bradbury’s style, I have found that my students can learn a lot about language through reading this novel, especially when I am honest with them about my personal hatred for the overuse of figurative language.

But wait, you exclaim–you’re an English teacher! Surely you know that it’s impossible to overuse wonderfully clever things like metaphors and similes and personification! Hand over your credentials immediately, you absurd man!

Now that we’re past the outrage, let me explain. In most modes of writing that the college and career ready (CCR) student will encounter, figurative language will be effective only if it is used intentionally and sparingly (within the Language strand, there are two standards that I think this relates to: L.CCR.3 and L.CCR.4 [see notes below]). Thus, Fahrenheit 451 creates some great conversations towards bringing students to this understanding.

CCSS Anchor Standards Mentioned in this Post:

• L.CCR.3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts,to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
  • In other words, when is figurative language appropriate? How can figurative language be used to meet your task without impeding your purpose as a writer? How and when can figurative language strengthen your writing in a lab report or an email to colleagues? How and when can such language detract from your writing?
• L.CCR.5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
  • F451 forces kids to deal grapple with understanding boatloads of nuanced word meanings, word relationships, and figurative language. However, you’ve got to teach the book well at the beginning, otherwise kids won’t read it and they’ll write in the margins of the book, as one of my students did, “This book sucks ____.” On the bright side, notice that this young vandal used figurative language in his/her graffiti!

Related articles

• ‘A Test You Need to Fail’: A Teacher’s Open Letter to Her 8th Grade Students – by Ruth Ann Dandrea (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 & The People’s Tyranny (idpm.wordpress.com)
• One-star reviews of Fahrenheit 451 will make you want to burn everything down [Holy Crap Wtf] (io9.com)
• Bee Duffell (L) and Francois Truffaut on the set of Fahrenheit 451 (1966) (manonmona.wordpress.com)
• The Figurative Language of Simile and Metaphor: Which is Which? (teacherwriter.net)

CCR Anchor Standards in Language: An Overview

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, on to the final set of anchor standards in the Common Core State Standards” (CCSS) ELA document: the language standards. These are first found on page 25. The question these anchor standards seek to answer is, “What should a college and career-ready (CCR) person be able to do with language, particularly in terms of conventions and vocabulary?”

How are the Anchor Standards for Language Organized?

Similar to the anchor standards in speaking and listening, there are 6 language anchor standards and they are broken up into 3 groups:

1. Conventions of Standard English (L.CCR.1-2*)
2. Knowledge of Language (L.CCR.3)
3. Vocabulary Acquisition and Use (L.CCR.4-6)

To paraphrase, these anchor standards are dedicated to answering these questions:

1. When needed, can you write and speak using the conventions of standard English grammar and usage? When needed, can you write with conventional capitalization, punctuation, and spelling?
2. Can you use language as a tool for conveying meaning effectively? In other words, can you use language well enough so that the language gets out of the way and the ideas get communicated?
3. Do you recognize when words have multiple meanings? Can you clarify how a particular word is being used by an author or speaker? Are you able to make sense of figurative language and nuanced word meanings? Do you habitually acquire and accurately use vocabulary when it is used by an author or speaker?

The language anchor standards make pure communication possible. Without them, our students will continuously run into frustration when they’re trying to communicate something in the workplace or in college. Of all the strands of anchor standards, these are the least sexy but perhaps the most fundamental. Your students can practice the other strands without having the language standards in place, but its inarguable that these standards are necessary to allow students the greatest chance to flourish.

*The CCSS use the following format for notating anchor standards: [Strand, i.e., Reading or Writing or Speaking and Listening or Language].[College and Career Ready, i.e., this is what kids should be able to do when they graduate; see my post on anchor standards].[Number of the standard]. So, the fifth anchor standard in the Speaking and Listening strand would be SL.CCR.5, and the ninth anchor standard in the Writing strand would be W.CCR.9.