Denham's Dentifrice

Essential Question:

How does being constantly pounded with advertising (and action movies, and music, and general Loudness) sedate the populace?

Next Gen Common Core Standards:

• 9-10R1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences; develop questions for deeper understanding and for further exploration.

• 9-10R5: In literary texts, consider how varied aspects of structure create meaning and affect the reader. In informational texts, consider how author’s intent influences particular sentences, paragraphs, or sections

Objectives:

• I can analyze Bradbury’s depictions of constant aural assault used to pacify the populace.

• I can compare the effect of aural bombardment on Montag with the effect on the reader of Bradbury’s descriptions.

Preparation/Instructional Materials and Resources:

• Video/audio from Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out (2015)

  • The scenes where they send the gum commercial to the brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv6oplOzgkQ

  • See above

• Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

  • Text pp73-76

  • The subway scene with the Denham's Dentifrice ad

  • Audiobook excerpt

• An Exciting Mystery Audio File

  • Long periods of silence punctuated by occasional blasts of DENHAM’S DENTIFRICE and TRIPLE-DENT GUM, totalling to about half an hour

  • See above

• Text-Dependent Questions worksheet

  • See below

Anticipatory set:

• “Who can remind us what we did yesterday?”

• Play the scenes from Inside Out where they keep sending the TripleDent Gum commercial to the brain

  • “If you’re trying to think and a commercial keeps intruding on your thoughts, that’s gotta be frustrating, right? If they’re playing the commercial super loud so you can’t even hear yourself think, and then even when you’re in a quiet place where you can think, you keep thinking about the commercial?”

Procedures for Instruction:

• Distribute Text-Dependent Questions worksheet

• Read/play the subway scene.

  • Denham’s Dentifrice.

• Start playing An Exciting Mystery Audio File in the background for the rest of the class.

  • Turn the volume up.

• Go over Text-Dependent Questions worksheet – small group discussion and individual worksheet completion

  • “What’s happening in today’s reading?”

    • Montag is trying to read (/ kind of trying to memorize) the Bible, which is of course banned, and the Denham’s Dentifrice commercial is playing too loud for him to be able to read or think.

    • Which is of course by design: the government controls/sedates the minds of the populace by blasting them with sound. (The corporations are part and parcel of the government, or at least working in cahoots, in Bradbury’s world.)

  • Read aloud the two paragraphs on p42 where Montag tries Mildred’s TV

    • Comparisons between the two scenes?

    • They’re both so much noise and action that the brain is not left free to think, only to Experience.

  • How does Bradbury bring the reader into the experience?

    • Repetition, as you might notice also happening in the worksheet and the Exciting Mystery Audio File playing in the background.

• Collect worksheet

Closure:

• “How did the frequent interruptions to class time make us feel?”

  • Annoyed, I bet.

Denham’s Dentifrice Text-Dependent Questions Worksheet

1. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do?

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2. What does the advertisement for Denham’s Dentifrice do? 

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3. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do?

__________________________

4. How does the Denham’s Dentifrice advertisement on the subway relate to the scene on p42 where Montag tries Mildred’s TV? 

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5. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do?

__________________________

6. Why might the government and the corporations seek to leave the populace numb and overwhelmed? 

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7. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do?

__________________________

8. What are some words, phrases, or techniques that Bradbury uses to put the reader in the same mindset as Montag? 

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9. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do? 

__________________________

10. What’s an example of media today that numbs the senses in the way advertising and television do in Bradbury’s world? 

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11. What does Denham’s Dentifrice do? 

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