Fahrenheit 451 Summaries

Pages 1-15: Montag, the main character is a fireman who really loves to burn things. He loved seeing things “blackened” and “changed.” He had a hose liked tool that could shoot out liquid to start a fire, in his hands and wanted to set a house on fire, wanting to burn books, like pigeons, while watching them burn peacefully. Montag leaves the fire station and takes a subway. After he gets off and gets on the road, he starts walking on the sidewalk mindlessly, until he was about to reach a corner. Few night before, he had an uncertain feeling at the same area, thinking that someone was there before he could turn the corner. (he usually sees no one on his way home). However, when he turned the corner today, he saw a girl. She was slender, very plae and milk-white, and had on a white dress, description of like a ghost. Her name is Clarisse McClellan; Guy Montag’s new neighbor. She is 17 and they walk home together. She points out that in their world, fireman are scary to a lot of people; she isn’t scared of them. Guy noticed that a soft light was on her face, which made him remember about the time where his mom used a candle during a power outage; shows a way of how fire was used for good. In their world, fireman are responsible for starting fires and burning book and the houses are fireproof, but Guy lies to her and says that they never used to stop fires. It can be seen that Clarisse is very curious and asks a lot of questions while Guy doesn’t and answers her questions without thinking. In their world, people must also drive a certain speed, but it has to be fast. Her uncle got arrested for going 40 mph and also being a pedestrian. Her family is considered peculiar. While they were walking, they walked in silence, Clarisse’s was thoughful while Guy’s were an uncomfortable silence. Before she goes into her house, she asks Guy if he’s happy. He looked at the ventilator grill and remembered that something was hidden behind the grill, that seemed to peer down at him. He compares her face to a clock; as it is all certgainty and knowing. He also compares her face to a mirror; “refracting” his own light. Guy also thinks that she might have been waiting for him.

His house is very cold and dark, resembling a tomb. Compared to Clarisse’s house, it was very lit up. He hears a humming sound, which is coming from a “hidden wasp,” which are modern day earbuds. His smile faded, which was his “mask” and it was as if Clarisse took the mask from him. He recognized that he was not actually happy. His wife is described as lifeless, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb. She had her “earbuds” in, listening to an ocean sound, in which she had been listening to every single night for two years. The room was cold and if felt like Guy couldn’t breathe. As he was making his way to his bed, he kicked and object accidentally; however, he could feel as if he felt the object before he actually made contact with it. It turns out that object was his wife, Mildred’s, sleeping pill bottle. Earlier in the morning, the bottle had about 30 pills and now it was empty; Mildred took too many sleeping pills. She was breathing very softly through her nose. Jets are flying through the sky and that’s Guy’s scream and he panicked and calls for “Emergency.” Instead of doctors, there were machines controlled by operators; which are handymen. The first was described to be like stomach pumps, where it pumped out the sleeping pills. The operator was smoking a cigarette. The second machine was used to pump all of the blood from the body and replace it with fresh blood and serum. The operators are pretty disrespectful and it only costs $50. However, it is stated that these types of cases are happening very often, with there being 9 or 10 a night. After the men leave, Guy opens the windows to let some fresh air in, where he hears Clarisse’s family all laughing together, was felt sort of relaxing to him. He got out of the house, through the window and stood outside of their house, wanting to ask to come in, but instead decided to just listen from outside. After listening to her uncle talk to a little, Guy goes back into his house where he doesn’t know what to think anymore.

Pages 16 - 41: When he awoke at 9 in the morning, Mildred’s bed was empty, in which she was in the kitchen making herself some food. She had both of her “earbuds” in and didn’t say a word to Guy but instead nodded, confirming that she was okay; she was good at lip reading. She doesn’t remember what has happened the night before, and she is really hungry. She thought that something did happen the night before but she cannot remember; she might be lying. Guy keeps looking at the vent in the hallway of his house when he asks Mildred why did she take all of the pills when she responds that she hadn’t and that she wouldn’t do something like that. She is participating in a play. Guy asks if it has a happy ending, in which it doesn’t; still thinking about Clarisse’s question, “are you happy?” Guy left the house in which he saw Clarisse walking in the rain. She has a dandelion in her hand and says that if it rubs off on the bottom of someone’s chin they are in love; nothing appears under Guy’s, meaning he is not in love. Guy learns that Clarisse likes to hike and collect butterflies, and walk in the rain and even taste it; not normal in their society. Guy thinks that she is peculiar and aggravating but easy to forgive. He even thinks she is older than his wife at times. Clarisse then asks Guy on how he go into being a fire man. She says that he is not like the other ones; he looks at her when she talks, he is sort of engaged into their conversations. He cares about what other people have to say; similar to Clarisse, not normal in this society.Because of this, she thinks that it is strange that he is a fireman. Clarisse then leaves for her psychiatrist appointment, which she is forced to go to since she isn’t normal in their society. When she leaves, Montag tilts his head back and opened his mouth for a few moments.

Instead of a dog in the fire house, there is a mechanical hound; eight legged and makes the same noises as of a robot. It ijects massive jolts of morphine or procaine. As Montag was laying in his bunk, the Hound started growling at him, and it was ready to attack Montag in which he got away from the Hound. Montag doesn’t think that is the Hound misfunctioning, but instead someone is trampering with the Hound’s “memory” and is making it want to kill Montag. He is sort of paranoid of the ventilator grill in his house and what is behind it. However, the Captain thinks that he is just being scared for no reason and that it is whatever.

Montag sees Clarisse every single day whenever he comes out of his house; doing something different each day. He says that she makes him feel like a father and it feels like they’ve known each other for years. He also acknowledges that she is one of the few people that have asked why he hasn’t had any kids; Mildred doesn’t want any. Clarisse doesn’t like to go to school because it is so draining and that they don’t want people to socialize; they group up a bunch of kids but don’t want them to talk to each other. She also says that she is scared of kids her age as they kill each other. She also reveals that she likes to listen to other people and are curious about people’s backgrounds. It is also revealed that society has lost a lot of uniqueness; people say the same thing, the museums are all abstract. “Anti-social” in this society is the complete opposite of what it is in our world. People can do whatever they want as long as they are insured. Then 7 days later, she had disappeared. She had become apart of his daily routine; and now each day felt off. Montag then hears on the radio that a war may be declared, followed by the sound of jet planes. Montag is at a table, playing cards when he starts to realize that all of the fireman, including himself, look the same; starting to see that society has lost its uniqueness. He is also showing signs up sympathy for burning people’s books and houses. Montag is talking to Captain Beatty when Montag says, “once upon a time.” This almost gives away that Montag had been reading books; which was illegal. And then when he was speaking, he realized that he sounded just like Clarisse, asking if fireman prevented fires instead of starting them in the past. Stoneman and Black pull out a rule book that contained the brief history of the Fireman; in which it stated that Benjamin Franklin was the first Fireman. Then the alarm went off; meaning that they had to go to someone’s house and burn books. When they make it to the first house, they find out that they were at the wrong house; it was the girls neighbor. The woman “snitched” on her neighbor for having books. They find mountains of books and Montag reads a part of it, “Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine.” He then subconsciously steals a book. The woman who had all of the books wanted to stay inside of the house as they burned it, but Montag tries to force her out of the house in which she refuses to leave. She then pulls out an ordinary kitchen matches and starts the fire herself. On their way back to the firehouse, Montag said “Master Ridle,” in which Beatty finished the quoet, “we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in england, as I trust shall never be put out.” This shocked Montag as Beatty is very educated; the quote was from Latimer talkking to Nicholas Ridley as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy on October 16, 1555. When Montag gets home, Mildred tries talking to him but all Montag makes soft sounds; he was crying. maybe because of the book. When he lay in his bed, he asked Mildred how did they meet, and when. She doesn’t know and he’s upset about it; he starts to see her as a stranger. Mildred then gets up, and starts taking her pills. Montag then realizes that if she were to die right now, he was sure that he wouldn’t cry; making him cry.

Pages 42 - 60: It is seen that Mildred is very attached to technology; she always has her Seashells (airpods) in and talks to the screens in her house. She also knows about Clarisse, but says that she had gotten run over by a car 4 days ago and is probably dead, and that her family had moved away. She did not tell Montag because she forgot to. As Montag was trying to relax after hearing the news and go to sleep, he heard a faint exhale from outside the window, in which he thought was the Mechanical Hound, so he did not investigate. When he awoke in the morning, he was sick. He described Mildred as having burnt hair by chemicals, reddened pouting lips, as skinny as a praying mantis because of her dieting, and her flesh was the same color as white bacon (not a very nice description of his wife). It is also revealed that she is very selfish and not willing to help anyone, didn’t get Montag medicine or even called Captain Beatty to inform him that Montag was sick. She also blames the old woman for having to books and that it was her fault that she died. However, Montag is having more compassion and empathy for the thought that is going into creating the books and the woman being burnt alive bothers him a lot. Then they see Captain Beatty at the front of their house. He just wanted to check up on Montag and decided to let him have the day off. As he was talking to Montag, Mildred starting moving around the room, and eventually making her way to Montag and wanted to fix his pillow. Montag tries making her go away, but she eventually reaches behind the pillow and touches the book. She then started to ask Montag what it was when eventually Montag got her hand from under the pillow with nothing in it (she almost gave away that Montag had a book). Beatty also states that their job was created from technology and not the government as a form of censorship. Then the government stepped in and transformed their job in order to start censoring information. Also revealed that people are meant to think/to be alike. It turns out that Beatty also knew about Clarisse. It was stated that it was rare for people like her to exist, they kill them when they are very young. He doesn’t want Montag to become like Clarisse, someone who thinks a lot. Beatty also has a little suspicion about Montag reading a little bit in the moment of burning books, which is ok. It is also revealed that they can keep a book for 24 hours before the fireman come and burn it themselves. Montag still remembers some parts of his conversations with Clarisse.

Pages 61 - 65: Mildred is talking to her screen walls. She was talking to some announcer when Montag says that he isn’t sure about going to work that night, or tomorrow, or ever again. He had an awful feeling and wanted to smash and kill things. Mildred suggests that he takes their beetle (their car) and go super fast which always helps her clam down; sometimes she even hits rabbits and dogs (which is considered normal). However, Montag declines and says that he wants to hold onto this feelings. He says that he is really unhappy and could even read a book. As Mildred turns back to talk to the announcer on the screen wall, Montag tells her that he wants to tell her something. He takes off the ventilator grill and reached in a pulled out a book. He then keeps pulling out different books until there are twenty something books on the ground. Mildred is speechless and grabs a book and runs to the kitchen incinerator. Montag stops him and says that they should atleast read the books once if they do burn them. It is clear that the death of the old woman is still affecting Montag heavily and he compared Clarisse to the fireman, in which he foound out that he didn’t like them at all. nor himself. He even said that maybe it would be best if they were to be burnt. Then the front door voice alerted them that someone was here. It was Captain Beatty at the front door. However, because of the books all over the floor, they don’t answer the door. Montag grabs a book and decideds that he wants to read it. As Captain Beatty’s footsteps fade away from the house, Montag starts reading numerous pages of teh book. Mildred claims that they don’t mean anything and that Captain Beatty was right. However, Montag says that they will just start over from the beginning.

Pages 66 - 82: Montag reads the books that he has been hiding, reading each page carefully and multiple times. He then reads a line , “That favorite subject, Myself.” He keeps reading this line because Clarisse wasn’t like this at all, always thinking about others, not herself. Then all of a sudden, they hear a faint scratching at the door along with an exhalation of electric steam, they decide not to open the door and Montag continues to read. Mildred thinks that the book are unimportant because they aren’t people; needs somebody in front of her to be her form of entertainment/to gather knowledge. She then gets scared that Captain Beatty and the fireman are going to find the books and burn down their house, in which she keeps asking why should she read books. Montag snaps and tells her to go ask the Emergency Hospital about the “snake” that prevented her from dying from overdosing, to rake the bones of the old women that set her own house on fire, and to go to the morgue to find Clarisse; hinting that the books may have something that can improve everybody’s life. Then jets are flying through the air, which they have been very often. Montag also states that they have won both of their atomic wars since 2022, implying they are a powerful nation. Montag also reveals that he has heard rumors about the outside world hating them because Montag’s version of America had everything, the outside world was starving while they were all fed, the outside world was working very hard while everyone in America was playing. Montag’s version of America had everything. This makes Montag want to read even more as the books may enlighten him on the mistakes they are making that is causing the rest of the world to suffer and hate them and also to get some knowledge about the rest of the world. The phone rings and Mildred rushes to it. While this happens, Montag continues reading. He then remembers about a year ago, he met an old man in a green park. It turns out that the old man hid something quickly inside of his coat; probably a book. Instead of arresting or getting angry at the man, Montag simply had a conversation with him, which resulted in Faber, the old man, to give Montag his address.

Mildred invited her friends over, but Montag doesn’t care and calls Mr. Faber and asks him how many copies of the Bible are left, along with copies of Shakespeare and Plato. Faber hangs up as he thinks it’s some sort of trap. Mildred doesn’t care about the Bible or about how it may be the last copy in the country. Montag decides that he is going to turn in a book, but not sure which one; afraid that if he turns in the wrong book, Captain Beatty will know, since he knows that Montag took a book, and know that he has many other books. He decides it’s going to be the Bible, but before he turns in the boko, there is going to be a duplicate copy made. Before he leaves, he asks Mildred if her “family” really loves her. She thinks it’s a dumb question and tells Montag to leave and shoo the dog away if it is still there; the mechanical hound. It is no longer there and Montag goes to the subway. He realizes that he is “numb” and not the same as before. On the subway, he remembers a time where he was at the beach and his cousin told him to fill a sieve with sand. However, this is impossible as the sand fell straight through the sieve. He was blatenly holding out the Bible and starts to read it, for the ultimate goal that no phrase will escape from his mind, like the sand falling through the sieve; he is doing all of this while advertisements on the subway blare out at him. All of these are supposed to be distractions in order for people not to focus on things that make them sad; Montag can’t focus on what he is reading. When he gets off the subway, he runs to Faber’s house, who at first was still skeptical about it being a trap. After seeing that Montag was alone, he reads a little bit of the Bible, remembering it, and also stating that he enjoyed books ever since he was a kid. Faber calls himself a coward, since he just sat back and watched everything happen, didn’t even speak out about it. Montag says that he is there because nobody listens to him and he wanted to be heard; Mildred is always talking to the TV walls, and he also wanted Faber to teach him to understand what he reads. The reason why Montag is so shaken up is because they have everything in order to be happy but he isn’t happy,. Faber says that books are not all that special, as the radios and televisions can still display the same information that the books had; books are just another source of storage for knowledge, but their society doesn’t do that. Faber also states that there are three things missing: first, texture and quality. Books have pores and show the “pores of the shape of life;” the imperfections of life. The second thing missing is leisure to think and digest the information of the book. People are too busy either speeding, or talking to the TV walls to think. The third thing is the right to carry out the actions based on what they learn from the first two things. Montag knows that his life isn’t valuable so he is eager to do something. Montag tells Faber his plan, to make extra copies of the books, however Faber isn’t interested since he is risking getting his whole house burnt down and the only way he would be in is burning the firehouses, in which he was joking, but Montag is on board with it.

Pages 83 - 92: Fabor knows other people like him who would be willing to help out burn the firehouses. He states that Pirandello’s, Shaw’s, and Shakespeare’s plays were not longer a thing because they were too aware of the world. Faber also hints that he knows other historians who haven’t wrote a single line of history in 40 years and that they could use their anger. Faber also says that the fireman aren’t the main issue, but rather the whole society itself, people stopped reading on their own and are not very willing to stop using technology because they are having “fun.” As Montag and Faber are talking, they could hear the jet planes. Faber says to let the war turn off the “families;” wipe out the population in order to restart. Faber doesn’t have hope in society anymore. Fabor tells Montag to go home, but instead, Montag subconsiously picks up the Bible and starts ripping pages out of it, in order to get Faber’s attention. Montag wanted Faber to teach him. Faber says that their in an unemplyed printer that they could use to start a few books, and then wait for the war to give them a little push. Montag is afraid that Captain Beatty will somehow persuade him back into his oldself, since Beatty is so educated. Before leaving Fabor’s house, he calls Montag over to his bedroom, where there was a table with a bunch of tech parts on top of it. Since Fabor likes to fiddle with electronics, he designed something. He created a “seashell” (airpod) but instead Fabor could listen in on it. The plan was that Faber could identify the firemen’s weakness while staying safe in his house. Faber and Montag could also communicate with each other, using the device. They make a plan that Montag will head to the firehouse while Faber will visit the unemployed printer. As Montag is heading to the bank (which is open all day every day because of robot tellers), he hears an announcment saying, “We haev mobilized a million men. Quick victory is ours if the war comes…” Faber hears this and then informs Montag that they are lying and it is actually 10 million men. Montag then realizes that he is still being told what to do, and that he wants to start doing things on his own, but Faber informs him that he is already on that track, but he just needs to trust Faber. As Montag walks, Faber read “The Book of Job”, a reference to the Bible; Job had to go through a lot of suffering and temptation by the devil, but Job never gave up on his Faith with God.

Montag is eating supper when Mildred’s friends come over, in which they are super loud and obnoxious. Montag sticks around to watch them, as Faber reassures him that he can give him the money by tommorow. Montag turns off their TV screens; in which they are forced to talk to each other nad have an actual conversation. They get on the topic of war, in which Mrs. Phelps doesn’t think that it’s possible for people can die during war. She also says that she and her husband, Pete, have both been married 3 times, and that if Pete dies, they both agreed that she shouldn’t cry and just get married again and forget about her. She also states that people died because they jump off of buildings, like Gloria’s husband, but still doesn’t think they can die because of war. Montag compares the TV screens to the brows of giants, empty of dreams. It seems as he is purposly making the women uncomfortable. They are just sitting in silence, showing that they are very uncomfortable to talk to each other. Montag asks about Mrs. Phelps’ kids, in which she doesn’t have any, but Mrs. Bowles has two, in which she says that it isn’t worth going through all of the pain to have a kid. The only thing she likes is that they sometimes look like their parent. Mrs. Bolwes is not a very good parent however, she plunks her children into school nine out of 10 days, puts up with them when they come home; which is 3 days a month, and she just feeds them the parlor, so that she doesn’t have to do anything.

Pages 93 - 106: Mildred decides that they should change their conversation to politics to please Montag. As Mrs. Bowles is saying that she voted for President Noble, it is revealed why she voted for him, mainly for his looks; as he was one of the nicest looking men to run for president, she claims. The other person who ran against Winston Noble was Hubert Hoag. They didn’t vote for him because he was fat, and short, and always picked his nose; essentially she voted based on their looks and not their actual points of views to help the society. Montag leaves the room and comes back with a book, however, the ladies are not too shocked about it. Montag keeps talking to Faber, which causes Mildred to ask about who he is talking to. Mrs. Phelps suggested that he read them a poem, since she felt like he wanted to do so and that’d make him happy and that they’d be able to do something else. However, Faber tells Montag not to follow through and if he does, he will cut off and leave. He tells Montag to play it off as a joke, and throw the book into the incinerator. Mildred then tells Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles that firemen are allowed to take home a book once a year to show his family how silly it was. Mildred says that Montag’s special surprise was that he was going to read a little so that they wouldn’t bother about it again. Mildred took the book and opened it to a page and Montag read it. The title of the poem was Dover Beach. The room was blazing hot and the three of them sat in the middle of an empty desert. After Montag stopped reading, Mrs. Phelps starts to cry, in which she doesn’t know why. Mrs. Bowles glared at Montag, and said that she always said the phrase “poetry and tears”, and poerty and suicide and crying and awful feelings, and poerty and sickness. She thinks that poerty causes all of these things and now she just got proof of it. Montag then felt himself walking to the incinerator and throwing the book inside. Mildred begs Mrs. Phelps to stop crying and that they could have a party and turn on the “family” but Mrs. Bowles says that she will never be stepping foot into this house again. Montag tells her to think of her first husbands divorce and the second husband who was killed in a jet and her third husband that blew his brains out. She also had a dozen of abortions, and the children that hate them; he can’t stand how they act. As the door slammed, Montag heard Mildred taking more sleeping tablets. Faber kept saying that Montag was a fool, which made Montag take the device out of his ear and to shove it in his pocket, he had enough.

He found the books that Mildred had put away, but some of them were missing; she burnt some. He hid them in the backyard bushes and called out to Mildred, who did not answer. He then looked at Clarisse’s house, which was all dark. Montag is starting to realize that he was a fool and an idiot, and is counting on Faber a lot. Faber then tells Montag to have pity on them, as they don’t know any better and that he was one of them as well. They don’t see the bad, but only the good. He wants Montag to just be a little cowardish and not engage in anything that much, and to just let Faber listen. Montag is then feeling very guilty, and has doubt and that maybe he should just have fun. Faber reassures Montag and tells him that it’s okay to make mistakes and that they can be a good thing. When Montag enters the firehouse, he immediately sees Beatty who is already holding his hand out, waiting for Montag to return the book. Without even looking at the title, Beatty throws it into the trash. As they are playing poker, Montag gets up twice to wash his hands as they had “blood” on them and also described to basically have a mind of their own. Beatty also tells Montag about a dream he had, which included a lot of quotes that Beatty knew; very educated. Faber told Montag not to listen to him, as he was trying to confuse Montag. Faber realizes that it’s kind of a game of chess; the books contradict each other, which is one of the points by Beatty. Faber says that he will say his part and let Montag ultimately decide which side he will take. Faber also says that the Captain is the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom. Montag almost speaks out loud to answer Faber when the fire alarm goes off; meaning that htey have to go burn another house. Beatty, who never drives, was driving with a very big smile on his face. When they get to the house, Montag realizes that he can’t do this and doesn’t want to burn another house down. Beatty asks whats the matter, and then Montag realizes that they have stopped in front of his house.

Pages 107 - 124: A metaphor is used to describe that it was like a carnival when they arrived at Montag’s house. Beatty asks Montag if he hadn’t warned him enough, by sending the Hound to his house. Montag’s face was entirely numb, and as he sat on the cold fender of the Dragon, Mildred came out of the house with a suitcase as a beetle-taxi arrived. As she was getting into the taxi, Mildred was mumbling, “Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now…”. She is more worried about the parlor walls than Montag. The bettle-taxi sped away, going 70 miles and hour, followed by a crash that sounded like the falling parts of a dream fashioned out of warped glass, mirrors, and crystal prisms. Stoneman and Black used axes to break his windows down. Faber is asking what is happening and asks if he can get away, but Montag couldn’t feel his feet. Beatty then claims that fire’s true beauty is that it can destroy responsibilities and consequences. He then says that Montag is a burden, and that fire will lift him off of Beatty’s shoulders, clean and quick and there was nothing to rot later. Montag then stares at his destroyed house and sees the torn up books, in which he thinks that this wasn’t worth it over books. He then realizes that Mildred must have saw him move the books into the backyard bushes and moved them back into the house. Beatty then says that he wants Montag to burn down the house with a flamethrower. Faber also asks if Montag can run but Montag yelled out “No, because of the Hound.” Beatty that it was for him and said that the hound was in the neighborhood. As Montag is burning down his house, he starts showing traits of his oldself, liking the sensation of burning things, it felt good, and thinking that fire can solve problems. He also wanted th change everything that showed that he had lived in an empty home with a stranger who didn’t care about him. Montag was so invested with burning down the actual house that Beatty had to remind him to burn the books. It felt almost that Montag wanted to do this for a long time. Beatty then says that he will be under arrest when he is done. Beatty also confirms that it was Mildred who sent the alarm, but her friends sent ones in before but Beatty let them slide. After Montag was finished, he didn’t move as this was still the place where Mildred was and so was his entire life. Faber tells him to get out of there, and Montag listens, but Beatty strikes him on the head and the “airpod” falls out, which Beatty quickly snatches, and hears Faber’s voice, and then putting it into his pocket. He then says that he can track this and find Faber, but Montag tells him no and threatens to burn him alive. Beatty is surprised at first, but doesn’t think that Montag is going to do it, but Montag burns Beatty alive. He tells the other firemen to turn around, in which he beats them on the head. Montag then turns and sees the Mechanical Hound, which injects him in the leg (numbing it) and knocks him 10 feet back, but then burns and dies. Montag was in pain everytime he put his leg down. He called himself an idiot and a fool and thought to give up and give himself up. But he decides to try and save what he can, and that if he has to burn, he will take a few more with him, Mildred missed a few books. As he tried getting out of the alley, he fell and didn’t move, and started sobbing. He then realizes that Beatty wanted to die; gave him a flamethrower and was proviking Montag and joking the whole time.

He heard the sound of people running near him and wanted to get up and get out of there. He then feels very guilty, that he hadn’t actually wanted to kill anybody and says he’s sorry to himself. After a while, the pain in his leg lessened, until it went away and he was able to jog. Montag left the area. He thought of Faber, who he had burnt too (burnt the device), and was so shocked, he thought Faber was actually dead. He then remembers, “burn them or they’ll burn you.” In his pockets, he had money, and a Seashell (airpod), in which the city was announcing that Montag was wanted. He ran for six blocks, until it revealed a 10 lane road. He didn’t cross it because it was too wide and it was an easy area for him to get caught and shot. He then realizes that he had been running to Faber’s house instinctively, whih could be the place where he could refuel his fast draining belief in his own ability to survive; he knew that Faber wouldn’t hide him as that would get Faber in trouble too. He just wanted to see him alive. There are also a lot of helicopters which can then be turned into a car and used on land. Montag entered a gas station so that he could wash up and comb his hair, lowering the risk of getting caught. He also hears on a radio that war has been declared. Montag starts crossing the street, by walking, since the police warning said it was a man running. Although, it was safer to run because cars could come out of no where, he still walked, trying not to look left and right. Then, he heard a car picking up speed in the distance. He thought it was the police, and panicked, start to run, dropped a book, broke pace, and almost turned around. He then fell, as he heard the car getting closer and closer. He thought that he would die, but his right hand was extented and was a 16th of an inch away from the black tread from the tire, almost got hit. He also realized it wasn’t the police. He then saw a group of kids aging from 12-16 saying “Let’s get him,” which makes him think that they’re the ones who killed Clarisse. He hears another car coming, but he hides in the alley and makes his way to Fireman Black’s house and plants book inside of it and alarms a firehouse. After he makes the call, he sees Faber, who brings him into his house. Montag says taht he is a fool and doesn’t know what to do anymore. Faber says that he was a fool about the right things and though he was dead because he heard Beatty’s voice from the device and then suddenly nothing; Montag says he killed him. Montag doesn’t know what to do, the day before, his life was fine and now he’s drowning, wondering how many times can a man go down avnd still be alive.

Pages 125 - 148: Montag thinks it’s unbelievable what has happened in the past week and the things he has done. Faber reassures him that he’s done what he had to do and that it was going to happen sooner or later. Montag agreed but still can’t believe what he had done. He also thinks that he is going to mess up Faber’s life since they are both together, but Faber says that it was the first time he felt alive in years and that he’s doing what he should’ve done a lifetime ago. He’s not afraid because he is doing the right thing. Montag plans to keep running. The war is officially hapening. Montag gives Faber a hundred dollars just in case he could use it because he thinks he is going to be dead by noon. Faber thanks him and tells him to head to the river and then hit the old railroad lines, which are abandoned but still has people, to go into the country. There are a lot of Harvard degrees there, professors who are fugatives in this society. The railroad tracks is a place for people to escape, and the government can’t track them down. Faber asks if Montag wants to sleep for a little but Montag declines. Then thye go into the bedroom and Faber brings out a TV the size of a postal card; smaller the screen = the less distracting. The news was on and Montag was wanted. Police helicopters were out and so was a new Mechanical Hound, causing Faber and Montag to look at each other. Faber poured two glasses of whiskey for them to calm down. Then they heard on the TV that the nose of a Mechanical Hound can remember and identify ten thousand odor indexes on ten thousand men without resetting; good sense of smell and can remember well. Montag’s nose then dilated until he could sense his own odor and the path he had made. Montag was watching the TV, fascinated rather than scared. He wanted to watch in comfort. He also was thinking of a speech, a final message he could say that would stick with society. Montag apologized for everything, and told Faber to burn a lot of the things he touched, spray moth spray in the rooms, wipe down furniture with alcohol, turn on the air conditioning, and hose off the sidewalks to get rid of the scent here. Faber shook Montag’s hand, teling him he will do it, and to get in touch with him if he makes it, and that he is sorry that he can’t go with him. Montag finally asks for a suitcase with his dirtiest clothes, suit, shirts, sneakers, and socks. Montag doused the outside of the suitcase with whiskey so the Hound wouldn’t pick up two scents, and then takes the whiskey. Montag takes one final look at the TV, which is on its way, and as he is leaving, the sprinkler system goes off, and ran as fast as he could towards the river.

Montag ran and could feel the Hound getting closer. He peers into people’s houses to check where the Hound was, it was going up the alley to Faber’s house. Montag watched it become confused, and run off into the distance. Then he put a Seashell into his ear so he could listen to the news, they were going to have every person open up their window or door to see if they could see him running. Montag started running faster and got to the river just in time where he doused himself in liquor, put on Faber’s old clothes and threw his clothes into the river , and let the river sweep him away into the darkness. Montag feels very comfortable in the river. He starts thinking of the burning of the sun and the burning of time and the firemen burning. He wants books and people’s minds to keep thing safe; if everything burns, there is nothing. Montag was hesitant to get out of the river as he was afraid that he was going to be found. However, he was all alone, there was no sound of anything. He then thought of Mildred, which made him sad. He then thought about how life would be in the country, very calm and peaceful; the stereotypical country life. Montag then got out of the river to which he saw the Hound, it was actually a deer. He scared it off and started walking again. He smelt a bunch of different crops. He walked through a bunch of leaves until he hit the railroad tracks. He then remembered that Clarisse also walked there before. As he was walking, after half an hour he saw a fire. However this one was different, instead of burning, it was warming and saw many hands around it. As he got a little closer, he heard the men talking about the world, until one of them finally called out to him, telling him that he can come out now; knew that he was already there. He was then offered coffee by who he supposed was the leader. Montag thanks them and Granger gives him a fluid that will change his chemical index. They knew about the Hound chasing him. They have a portable battery TV and were watching the chase the whole time. They heard him earlier but didn’t hide because they knew it was him. On the news, they were going in the opposite direction; Montag had thrown them off but they government didn’t want to say that. There was an innocent man walking and they used him as “Montag.” Supposedly, he died; they never showed the man’s face in focus so nobody could tell that it was him. He is introduced to the other people; Fred Clement, an atomic engineer, Dr. Simmons, a professor, Reverend Padover, a religious man. Granger wrote a book, The Fingers in the Glove; the Proper Relationship between the Individual and Society, and struck a fireman when they tried to burn down his library. Montag doesn’t think that he belongs there since he is an idiot, but Granger says they all made mistakes and that he is welcome. Granger and the others has memorized books so that they can use it later. They are waiting for the war to end so that there is going to be a new government in control. They may be useful in order to reprint books. As they are moving downstream, Montag tries and looks at the other people’s face, in which he realizes that they don’t look abnormal, but they have secrets. Montag looks at the city and thinks of Mildred in which he says that he doesn’t miss her or feel any way towards her.

Pages 149 - 158: Granger shares his story about when his grandfather passed away; he had a lot of love, was a sculptor, and was always busy. Granger cried because when he died, he would never do the things he did every again. Granger says that he shaped the world and the world was robbed of the actions he used to do; tell jokes, take care of pigeons, scultpe. Montag keeps saying “poor Millie” and tries to think of her hands but he either sees them by her side doing nothing, or holding a cigarette; not going to be remembered or have a consequence. Montag says that he gave the city ashes while the other people gave nothing. Granger reassures him and says that as long as you chagned something into something that resembles you, that’s all that matters, he left his mark. Granger keeps talking about his grandfather even thought he passed years ago, proving that his grandfather touched him and left his mark. He’s living his life the way he is because of his grandafther.

Montag tells the other people to look at the city, as the war began, but ended within an instant; the whole city was bombed and completely destroyed but the planes that dropped them were gone. Montag cried out to Faber, Clarisse, and Mildred; he remembered Clarisse was already dead, imagined Faber didn’t make it out, and imagined Mildred’s death. He could even hear the city dying; it became silent. He then remembered where they had met, in Chicago. The bombs were so powerful, it knocked back the men, and then Montag remembered something else. It was a paort of the book of Ecclesiastes; the Preacher by himself saying “there.” Montag looked at the river and the railroad tracks and decided they were going to use one of them to get back to the city. Granger sat up and was wondering how many people were actually surprised and who saw it coming. Montag wondered how many other cities died. Someone lit a match and started a fire for them in which Granger pulled out some bacon for them to each before they walked because they needed them. Granger looks at the bacon cooking and says Phoenix; using it to say that people destroy themselves to only be reborn, just like a Phoenix. He also says that as long as things are around for other people to see, it helps prevent people from making the same mistakes. Granger also talks about building a mirror factory; so that they can take a long look at themselves; reflect on themselves. As he is walking, he realizes it is pretty silent since there is so much to think about. They are going to this destroyed city in order to help people out. As they are walking, Montag notices on each side of the river, there is a tree of life, which had twelve manner of fruits, and yielded fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.