Ray Bradbury

Add a comment with your reflections on this author.

11 comments:

Jack (McCarthy) said...

The author I chose for author thesis was Ray Bradbury. I learned about Bradbury from reading Fahrenheit 451 and enjoying it. I liked the science fiction feel to the book and thought a lot of his other books must be similar. Well, I was wrong, even though two of his books were similar and were good books, one of them was the complete opposite. I read Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dandelion Wine, and The Martian Chronicles. The two books I would recommend would be The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way because it was what I was expecting from Bradbury’s books after I read Fahrenheit 451. While, Dandelion Wine was the complete opposite and an outlier because it was more about the past and nature then about technology which was the main focus of the other two books. Although I struggled to connect the three books, I would definitely recommend doing Bradbury if you liked Fahrenheit 451. I would choose Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and another book because Dandelion Wine was not an entertaining book to read nor to write about.

Jonny (Dubé) said...

Although I enjoyed reading Bradbury's novels and short stories, when it came time to write my essay, I discovered that his themes were somewhat disjointed. The individual topics of his books are very interesting, but may not go well together. I read The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The October Country, and Dandelion Wine. My favorite Bradbury novel, Fahrenheit 451, which I read in eighth grade, I did not read because I felt that I should read new novels. Keep in mind that some of the short story collections are a bit of a pain to cite in your 'sources cited' page. Be warned that not all of Bradbury's novels are as much of a pleasure to read as Fahrenheit 451, and may not fit well together in an essay well. Overall, I would recommend a thesis encompassing multiple topics if writing about Bradbury.

Unknown said...

I loved Ray Bradbury as an author. He writes scientist ion novels with a tie it humanity that allows for a lot of options when writing this paper. A lot of his books are short stories so they are really fun to read and then never get boring. The only thing I didn't like was that the books were short so you have to read more than three books to meet the page requirement. I would definitely recommend Ray Bradbury as an author for this project.
~ Cece Saunders

Anonymous said...

Jessie O'Keefe
I overall enjoyed reading Bradbury's books. Bradbury is very into science fiction, and the themes mostly connect. I would advice you to choose your books and come up with a theme before you read them so you can know what you are going to write about and you can pick your books wisely. I read five books and I used three in my author thesis because the other two did not connect to my theme. I read Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked this way Comes, Halloween tree, and dandelion wine. I would not suggest reading dandelion wine because I had a very hard time understanding it and connecting it to my theme and I did not end up writing about it in my final paper. Overall I enjoyed Ray Bradbury's books.

Liza (Anderson) said...

You’ve probably heard of Ray Bradbury for his novel Fahrenheit 451, but after reading many of his books, I will remember him most for his many short stories. Because of this, it fairly easy to split up the workload (most of his works are around 250-300 pages.) I read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time for this project, and, based on what I had heard, I came into the project expecting to like that the most. But, I actually found that I loved his collection of short stories, The Martian Chronicles. Because Bradbury is a fairly well known author whose works are commonly read in schools, I think it is very important to go into the project with an open mind. That way, you can discover new insights to his stories and develop your own opinions instead of relying on past ideas.

AJ (schulz) said...

AJ (schulz) said

Honestly Ray Bradbury was a little challenging for me. His books are very complicated and the themes come up in an obvious way sometimes but others are not as easily shown. The themes might come up in subtle ways but can still be seen. The three books I read The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes are all good books which involve plot lines where the places and things involved would not happen in our society today. His works involve many characters that develop a lot throughout the books from beginning to end. He uses his characters to symbolize something about society.

Emily Zhang said...

I chose Ray Bradbury because I thoroughly enjoy reading science fiction and his books looked interesting to me. Bradbury was definitely the right author for me, as I enjoyed all the books I read. His novels are relatively short and extremely captivating -- I felt motivated to continue reading, so it’s essential to pick an author whose books appeal to you. I read The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, A Sound of Thunder and other Stories, and I Sing the Body Electric! and Other Stories. Most of the books I read are a collection of short stories, which is extremely helpful when it comes to pacing and managing your time. His books have a prominent theme that links them all together, so coming up with ideas for the paper wasn’t very difficult. One mistake I made when I first started reading his books was forming an idea of his theme before reading his books. I actually took an idea that I had read from one of the previous comments and searched for it throughout the first book I read. I advise you not to do this -- you should let the themes come to you, and you’ll be able to see connections and patterns as you go along, so don’t worry about that. Overall, I had a great experience with Author Thesis because I enjoyed Bradbury’s works. Just remember, take notes on only the most important/interesting quotes, because trying to make note of everything actually makes it more difficult to write your paper.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed the works of Ray Bradbury. A lot of his books are short stories so they are really fun to read and then never get boring. However because Ray Bradbury has written so many short stories, you will have to read at least ten short stories. This is no downside because the short stories are interesting and the themes connect to each other very well. I would recommend Ray Bradbury for the American Author Thesis. I read the Martian Chronicle, and a series of his science fiction short stories.

Artiom (McCarthy) said...

Ray Bradbury's works are very interesting and I enjoyed reading them. However, for the author thesis, using him as an author can be difficult because you have to work with short stories instead of full books. This makes it harder to refer to characters because they are constantly changing. I read The Martian Chronicles and The October Country - two of his short story collections. You have to remember specific events in various short stories. All in all, I still enjoyed reading the stories a lot and writing the paper, while it took a lot of thinking to remember events from a bunch of short stories, turned out to not be too bad.

Nicole (McCarthy) said...

I highly recommend using Ray Bradbury's works for author thesis, for I believe there are many strong themes represented in his works that are fairly understandable in order to analyze. Additionally, Bradbury has written many short stories that can be individually chosen to represent any given theme, especially technology . For instance, "The Martian Chronicles" is a collection of short stories that can be selected for evidence to your thesis that represents your own beliefs on Ray Bradbury's greater purpose to his writings. Next, Ray Bradbury's books are always extremely captivating for the reader, making the process of author thesis much more enjoyable. "The Illustrated Man" and the "Martian Chronicles" were filled with short stories that each had a unique motif, making my reading experience much more pleasant, and my writing experience more creative and personalized to my own thoughts on the book.

Kimberly Bishop said...

Reading Ray Bradbury's collections of short stories for author thesis was a wonderful choice. The theme's Bradbury writes about are very strong, cohesive, and applicable to today's society. I read The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and The Sound of Thunder & Other Short Stories. While all collections were a joy to read and I recommend all of them, my personal favorite was The Martian Chronicles. I have a very short attention span, so the layout of short stories instead of entire books was very helpful for me and wasn't overwhelming. Each short story was very unique, and although this may sound cliché; they kept me wanting to to read more. I would recommend taking notecards seriously and putting your best effort into them because my notecards made the writing portion of author thesis go by without much stress. Before author thesis I was terrified of the "workload and boredom" that my older sister claimed that I was sure to face, but I truly enjoyed reading and writing about Ray Bradbury. Author thesis helped me to find an author who I enjoy and gain a newfound love for science fiction. I am very excited to read more of Bradbury's works in my free time.

American Author Thesis

Now that you have written your essay, we ask that you reflect on the reading portion of the experience and write 100-150 words about your author.

Think of what you write as advice for someone next year and beyond, someone who (like you were doing last fall) is thinking about choosing your author - and maybe even the same three books - to read for the assignment.