Fahrenheit 451
...er swallow and wonders if she will forget later and take more. He feels terribly empty and concludes that the TV walls stand between him and his wife. He thinks about her TV "family," with its empty dramas of tenuous connections and transient, sensational images. He tells Mildred he hasn't seen Clarisse for four days and asks if she knows what happened to her. Mildred tells him the family moved away and that she thinks Clarisse was hit by a car and killed. Montag is sick the next morning, and the omnipresent stink of kerosene makes him vomit. He tells Mildred about burning the old woman and asks her if she would mind if he gave up his job for a while. He tries to make her understand his feelings of guilt at burning the woman and at burning the books, which represent so many people's lives and work, but she will not listen. He baits Mildred by insisting on discussing books and the last time something "bothered" her, but she resists. The argument ends when they see Captain Beatty coming up the front walk. Beatty's visit through the end of “The Hearth and the Salamander” Captain Beatty comes by to check on Montag, saying that he guessed Montag would be calling in sick that day. He tells Montag that every fireman runs into the "problem" he has been experiencing sooner or later, and he relates to him the history of their profession. Beatty's monologue borders on the hysterical, and his tendency to jump from one thing to another without explaining the connection makes his history very hard to follow. Part of the story is that photography, film, and television made it possible to present information in a quickly digestible, visual form, which made the slower, more reflective practice of reading books less popular. Another strand of his argument is that the spread of literacy, and the gigantic increase in the amount of published materials, created a pressure for books to be more like one another and easier to read (like Reader's Digest condensed books). Finally, Beatty says that "minorities" and special-interest groups found so many things in books objectionable that people finally abandoned debate and started burning books. Mildred's attention falters while Beatty is talking, and she gets up and begins absentmindedly straightening the room. In doing so, she finds the book behind Montag's pillow and tries to call attention to it, but Montag screams at her to sit down. Beatty pretends not to notice and goes on talking. He explains that eventually the public's demand for uncontroversial, easy pleasure caused printed matter to be diluted to the point that only comic books, trade journals, and sex magazines remained. Beatty explains that after all houses were fireproofed, the firemen's job changed from its old purpose of preventing fires to its new mission of burning the books that could allow one person to excel intellectually, spiritually, and practically over others and so make everyone else feel inferior. Montag asks how someone like Clarisse could exist, and Beatty says the firemen have been keeping an eye on her family because they worked against the schools' system of homogenization. Beatty reveals that he has had a file on the McClellans' odd behaviors for years and says that Clarisse is better off dead. Beatty urges Montag not to overlook how important he and his fellow firemen are to the happiness of the world. He tells him that every fireman sooner or later becomes curious about books; because he has read some himself, he can assert that they are useless and contradictory. Montag asks what would happen if a fireman accidentally took a book home with him, and Beatty says that he would be allowed to keep it for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, but that the other firemen would then come to burn it if he had not already done so himself. Beatty gets up to leave and asks if Montag will come in to work later. Montag tells him that he may, but he secretly resolves never to go again. After Beatty leaves, Montag tells Mildred that he no longer wants to work at the fire station and shows her a secret stock of about twenty books he has been hiding in the ventilator. In a panic, she tries to burn them, but he stops her. He wants to look at them at least once, and he needs her help. He searches for a reason for his unhappiness in the books, which he has apparently been stealing for some time. Mildred is frightened of them, but Montag is determined to involve her in his search, and he asks for forty-eight hours of support from her to look through the books in hopes of finding something valuable that they can share with others. Someone comes to the door, but they do not answer and he goes away. (Later it is revealed that the Mechanical Hound was the second visitor.) Montag picks up a copy of Gulliver's Travels and begins reading. The Sieve and the Sand Summary Opening through Montag's visit with Faber Montag and Mildred spend the afternoon reading. The Mechanical Hound comes and sniffs at the door. Montag speculates about what it was that made Clarisse so unique. Mildred refuses to talk about someone who is dead and complains that she prefers the people and the pretty colors on her TV walls to books. Montag feels that books must somehow be able to help him out of his ignorance, but he does not understand what he is reading and decides that he must find a teacher. He thinks back to an afternoon a year before when he met an old English professor named Faber in the park. It was apparent that Faber had been reading a book of poetry before Montag arrived. The professor had tried to hide the book and run away, but after Montag reassured him that he was safe, they talked, and Faber gave him his address and phone number. Now Montag calls the professor. He asks him how many copies of the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato are left in the country. Faber, who thinks Montag is trying to trap him, says none are left and hangs up the phone. Montag goes back to his pile of books and realizes that he took from the old woman what may be the last copy of the Bible in existence. He considers turning in a substitute to Beatty (who knows he has at least one book), but he realizes that if Beatty knows which book he took, the chief will guess that he has a whole library if he gives him a different book. He decides to have a duplicate made before that night. Mildred tells him that some of her friends are coming over to watch TV with her. Montag, still trying to connect with her, asks her rhetorically if the "family" on TV loves her. She dismisses his question. He takes the subway to Faber's, and on the way tries to memorize verses from the Bible. A jingle for Denham's Dentrifice toothpaste distracts him, and finally he gets up in front of all the passengers and screams at the radio to shut up, waving his book around. The astonished passengers start to call a guard, but Montag gets off at the next stop. Montag goes to Faber and shows him the book, which alleviates Faber's fear of him, and he asks the old man to teach him to understand what he reads. Faber says that Montag does not know the real reason for his unhappiness and is only guessing that it has something to do with books, since they are the only things he knows for sure are gone. Faber insists that it's not the books themselves that Montag is looking for, but the meaning they contain. The same meaning could be included in existing media like television and radio, but people no longer demand it. Faber compares their superficial society to flowers trying to live on flowers instead of on good, substantive dirt: people are unwilling to accept the basic realities and unpleasant aspects of life. Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. Faber says that people need quality information, the leisure to digest it, and the freedom to act on what they learn. He defines quality information as a textured and detailed knowledge of life, knowledge of the "pores" on the face of humanity. Faber agrees with Mildred that television seems more "real" than books, but he dislikes it because it is too invasive and controlling. Books at least allow the reader to put them down, giving one time to think and reason about the information they contain. Montag suggests planting books in the homes of firemen to discredit the profession and see the firehouses burn. Faber doesn't think that this action would get to the heart of the problem, however, lamenting that the firemen aren't really necessary to suppress books because the public stopped reading them of its own accord even before they were burned. Faber says they just need to be patient, since the coming war will eventually mean the death of the TV families. Montag concludes that they could use that as a chance to bring books back. Montag bullies Faber out of his cowardice by tearing pages out of the precious Bible one by one, and Faber finally agrees to help, revealing that he knows someone with a printing press who used to print his college newspaper. Montag asks for help with Beatty that night, and Faber gives him a two-way radio he has created that will fit in Montag's ear; that way the professor can hear what Beatty has to say and also prompt Montag. Montag decides to risk giving Beatty a substitute book, and Faber agrees to see his printer friend. After Montag's visit with Faber through the end of “The Sieve and the Sand” Montag withdraws money from his account to give to Faber and listens to reports over the radio that the country is mobilizing for war. Faber reads to him from the Book of Job over the two-way radio in his ear. He goes home, and two of Mildred's friends, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, arrive and promptly disappear into the TV parlor. Montag turns off the TV walls and tries to engage the three women in conversation. They reluctantly oblige him, but he becomes angry when they describe how they voted in the last presidential election, based solely on the physical appearance and other superficial qualities of the candidates. Their detached and cynical references to their families and the impending war angers him further. He brings out a book of poetry and shows it to them, despite their objections and Faber's (delivered via his ear radio). Mildred quickly concocts a lie, explaining that a fireman is allowed to bring home one book a year to show to his family and prove what nonsense books are. Faber orders Montag to take the escape route Mildred has provided by agreeing with her. Refusing to be deterred, Montag reads the women "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold. Mrs. Phelps, who has just told everyone quite casually about her husband's departure for the oncoming war, bursts into tears, and Mrs. Bowles declares the cause to be the evil, emotional messiness of poetry. She denounces Montag for reading it. Montag drops the book into the incinerator at Faber's prompting. He yells at Mrs. Bowles to go home and think about her empty life, and both women leave. Mildred disappears into the bedroom. Montag discovers that she has been burning the books one by one, and he rehides them in the backyard. Montag feels guilty for upsetting Mildred's friends and wonders if they are right in focusing only on pleasure. Faber tells him that he would agree if there were no war and all was right with the world, but that those realities call for attention. Montag heads off to the fire station, and Faber both scolds and consoles him on the way. Montag hands his book over to Beatty, who throws it into the trashcan without even looking at the title and welcomes him back after his period of folly. Beatty browbeats Montag with a storm of literary quotations to confuse him and convince him that books are better burned than read. Montag is so afraid of making a mistake with Beatty that he cannot move his feet. Faber tells him not to be afraid of mistakes, as they sharpen the mind. An alarm comes through, and Beatty glances at the address and takes the wheel of the fire engine. They arrive at their destination, and Montag sees that it is his own house. Burning Bright Summary Opening through second visit with Faber Montag gazes at Clarisse's empty house, and Beatty, guessing that he has fallen under her influence, berates him for it. Mildred rushes out of the house with a suitcase and is driven away in a taxi, and Montag realizes she must have called in the alarm. Beatty orders Montag to burn the house by himself with his flamethrower and warns that the Hound is on the watch for him if he tries to escape. Montag burns everything, and when he is finished, Beatty places him under arrest. Beatty sees that Montag is listening to something and strikes him on the head. The radio falls out of Montag's ear, and Beatty picks it up, saying that he will have it traced to find the person on the other end. After Beatty eggs him on with more literary quotations, his last a quote from Julius Caesar, Montag turns his flamethrower on Beatty and burns him to a crisp. The other firemen do not move, and he knocks them out. The Mechanical Hound appears and injects Montag's leg with anesthetic before he manages to destroy it with his flamethrower. Montag stumbles away on his numb leg. He goes to where he hid the books in his backyard and finds four that Mildred missed. He hears sirens approaching and tries to continue...