1. The author indicates the importance of the number 451 and the fireman's job by saying "With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head" and "He tapped the numerals 451 stitched on his char-colored sleeve." 2. This introduction goes against conventional wisdom and signal to the reader because instead of putting out the fires, the firemen are the people actually burning the books. 3. The author indicates that Montag has a daring, or rebellious streak in his character by letting the readers know that Montag keeps some of the books at his house, instead of burning them like his job requires him to. 4. Montag would have the symbols on his clothing because it shows importance to the event of burning books. The number 451 is relevant …show more content…
because it is the temperature that books burn at. The importance of the firefighters was to burn books because in this era, they were banned. 5. The character of Clarisse McClennan differentiated from Montag because Clarisse comes off as being a more private person who answers questions more vaguely in order to not reveal much about herself. Also, their ways of thinking differ because Clarisse thinks more about her emotions, but Montag thinks and relates everything to his job. 6.The hints that are given by the author about other dimensions to Montag's character are when he mysteriously hides something behind the grill and when he fakes his happiness. 7. When the reader first encountered Mildred, she was in bed sleeping after she had overdosed on her pills. 8. Because Mildred overdosed, the type of medical help given to Mildred was to have her stomach pumped of all the poisons. 9. The purpose served by the electronic thimble earpieces was to block out the thinking going on in her brain so she could focus only on the entertainment. The televisors or talking walls in Montag's house were used to make Mildred feel more connected to the fictional character, as if she was a part of their world. 10.
The mechanical Hound is a program controlled dog that is used to track down its prey and to hunt for the illegal books that are burned by the firefighters. The Hound and Montag do not have a good relationship because the hound will growl and threaten to attack if Montag comes near. Montag believes that somebody has programmed the hound to react with anger toward him. 11. The significance of the mechanical Hounds attack towards Montag is that someone must have programmed the hound to react negatively toward Montag. 12. When Montag's team is called to a fire in an old house they find a woman with many books hidden in her house. The woman clearly felt as if books were something that must be saved because when the firefighters were going to burn her house, she refused to leave. She was willing to die for what she believed in.The literary term that is spoken by the old woman is “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall ever be put out.”(33) 13. Captain Beatty says “A man named Latimer said that to a man named Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy , on October 16, 1555.”(37) about the quotation when they return to the firehouse. The incident shows that Captain Beatty had once been educated by books because he acknowledged the old womans behavior as human
resistance. 14. When Montag gets home from the fire at the old womans, Montag feels an infection on his hands that he thinks will soon spread due to handling the book. Montag senses the Mechanical Hound in the dark outside,which signifies that he is monitored. When he looks out he finds the Mechanical Hound. 15. Captain Beatty tells Montag that at some point, every fireman deals with an illness, but all they really need is some history to further understand their own profession. He goes on to tell Montag how firemen used to put out fires but when fireproof houses were invented, they got assigned to a new duty. Beatty says that firemen exist to burn away the ideas that might make someone in society upset. 16. When Captain Beatty is talking about Clarisse's disappearance he says that the state watched her family. He describes the family as “odd ducks”, saying that they had gotten a few false alarms about having books while they lived in Chicago. Clarisse herself was said to be “a time bomb” because of the way she questioned society. 17. Beatty puts the responsibility of burning books on the "minorities". Beatty describes them as people who had a dislike for something or an idea, which then turned into the extinction of books. 18. Montag reveals to Mildred that he had been hiding books behind the grill. 19. Mildred's reaction when Montag reads from the first book is that Captain Beatty had been right. Books are just a bunch of nonsense and do not mean anything. This indicates that Mildred is more stubborn and it is unlikely that she will change her life in any way. 20. Some of the science-fiction elements depicted in this section of the book are the televisors, the government's way of controlling people, the mechanical hound, and the seashell. 21. The thematic concepts or thematic ideas that have been introduced in the story are censorship, life versus death, animal imagery, and religion. Part 2: 1. Just before the mechanical Hound comes to the house, Montag is reading a letter by James Boswell and The Life of Samuel Johnson. The arrival of the Mechanical Hound to Montag’s house indicates that there is some suspicion towards Montag having books in his home. Montag quickly reacts by telling his wife to say that Montag is ill, while he hides from the Hound. 2. When Montag hears the jets go by overhead, he gets anxious because he realizes that war may be upon their world. 3. The memory that comes as a source of help to Montag is when he recalls the professor he had talked to, named Faber, who had smuggled books into his possession. While talking to Faber, Montag had gotten his number and address. 4. Faber refuses to answer Montag’s questions on the phone because Faber believes that Montag might be trying to trap him. 5. The significance of the conversation between Montag and Mildred before Montag leaves the house is that there is some confirmation that their relationship is over due to the fact that they have such different ideas and opinions. Mildred says “Fool, Montag, fool, fool, oh God you silly fool…”(110) The conversation ended in silence before Montag had to depart. 6. On the subway, Montag was trying the memorize the bible before he had to return it to Captain Beatty. As he is reading, an advertisement for toothpaste, “Denham's Dentifrice”, comes on and distracts his train of thought and Montag started to get extremely annoyed by the toothpaste jingle. Montag waved his book in the air and yelled at the radio on the subway, which almost gets Montag in trouble by a guard. 7. Faber explains about his past life that,as a professor, he was a coward for not doing everything he could to prevent the banning of books. 8. When Faber talks about Jesus, he says that he is no longer viewed as an important religious figure, but rather a person on the parlor walls and to use for advertisements. This says that the controllers of society have placed themselves in a position of such high authority that they are even in control religion. 9. Montag believes that books can make him happy because in the era when books were not banned, people seemed to happy, but now people are not as happy, and books are the only thing that people in this era no longer own. Another reason that Montag thought books would make him happy, was because he witnessed the old woman who died for books. He figured, if she was willing to die for the thing that she believed in, then there must've been something in books that strongly affected her life for the better. 10. The three factors that Faber cites as being crucial to happiness are the "Number One: quality of information. Number Two: leisure to digest it. Number Three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."(81)
In part one, “The Hearth and The Salamander”, Montag hasn’t really taken an interest in the books he’s burning. All he really knows is that he must burn every house
In the 1950 novel Fahrenheit 451, AUTHOR Ray Bradbury presents the now familiar images of mind controlING worlds. People now live in a world where they are blinded from the truth of the present and the past. The novel is set in the, perhaps near, future where the world is AT war, and firemen set fires instead of putting them out. Books and written knowledge ARE banned from the people, and it is the firemen's job to burn books. Firemen are the policemen of THE FUTURE. Some people have rebelled by hiding books, but have not been very successful. Most people have conformed to THE FUTURE world. Guy Montag, a fireman, is a part of the majority who have conformed. BUT throughout the novel Montag goes through a transformation, where he changes from a Conformist to a Revolutionary.
Once Montag witnesses the unethical extent that the firemen would go through to destroy the existence of books, he realizes how corrupt and unjust the societal rules were. “He looked with dismay at the floor. ‘We burned an old woman with her books” (47).
When one fears what one does not understand, he often becomes defensive, avoiding it at all costs. This is the problem facing Guy Montag; his society absolutely deplores challenge. Anything that can be perceived as offensive is banished. In their eyes, books are cursed objects which make people think. Without literature, the public’s thought is suppressed, and they live mindless lives. In the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Beatty is the captain of the firemen. As a fireman, Beatty acts as the controlling arm for this suppression. He is the one harshly guiding the public towards apathy by burning their books. However, when seen as just a man, Beatty is not important. He is one fireman against millions of books. He is important because of what he represents to Montag, which is: the censorship of information, an impetus to learn, and what
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by author Ray Bradbury we are taken into a place of the future where books have become outlawed, technology is at its prime, life is fast, and human interaction is scarce. The novel is seen through the eyes of middle aged man Guy Montag. A firefighter, Ray Bradbury portrays the common firefighter as a personal who creates the fire rather than extinguishing them in order to accomplish the complete annihilation of books. Throughout the book we get to understand that Montag is a fire hungry man that takes pleasure in the destruction of books. It’s not until interacting with three individuals that open Montag’s eyes helping him realize the errors of his ways. Leading Montag to change his opinion about books, and more over to a new direction in life with a mission to preserve and bring back the life once sought out in books. These three individual characters Clarisse McClellan, Faber, and Granger transformed Montag through the methods of questioning, revealing, and teaching.
Bradbury first depicted fire as a hurtful force through Montag, a fireman, who burn books. With the converted mentality of his culture, “it was [Montag’s] pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (3). Montag’s culture sees burning as an enjoyment; however, the fire portrayed here demonstrates the destruction of knowledge and personality. While Montag’s profession brings him joy he does not understand that burning is the most permanent form of destruction. He is oblivious to his governments’ strong desire to eliminate the ideas and knowledge that books hold. In this society, where ignorance is bliss and their phobia of unhappiness controls all aspects of life, people believe that their destructive fire “is bright and…clean”, as it is used as a means to keep themselves oblivious and happy (60). In addition, Bradbury establishes the difference in the symbolisms of fire by naming part one of his novel “The Hearth and the Salamander”. The hearth is the fireplace of the home and is the most positive image of fire. This fire contributes warmth and restores relationships between people. The salamander, the symbol of the firemen, and who personify fire’s destruction is contrasted with the hearth, which represents restoration.
Montag is realizing wrong his world really is. He wants to change it too. He says “ Im going to do something, I dont know what yet but im going t do something big.” He doesnt know what to do yet because at this point he hasnt figured out the “missing peice”. Montag says “ I dont know. we have everything we need to be happy, but we arent happy. Something is missing.” then he starts to understand that books are the key to knowladge and knowledge is what they need. he says “There must be something in books that we cant imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there, you dont stay for nothing.” And this is the turning point of the book because now montag is ready to take
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
Montag was known as being a firefighter, meaning his job was to burn books to cease independent thought throughout society, but after realizing he really wasn’t happy the way the world was run, he went against it. Montag was stashing books in
To start, the novel Fahrenheit 451 describes the fictional futuristic world in which our main protagonist Guy Montag resides. Montag is a fireman, but not your typical fireman. In fact, firemen we see in our society are the ones, who risk their lives trying to extinguish fires; however, in the novel firemen are not such individuals, what our society think of firemen is unheard of by the citizens of this futuristic American country. Instead firemen burn books. They erase knowledge. They obliterate the books of thinkers, dreamers, and storytellers. They destroy books that often describe the deepest thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Great works such as Shakespeare and Plato, for example, are illegal and firemen work to eradicate them. In the society where Guy Montag lives, knowledge is erased and replaced with ignorance. This society also resembles our world, a world where ignorance is promoted, and should not be replacing knowledge. This novel was written by Ray Bradbury, He wrote other novels such as the Martian chronicles, the illustrated man, Dandelion wine, and something wicked this way comes, as well as hundreds of short stories, he also wrote for the theater, cinema, and TV. In this essay three arguments will be made to prove this point. First the government use firemen to get rid of books because they are afraid people will rebel, they use preventative measures like censorship to hide from the public the truth, the government promotes ignorance to make it easier for them to control their citizens. Because the government makes books illegal, they make people suppress feelings and also makes them miserable without them knowing.
First if all, one ironic example in the story is the fact that firemen are starting fires when they burn books, when firemen are supposed it put fires out. On page 8, Bradbury writes as Clarisse argues softly with Montag,
It is only once in a while a book comes along so great in its message, so frightening in its inferred meaning’s of fire as in Fahrenheit 451. Fire, which is used as a symbol of chaos, destruction, and death, can also lead to knowledge. Fire has 3 different meanings. Fire represents change, which is shown through Montag’s symbolic change from using fire to burn knowledge into using fire to help him find knowledge; fire can represent knowledge as demonstrated through Faber, and fire can represent rebirth of knowledge as shown through the phoenix. Fire represents change in the novel because fire allows Montag to undergo a symbolic change in which he stops using fire to burn knowledge but instead help him find it.
“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” -Stephen Chbosky. Fire has many symbolic meanings throughout the novel and throughout history. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, he uses fire symbolism to represent Montag’s view of fire throughout the novel. Warmth, purification, and censorship are symbolic meanings of fire relating to Montag’s journey throughout the story.
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
“Behind his mask of conformity, Montag gradually undergoes a change of values. Montag realized his life had been meaningless without books” (Liukkonen). In the beginning of the novel, Montag said, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). For most of his life, Montag conformed just like the other members of society. He set things on fire because it was his job and did not question whether or not it was the right thing to do. Throughout the story, however, he grew to find and voice his own opinions and resisted the conformity that his society stressed. When Montag had to decide whether or not to burn Beatty to death, he proved himself by not giving in to what was expected. He killed the captain of the police department, which was an entirely defiant act (Bradbury