Fahrenheit 451

Section III

Burning Bright

1. What is the real beauty of fire according to Beatty?

• Fire destroys responsibility and consequences.

2. Why can’t Montag run?

• The mechanical hound is set to his chemical index.

3. Beatty says to Montag, “Your house, your clean-up.” What does he mean?

• Montag must burn his own house for his transgression.
• What is his transgression?

4. Who turns in Montag?

• Mrs. Phelps, Mrs. Bowles, and Mildred
• Why do you think they did this?

5. What happens to the green bullet?

• It fall out of Montag’s ear when Beatty strikes him.

6. What does Montag do to arouse suspicion in Beatty?

• He aroused his suspicion, says Beatty, when he became clever.

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7. How does Beatty die?

• Montag turns the flamethrower on him and burns him.

8. What becomes of the mechanical hound?

• Montag sets the hound on fire with the flamethrower.

9. What does Montag suddenly realize about Beatty and his death?

• “Beatty wanted to die.”
• Beatty understood his conflicting desire to think and at the same time not to think.

10. What is nearly responsible for Montag’s death?

• A speeding beetle full of teenagers nearly kills Montag.

11. What is Montag’s purpose in going to Mrs. Black’s house?

• He plants books and calls in the alarm.
• This carries out the plan he made with Faber.

12. Where does Faber tell Montag he should go?

• He should head for the river and follow the railroad tracks into the country.

13. What is the “one-man circus”?

• The big hunt for Montag is literally the show.
• He has become an enemy of the state.
• This is broadcast in real time on the wall TV’s in all homes

14. Why does Montag tell Faber to burn his furniture and turn on his lawn sprinklers?

• Montag’s scent will lead the Mechanical Hound to Faber’s house if they do not remove the scent.

15. What does “twenty million Montag’s running” mean?

• He appears on all the wall TV’s so it appears that he is running everywhere at the same time.

16. What does the river give Montag time to do?

• The river gives him the leisure to think about all the events of the last two weeks.

17.

As Montag steps out of the river, what kind of shelter does he dream of for his first night out of the city?

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• He dreams of a farm he went to in his youth.
• He dreams of sleeping in the loft.

Symbol of the River

• Montag’s passage through the river is symbolic.
• It shows his crossing of a border from one way of life to another.
• It is a metaphorical baptism showing his leaving an old belief and moving on to a new life and belief set.

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18. What creature does he mistake for the hound?

What does he stumble upon?

• He hits his foot on the railroad track.
• It becomes his new path (a new symbol).
• He follows the track and finds a campfire.
• This fire is warming, not destructive.

19. Describe the voices. About what do they speak?

• The voices are pleasant.
• They talk about everything.
• There is nothing about which they cannot talk.
• They are curious.

20. Who is Granger? What does he give Montag?

• Granger is the first to greet Montag.
• He is a writer.
• He gives Montag a drink that changes his chemical index.

21. Why does the chase continue inland?

• The chase continues because the government cannot admit that Montag escaped.
• The “show” must continue for the viewers.
• They must keep “the peace” or the status quo so the viewers don’t question.

22. Who was killed in Montag’s place?

• An innocent man at the end of the street was killed to satisfy the viewers and the government.

23. Why can’t the government officials admit that Montag eluded them?

• If they admit Montag escaped, it might lead to others following his lead.
• The government controls its people by punishing publicly those who rebel.

24.

Why doesn’t Montag feel he belongs in the company of these men?

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• He feels he has been a fool
• He does not feel worthy of being in the presence of these great men.
• What is unusual about these men?
• They have become the books they are trying to preserve.

25. What book will Montag become?

• The Book of Ecclesiastes, a book from the Bible

26. What is significant about the “odd minority out in the wilderness”?

• Captain Beatty had said that they cannot upset the minorities, or they will rise up and take action.
• Granger and the others are the minority.
• They are aroused and will arise to make a change when the time is right.

27. Why does Granger refer to this time as the Dark Ages?

• This is an allusion to a time in human history after the decline of the Roman Empire where the vast majority of people were suppressed by a lack of knowledge.
• It serves to show how history can give insights on current times.

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28. Why does Granger trust Montag?�

• He looks trustworthy.
• The elaborate chase for Montag leads him to believe that Montag is a threat to the way of life in the city.
• Therefore, he is of value to Granger and his followers.

29. Why won’t Montag grieve if his wife dies?

• She doesn’t do anything in her life for him to miss.
• She doesn’t leave a mark or give anything of herself.

30. Granger explains that one does not grieve for the person. One grieves for the things that person did and will never do again.

What did Montag leave?

• He leaves the ashes of his house.

31. How does the war end? What happens to the city?

• The war ends in the denotation of a nuclear bomb that destroys the city.

The Phoenix

• The symbol is appropriate here for the rebirth of civilization out of the ashes of the old civilization.

32. Where does Montag remember meeting Mildred for the first time?

• Chicago. This is significant because it shows that Montag is beginning to think clearly.

33. What does Montag save for noon when they reach the city?

• He saves a passage from Ecclesiastes for noon.
• It offers up a solemn but hopeful tone for the end of the book.
• “And on either side of the river there was a tree of life…and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

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LEQ: Why is history connected to this futuristic novel?

• Consider the purpose of the allusions
• Consider the author’s theme
• Consider the symbol of the phoenix