Color Key:

Blue: Quote
Green: Claim
Yellow: Key Statement
Red: Key Part of Question

Socratic Seminar Prep:

​ Claims:
●​ Illusion: Both Fahrenheit 451 and the Allegory of the cave imply that
society often accepts illusions or false realities as truth because it is a
more comfortable belief than reality.
○​ Quote 1: (451) “And I should think you’d consider me sometimes. If
we had a fourth wall, why, it’d be just like this room wasn’t ours at
all, but all kinds of exotic people’s rooms. We could do without a
few things.” (Bradbury, 18)
■​ People are constantly absorbed in shallow forms of
entertainment such as the parlor walls/fear books
because they disrupt the illusion of happiness.
●​ Mildred is willing to give up a lot in order to get the final
parlor wall, so she can become absorbed in the
superficial lives of fake people rather than live her
own life.
○​ Quote 2: “To them I said, the truth would literally be nothing but
the shadows of the images. That is certain.” (Plato, 2)
■​ People accept the shadows of the cave as reality because it
is more comfortable than the unknown/reject the man who
leaves the cave and tries to show them the real world.
●​ Enlightenment: Transformation/Enlightenment is often painful and is
often shunned in society, even though it leads to true freedom.
○​ Quote 1: “I've meant to talk to you about her. Strange… McCellan.
McClellan. Run over by a car, Four days ago. I’m not sure. But I
think she’s dead. The family moved out anyway. I don’t know. But I
think she’s dead.” (Bradbury, 44)
■​ Those who have books, or try to do anything real or learn
anything are thought to be crazy (Clarisse) and are
shunned by the rest of society.
●​ Clarise may be one of those more enlightened
individuals in society, but because she is what leads
to her death. (She was a pedestrian being hit by a
 car, and being a pedestrian like that is frowned upon
by society because of people like her)
●​ (Unrelated but the short sentence structures here
show how inconsequential Mildred thinks this
person’s death is, and how she moves so quickly
from topic to topic shows how she doesn’t deeply
care about much of it at all)
○​ Quote 2: “And if he is compelled to look straight at the light will he
not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take
refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will
conceive in reality clearer than the things shown to him?” (Plato,
3)
■​ The prisoner had to go through pain in order to become
enlightened, and even though he is initially scared of the
pain and tries to seek solace in what he is familiar with, the
desire for true knowledge is too strong and he leaves the
cave anyway to seek it, even though he will be ridiculed by
the others later.
●​ Knowledge: Knowledge is dangerous to those in power/makes people
question control
○​ Quote 1: “The books are there to remind us what asses and fools
we are. They’re Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the
parade roars down the avenue. ‘Remember Caesar, thou art
mortal’” (Bradbury, 82)
■​ The Gov. fears books because they contain contradicting
thoughts and allow for deep thinking.
●​ Faber is explaining that books challenge human
pride/certainty, confront contradictions, mistakes,
and uncomfortable truths. (exactly what the Gov.
wants to suppress)
○​ Once Montag begins to think deeply/critically,
he challenges society and authority leading him
to become a fugitive.
○​ Quote 2: (Cave)”And if there were a contest and he had to
compete in measuring the shadows with prisoners who had
never moved out of the den, while his eyesight was still weak, and
before his eyes had become steady.. [m]en would sa.. that it was
better not even to think of ascending” (Plato, 6)
 ■​ The returning prisoner is seen as a threat to the reality
that all the other prisoners have already accepted.
■​ The other prisoners mock the escaped prisoner because
his new understanding doesn’t match their preferred
reality.
●​ Those who believe they are knowledgeable: Those who believe they are
knowledgeable are often most trapped in the illusion.
○​ Quote 1: “A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep or taste
not the Pierian spring. Three shallow draughts intoxicate the
brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” (Beatty quoting
Alexander Pope) (Bradbury, 102)
■​ Beatty quotes books easily, and “understands” what they
mean and can do. However, he uses this knowledge to
argue against reading/books/knowledge. He believes that
he is wise, but he is being manipulated by society as well,
and is instead using knowledge to manipulate others
(Montag) to maintain control
○​ Quote 2: (Cave)
■​ The prisoners believe that the shadows are reality, and are
completely subject to what the puppeteers show them.
Because they refuse to believe the escaped prisoner of
what reality actually is, they are showing that they are
trapped inside the illusion of reality.

Questions/Answers
1. ​ Why do people in Fahrenheit 451 and the prisoners in Plato’s cave

choose to remain in illusion even when the truth is available?

a.​ They find comfort in the illusions, and they believe they have a
sense of control, because it is all they have known. The unknown
can often be frightening and disorienting and often requires
effort and a desire to know the unknown, something that the
characters in both texts are unwilling to face.

2. ​ How can we tell the difference between true knowledge and the illusion

of knowledge?

a.​ Based on these stories, true knowledge is often something

uncomfortable, questionable, and complex. Illusion is much easier
to understand and believe, and true knowledge challenges these
 beliefs. Questioning what you “know” is often the first step to
understanding/unlocking true knowledge.

3. ​ What does Montag’s transformation reveal about the cost of pursuing

truth in an unthinking society?

a.​ Truth seekers must be willing to lose everything in the pursuit of

truth. This includes family, security, and identity. In the pursuit of
truth, Montag is rejected by his wife, hunted by the government,
and forced to abandon his home. However, this allows him to gain
a greater clarity and purpose to his life. He had to sacrifice
everything, but even though the cost is high, the reward is a
greater sense of freedom and hope.

4. ​ In both The Allegory of the Cave and Fahrenheit 451, those who become

enlightened are alienated—why does society fear or reject those who

seek deeper truth?

a.​ In both stories, society rejects the “enlightened” individuals, or

those who try to become enlightened. This is because they
threaten the life that they have always lived, and everything they
currently believe in. People fear the truth, because the road to
discovering it would force them to change/confront things they
would rather not. Enlightenment brings isolation (which many
people fear) and most people would rather stay comfortable than
confront possibly uncomfortable realities.

Modern Connection:
Controlling reality through illusions:

In the Plato’s Allegory of a Cave, the prisoners can only see a reflection
of reality. This is similar to what the “Great Firewall” of China does. It controls
what people see, and they are oblivious to any websites or search engines
that have not been approved. This is similar to the prisoners in the cave only
being able to see shadows of reality, as people in China cannot see the whole
reality of the internet/world. The government that is controlling the internet
is similar to the puppeteers in the allegory, as they are controlling exactly
what the general public sees, only giving them the ‘shadows’ of what the
world is really like. The people are similar to the prisoners again because they
fully believe what the internet is telling them, because they have never known
anything different. The prisoners have never known​