My school is requiring me to write a 4000 word essay, a rough draft of which is due in a few weeks. I really want to write it about Fahrenheit 451, but I've been told that it would be nearly impossible to achieve a 4000 word paper on this book alone. I've considered writing about a number of topics:
1) Alienation in F451 --> When people overindulge themselves in entertainment, technology, and escapist activities then social development suffers. A sort of isolation without isolation (surrounded by people but can't connect with any of them) occurs.
2) Resistance against conformity imposed by peers and mass media.
3) Criticism of American attitudes towards and dependence on technology. Examining the extent to which technology can be used for social control.
These were my previous ideas that were deemed too short and not quite good enough for the level/length of paper I will be writing. Not to mention I'm having trouble expanding on them myself. Could anyone please help me? Suggestions as to alternate topics or ideas/resources on how to expand on the ones I've mentioned would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Why not expand the scope of one of your ideas? For example, why not write about alienation, not in F451, but in *the works of Ray Bradbury*? Of course, this may be *too* broad, especially if you have only a few weeks... Good luck!

Since I don't know what class your paper is for, I don't know what topic would be best, but the one that keeps coming up for me is censorship--the lengths to which some people will go to impose it and others to defeat it at risk to all they have. I keep going back to a news report done in Afghanistan just after the Taliban was lifted (banished, driven out, or whatever is the word.) A burned-out theater was shown, charred pieces of film in the rubbish. Yet a man who worked there, at risk to his life, had saved certain films dealing with the country's history, "for the children" of the future, to know their past. The people put on a play (forbidden during the Taliban) whose cast included women (forbidden to even go out during the Taliban) in what was now an essentially open-air, bring-your-own-seat theater. The message was one of hope for a better future. What better real-life example for the ideas expressed in "Fahrenheit 451"?

Thank you so much for the two ideas Both are helpful to me. I especially like yours, dandelion. Tying the book into modern events would be perfect for my class. Gracias!