Fahrenheit 451
Published: 19, October 1953
Author: Ray Bradbury
Genres: Children's, Classic, Fiction, Literary, Movie Tie-In, Politics, Satire, Science Fiction
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Summary:
Fahrenheit 451 is set in an undisclosed city in 2049, but it is written as if it is set in the far future. "The Hearth and the Salamander," "The Sieve and the Sand," and "Burning Bright" are the novel's three sections.
The Hearth and the Salamander
Guy Montag is a firefighter tasked with destroying banned books as well as the homes in which they are concealed. He is married; however, he does not have any children. On his way home from work one autumn night, he meets his new neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, a teenage girl with free-thinking aspirations and a freeing spirit who makes him rethink his life and his own sense of satisfaction. When Montag goes home, he discovers that his wife Mildred has taken too many sleeping pills, and he seeks medical help.
Mildred's stomach is pumped, her poisoned blood is drained, and she is given fresh blood by two indifferent EMTs. Montag walks outside after the EMTs depart to rescue another overdose victim and overhears Clarisse and her family discussing how life is in this hedonistic, illiterate society. Clarisse's subversive thoughts and the memories of his wife's near-death assault Montag's psyche. Clarisse greets Montag every night as he walks home for the following few days.
She tells him how her basic pleasures and hobbies have made her an outcast among her peers, and how she has been compelled to seek counseling for her conduct and ideas. Montag is looking forward to these reunions, and just as he is getting used to them, Clarisse vanishes. Something doesn't feel right to him.
Montag snatches a book before any of his coworkers notices him stealing a book while at work with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an elderly widow and bathing it in kerosene before the eventual fire. The lady refuses to leave her house or her books, instead opting to ignite a match and burn herself alive. Montag returns home, shaken by the woman's suicide, and hides the stolen book beneath his pillow.
Mildred is awakened by Montag, who asks whether she has seen or heard anything about Clarisse McClellan? Clarisse's family went away after she was hit by a speeding automobile and died four days ago, she explains. Montag, dismayed by her neglect to reveal this sooner, attempts to sleep uncomfortably. Outside, he suspects the presence of "The Mechanical Hound," an eight-legged robotic dog-like creature who lives in the firehouse and assists the firefighters in their search for book hoarders.
Montag is sick the next morning when he wakes up. Mildred attempts to look after her husband, but she becomes more engrossed in the living room's "parlor wall" entertainment, which consists of big televisions along the walls. After what occurred last night, Montag advises that he take a sabbatical from being a firefighter, and Mildred becomes terrified at the prospect of losing the house and her "family" on the parlor wall. Montag's fire chief, Captain Beatty, pays him a personal visit to check how he is doing.
Beatty recognizes his fears and narrates the history of how books lost their significance and how firemen were changed for their present role: people began to appreciate new media (in this case, cinema and television), sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life over the course of several decades. To accommodate short attention spans, books were mercilessly reduced or degraded. Simultaneously, technological advancements resulted in practically all structures being constructed of fire-resistant materials, obviating the need for firefighters to prevent fires.
Instead of putting out fires, the government turned firemen into officers of society's peace of mind, assigning them the task of starting them, specifically for the purpose of burning books, which were condemned as sources of perplexing and depressing thoughts that only served to complicate people's lives. Beatty grows suspicious after an awkward discussion between Mildred and Montag about the book concealed beneath Montag's pillow and casually adds a passing threat as he departs, informing Montag that if a firefighter had a book, he would be requested to burn it within the next 24 hours. The other firemen would come and burn it for him if he refused. Montag is rattled by the incident.
Montag admits to Mildred after Beatty has left that he has gathered a hoard of books that he has kept concealed in the air-conditioning duct in their ceiling for the last year. Mildred snatches a book and throws it in the kitchen incinerator in frenzy. Montag subdues her and informs her that the two of them will study the books to determine their worth. He assures that if they don't, the books will be burnt and everything will be back to normal.
The Sieve and the Sand
Mildred refuses to go along with Montag's discussion of the stolen books, wondering why she or anyone else should care about books. Montag goes off on a tirade over Mildred's attempted suicide, Clarisse's disappearance and death, the elderly woman who set herself on fire, and the looming prospect of war that the public ignores. He speculates that ancient literature may contain messages that might preserve society from its own demise. A call from Mildred's friend, Mrs. Bowles, interrupts the talk, and they agree to meet at Mildred's house that night to view the "parlor walls."
Montag admits that Mildred is a hopeless case and that he will want assistance in order to comprehend the books. He recalls seeing an elderly guy called Faber in a park, who was an English professor before books were outlawed. Montag takes the train to Faber's house, carrying a rare copy of the Bible, which he took from the woman's house. Montag coerces the terrified and hesitant Faber into assisting him by removing pages from the Bible one by one. Montag accepts Faber's gift of a handmade ear-piece communicator, which he uses to provide continual instruction.
Mildred's friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps come at home to keep an eye on the "parlor walls." Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful discussion, only for them to display their true indifference, ignorance, and callousness. Montag leaves for a time, enraged by their folly, and returns with a volume of poetry. The women are perplexed, and Faber, who is hearing from afar, is alarmed.
Mildred tries to minimize Montag's efforts by pointing out that it's a yearly custom for firemen to discover an old book and read it as a means to mock the past. Mrs. Phelps begins to cry as Montag recites the poem Dover Beach. Montag burns the book at Faber's command over the earphone. Mildred's friends depart, disgusted, as she locks herself in the bathroom and attempts suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills once more.
Montag conceals his books in the backyard before returning late at night to the firehouse, where he finds Beatty and the other firefighters playing cards. Montag offers Beatty a book to replace the one he suspects Beatty knows he took the night before, which is hurriedly discarded. Montag tells Beatty about a dream he had in which they were fighting constantly while quoting texts to one other. Despite his disillusionment, Beatty reveals that he was once a voracious reader. When a fire alarm goes off, Beatty uses the dispatching system to get the address. They rush to Montag's house in the fire engine, driving wildly.
Burning Bright
Montag's wife and her friends have reported him after what occurred the other night, so Beatty orders him to demolish his house with a flamethrower rather than the more powerful "salamander" that the fire squad typically uses. Mildred, too distraught by the loss of her parlor wall family to even realize her husband's existence or the catastrophe unfolding around her walks out of the home and into a cab. Montag follows the chief's orders, systematically demolishing the house, but Beatty discovers Montag's earpiece and intends to track out Faber.
Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower, and when Beatty insults him, Montag burns him alive and knocks out his coworkers. The Mechanical Hound attacks Montag as he flees the scene, injecting a tranquilizer into his leg. He limps away after destroying the Hound with the flamethrower. However, before he can go, he finds that Beatty had planned to kill Montag for a long time and had purposefully provoked him as well as armed him with a weapon.
Montag dashes through the city streets in search of Faber's residence. On his journey, he crosses a large road as a fast automobile tries to run him down, but he manages to elude the vehicle and understands he was on the verge of meeting Clarisse's fate. Faber advises him to travel to the countryside and establish touch with the exiled book-lovers who have settled there. He explains that he is taking an early bus to St. Louis and that he and Montag may meet up there later. They hear news headlines on Faber's television about another Mechanical Hound being released to track down and kill Montag, complete with press helicopters chasing it to create a public spectacle.
Montag departs Faber's residence after removing his smell from the house in the hopes of deterring the Hound. By wading into a river and drifting downstream, he eludes the manhunt. Montag leaves the river and travels to the countryside, where he encounters a group of deported drifters led by Granger. Granger uses a portable battery TV to show Montag the continuing manhunt and predicts that "Montag" will be apprehended in the next few minutes; as predicted, an innocent man is apprehended and killed.
All of the drifters are ex-intellectuals. They have memorized texts in case civilization comes to an end and the survivors are forced to reconstruct themselves from the ground up, with the survivors learning to love the literature of the past. Granger inquires about Montag's contribution to the group, and Montag discovers that he has remembered portions of the Book of Ecclesiastes, revealing that the organization has a unique method of accessing photographic memory.
Montag and the party watch helplessly as bombers fly overhead and obliterate the city with nuclear weapons while learning the exiles' philosophy: the impending conflict has begun and finished in the same night. While Faber would have taken the first bus, the rest of the passengers (including Mildred) are slaughtered right away. Montag and his companions are hurt and filthy, but they survive the shockwave.
Granger educates Montag and the others about the famous phoenix and its never-ending cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth the next morning. He goes on to say that the phoenix must have some sort of connection to humans, which is always making the same mistakes, but that man has something the phoenix lacks: the ability to recall mistakes and strive not to repeat them. Granger then suggests that a giant mirror factory be erected so that people may look in the mirror and reflect on their life. The exiles return to the city after dinner to help reconstruct civilization.
Rating: 95/100
Recommended: 100/100 Yes.
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Fahrenheit 451 (1966):
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