F451

Part 1

• Guy Montag (protagonist), a fireman that burns books, is introduced

  • reading books is illegal

  • for Montag, its a pleasure

• Montag is walking home, when he senses the presence of someone at the corner of the street

• Montag meets Clarisse McClellan, who talks about the many strange things in her family (her uncle that was arrested for being a pedestrian and for driving at 40 mph on a highway); she tells him things that she knows about how things used to be (20 feet billboards, dew on grass in the mornings)

• she mentions that people are afraid of firefighters, but she isn’t (implies that firefighters have an intimidating presence)

• she asks Montag questions about himself, and when she goes home, she asks “are you happy?”; Montag thinks about it and realizes that he really isn’t happy

• Montag gets back home; a dark and cold, almost tomb-like place

  • he thinks how strange the girl was

  • realizes that he isn’t happy

• Montag walks into his bedroom and can hear the earbuds (or something to listen to music) buzz and imagines how his wife lays in bed

• he felt his way to his cold bed; his foot hit a bottle that was (in the morning) filled with 30 sleeping pills, and was now empty

• He runs to Mildred’s bed and crashes out

  • he screams really loud, but the sounds of jets zooming above his house are louder

  • may have been suicide

• calls the emergency hospital

  • they used a stomach pump to take out the tablets; negative connotation

  • another machine was taking out old blood and pumping fresh blood into her body

  • cases like these are very common; real doctors aren’t appointed for this job, just handymen

• Montag opens the curtains and thinks to himself about how everyone in Clarisse’s house is laughing and happy; he wants to experience that

• Mildred wakes up at 9, making breakfast with her earbuds in

  • Montag asks how she feels, but Mildred doesn’t remember it (or maybe she’s just acting like she has no idea what happened)

• Montag leaves the house in the rain and meets Clarisse again

  • she rubs a dandelion on his chin (if it blows away, it means you’re in love), without asking him, even though Montag said that he is in love

  • the dandelion didn’t rub away; he says that its because Clarisse wasted the dandelion on herself first

  • Montag is upset

• Clarisse asks about his job, and how he became who he is today

  • she tells Montag that he looked at her while she was talking, and when she talked about the moon, he looked at it; she doesn’t think that he was meant to be a firefighter

  • Montag just tells her that she should be going

• Montag gets to the firehouse and touches the mechanical hound; it growls back at him

• Montag and Clarisse talk everyday; she’s always talking about something new

  • Montag seems more relaxed and thinks more

  • no one talks about anything anymore; people don’t care about anything

    • the police doesn’t care what you’re doing as long as you have 10000 insurance

    • people her age are killing each other

• later, he doesn’t see Clarisse when he’s going to work

• when he gets to work, a radio says “…war may be declared any hour.”

• he notices that all the firemen look the same and they were all mirror images of each other

• the alarm rings as the an old lady’s neighbor makes a report and they go to burn the books in the old lady’s house

  • she doesn’t want to leave when told to

  • she had a match in her hand and said something about Master Ridley and about 2 men that were burnt alive in 1555 and she dies there

• Beatty knows about this

• Montag hides a book in his equipment and takes it home

• his wife comes over to his bed and touches his face; he’s crying

• he asks Mildred when they met; neither of them remember

• Montag reflects on his life with Mildred

  • she’s so detached with reality that he when he thinks about her, all he sees is a girl lost on a plateau

• Mildred’s “family” is the people on the TV walls in the living room

  • she doesn’t really know who is related to who, or what is really going on, but she watches anyways

• Montag asks Mildred is she’s seen Clarisse; Mildred tells Montag that she was run over and her family moved away

• Montag wakes up sick the next morning

  • he spent all night thinking about how he burnt the old lady and her books

  • he felt guilt for burning books that people spent their whole life writing

• Beatty comes into his house

  • he explains the origin of firefighters’ job

    • was never started by the gov

    • started by technology, not gov censorship

  • he explains how everything that is crucial in our world today (like now) is being forgotten and thought of as obsolete

  • more tech = less need for books

  • gov stepped in an censored information → firemen had a new job

    • everyone is =

    • nobody has more than the other, everyone should be the same

  • there’s no room for sadness

  • after Beatty leaves, Montag pulls out a bunch of books he’s been hiding for the past year and convinces (forcefully) Mildred to not burn them

    • he wants to understand what’s so special about books

  • Beatty comes back and knocks on the door but Montag doesn’t open it

Part 2

• Montag starts reading

• Mildred thinks it’s pointless and has no meaning; at least her “family” tells her things

• Montag gets mad at Mildred and the rest of society for not caring

  • complains about the current war, and how there are constantly bombers and planes flying above

• Montag thinks about an old man (Faber) that he talked to about a year ago

• Montag gets on the subway with a Bible and goes to Faber’s house to learn more

• he gets to Faber’s house and shows him the Bible

  • Faber believes that books store so much information that could be shown on the parlor, but the gov won’t

  • Faber says that society is missing 3 things: quality information, leisure to understand the information, and the right out carry out actions based on what is learned

• Montag wants Faber to help him bring books back

  • Faber says that nobody even wants books anymore

  • people are “happy”

• Montag rips a few pages of the Bible out

  • it convinces Faber to help Montag

  • Montag asks him to help him understand the things he’s reading + history

• Faber gives Montag a 2-way communication “airpod”

• Faber asks Montag to bring money

  • Montag goes home

  • makes a visit to the bank otw

• the sky is giving war vibes

• Montag gets home and eats dinner

• Montag asks Mildred’s friends about their husbands

  • Mrs. Phelps says that her husband told her to forget about him and remarry if anything ever happens to him in war

    • they don’t have any knowledge about how serious war actually is

  • it’s her 3rd marriage

    • they don’t have any genuine feelings for each other

• Montag unplugged the parlor; everyone feels uncomfortable

• Montag asks about their children

  • they say that no one in the right mind would have children

  • people only have children to continue the generations

    • just a burden; send them to school and put them in the parlor when they’re at home

• Montag hates how they’re talking about people as totally se

• Montag brings out a book full of poetry

  • Faber tells him to act like it was all a joke and just throw it into the incinerator

  • Montag doesn’t listen

  • Mildred explains (makes up a story) that firemen get to take 1 book home a year to show their families how foolish the books were

  • Mildred tells Montag to read one of the poems

• Montag reads it and Mrs. Phelps cries

• everyone goes home out of hatred for Montag

• Montag hears Mildred go into the bathroom and swallow a bunch of sleeping pills

• Montag goes to his night shift at the firehouse

  • Montag tells Faber that he feel guilt for making the women the most miserable they had ever been

  • Faber tells Montag to make mistake, because it’s all a process

  • Montag walks into to firehouse

• Beatty asks Montag to play poker since he was feeling better'

• Montag gets up to wash his hands 2x

• hands have their own mind doing dirty work; he is trying to wash off the dirtiness

• Beatty tells Montag about his lil dream he had

  • Beatty and Montag are fighting over books

  • each quoting famous literary scholars

• Faber realizes that Beatty is dangerous; he knows too much

• an alarm rings

  • they gather their equipment and get in the truck

  • Beatty is driving (he normally doesn’t)

    • he’s really happy; grinning “ear-to-ear” sorta thing

• they stop in front of Montag’s house

Part 3

Characters

Guy Montag - Protagonist

• firefighter

• burns books (and takes pride in his job)

• married to Mildred

• is not happy

Clarisse McClellan

• white; pale

• eyes full of curiosity; asks lots of questions

• 17; crazy

• dies in a car accident

Mildred Montag

• married to Guy

• ate 30 sleeping pills

• disconnected from reality

• burnt hair, weirdly pale, really skinny

Mechanical Hound

• device of terror; a machine that is perversely similar to a trained killer dog but has been improved by refined technology

• can track down and capture criminals by stunning them with a tranquilizer.

Captain Beatty

• captain of the firehouse

• has a phoenix on his hat

• very educated; he knows what’s going on and what brough the world to what it is in the book

Faber

• a retired English college professor

Symbols

Mirror

1st time mentioned → Montag saw his true self reflected in a mirror (referring to Clarisse)

2nd time mentioned → all of the fireman look and act the same