FAHRENHEIT 451
“The Hearth and the Salamander” focuses on Montag’s job asa fireman and his home life.
Both of these symbols have to do with fire, the dominantimage of Montag’s life—the hearth because it contains the firethat heats a home, and the salamander because of ancientbeliefs that it lives in fire and is unaffected by flames.
PART ONE
Montag
30 Years Old
Enjoys his job burning books
Has a daily routine
Married to Mildred (Millie)
Montag’s society has abandoned books in favor of hollowentertainment and instant gratification.
SECTION 1
Montag is leaving work
Sidewalk unused (white, etc)
Very futuristic (trains powered by air, escalators that bringyou to your town)
Montag- lives life like he always has
He had a feeling someone was always around the corner.
Meets Clarisse McClellan.
Remembers a time with out electric (him and his mother)
Have you ever burned the books?- No, that is illegal! Burn toashes then burn the ashes <- official fireman slogan
SECTION 2
Clarisse McClellan
Montag’s new neighbor
“17 and insane”
Very inquisitive and thoughtful
Irritates Montag at first because she challenges the way he thinks(reading, cars, walking)
Family is inside with all of the lights on
Uncle has been arrested on multiple occasions
Always described in the light! (white, etc.) She becomes Montag’senlightenment
Becomes the catalyst for Montag (Are you happy?)
SECTION 2
Clarisse questions about the past
Fireman’s old job of saving houses instead of burning them
Fast Cars (billboards)
SECTION 2
He realizes he is bothered by what Clarisse has said
His eyes look over at the ventilator
His encounter reminds him of a time when he met an old manin the park.
He thinks Clarisse is able to show him what he is trulythinking, almost like reflecting himself in a mirror
Montag becomes conflicted with himself. He starts to believehe IS NOT HAPPY!
SECTION 3
Montag’s house is
like a cold marbled
mausoleum
Complete darkness
Chamber tombworld
No sound
“He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run ofacross the lawn with the mask and there was no way of goingto knock on her door and ask for it back.”
SECTION 4
He says he did not want to open the curtains or windowsbecause he did not want to let the light in.
He didn’t want to be enlightened! He wanted to stay in the lifehe had.
SECTION 4
Mildred is sleeping in the bedroom
Bed- cold like a tomb
Her eyes fixed to the ceiling.. Not moving
Little seashells (earbuds playing waves sound to block out thenoise and her unsleeping mind)
Montag kicked a pill bottle that was near the bed, finds thatmildred has overdosed on sleeping-tablets (30 pills)
SECTION 4
“As he stood there the sky over the house screamed. Therewas a tremendous ripping sound as if two giant hands hadtorn ten thousand miles of black linen down the seam. Montagwas cut in half. He felt his chest chopped down and splitapart. Jet-bombs going over, going over, going over….”
A real war is going on!
SECTION 4
Montag called the men in to pump Mildred’s stomach.
Machines look like a black cobra, like it had an eye. Theyslid down her throat using a microscope. Suction snake.
They pumped her stomach and cleaned her blood.
Cost $50
They don’t have to be doctors to do it. They are just machineoperators.
They get 9-10 cases like this a night.
SECTION 5
Seems he doesn’t love his wife
Finally goes to open the window
2 in the morning
Sees Clarisse’s house… all lights one and laughing
He wants to know what they could be possibly talking about.
Uncle speaks about the “age of the disposable tissue” People arelike tissues
Irony at the end… Montag takes a sleep-lozenge… why?
SECTION 5
Mildred doesn’t remember anything from last night
Kitchen is high tech.
He lies and agrees with Mildred- he says that they had a partyand she was hungover.
He is grateful she doesn’t remember.
SECTION 6
Mildred has sent away for a script so that she can react tothe “family”
A television show where she has a part in the show.
Yet, she doesn’t really know what the story is about.
She argues with Montag that she wants a 4th parlour wall. Aroom with walls that are all TVs
Each wall would have cost $2000 (in the 1950’s $2000 wasequal to $20,000
They just got the 3rd wall 2 months ago!
SECTION 7
Dandelion- Montag no in love with anyone.
Clarisse is seeking a psychologist
They make her go
She makes things up as she goes
The Psychologist thinks she is an onion
wants to know why she likes to go hiking around
and watch birds and collect butterflies.
SECTION 8
Montag compare Mildred to Clarisse:
“My wife thirty and yet you seem so much older at times. I can’t get overit”
Clarisse believes Montag is not like the rest.
When she talks, he looks at her.
When she said something about the moon he looked at the moon.
The others would walk off and leaver her there talking or threatenher.
She doesn’t think his profession fits him.
Montag dealing with two sides “his body felt divided into a hotnessand coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and nottrembling…” Inner Conflict!
Tilt his head back for the rain (something he has never done!)
SECTION 8
The Mechanical Hound
Lived but did not live
Darkness
Made of steel
Eyes that looked like ruby glass
Sensors in his nose
8 legs w/ rubber padded paws
Nightmare
Sleeping evil
SECTION 9
The hound is supposed to get loose rats in the firehouse.
Firemen play a game where they throw rats, chickens, or catsand see which the hound gets.
Once it gets it, a needle comes out of his mouth and injectsthe animal with morphine or procaine, then the animal isthrown into the the incinerator.
The Hound growls at Montag… weird
SECTION 9
Hound is threatening to kill Montag- Montag is scared.
Says to The Captain that the hound doesn’t like him… hisresponse was the hound doesn’t feel its just functions
The trajectory was off… did someone mess with it?
Says all of the firemen’s chemical they are made up of islisted and it should never attack or threaten a man.
Captain Beatty asks Montag if he has a guilty conscience.
SECTION 9
Montag is watching Clarisse a lot lately
Mildred didn’t want children
Clarisse is not in school
They don’t like her there
They call her anti-social
She is very social, but they don’t talk
SECTION 10
Classes at school
An hour of TV Class
An hour of basketball or baseball or running
Another hour of transcription history or painting pictures
More sports
No one asks questions
SECTION 10
People are hurting each other
Killing each other
Peers are dying
6 friends were shot last year
10 died in a car accident
For fun they name a lot of cars, clothes, swimming-pools
SECTION 10
Hound didn’t bother him this time, but hear about a Firemanin Seattle.
Purposely set a Mechanical Hound to his own chemical complex andlet it loose. (Suicide)
Clarisse is GONE!
SECTION 11
War going on overhead still
Man’s house where they burned his library
Man carried to the insane asylum
Beatty says: “Any man’s insane who thinks he can fool theGovernment and us.”
Does Montag have books?
There is a list of forbidden books.
SECTION 12
Once upon a time
What kind of TALK IS THAT?
Fool Montag though to himself you’ll give it away. Looked a book atthe last burning.
Asks Beatty if firemen used to save houses.
SECTION 12
Firemen of America
Says 1790 it was established to burn English-influenced booksin the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin (ironicbecause he was the author of The First American.
Rules:
1.Answer the alarm swiftly
2.Start the fire swiftly
3.Burn everything
4.Report back to firehouse immediately
5.Stand alert for other alarms
SECTION 12
SECTION 13
Men go to a house, a neighbor told on her.
She has books
She was not trying to get away
Standing, weaving from side to side
“She shouldn’t be here”
Montag picked up a book
SECTION 13
“His hand had done it all, his hand, with a brain of its own…had turned thief”
Smuggled the book out of the fire
Beatty tried to reason with the woman
Montag fighting with her
She stood her ground… she burns with the books.
SECTION 13
Master Ridley and Beatty (quote from the woman before shewas killed)
What is key about this quote is that a man named HughLatimer said that to a
man named Nicholas Ridley as theywere being burnt alive at Oxford, for
heresy, on October 16,1555. They were both Protestants who wanted to
deepenthe protestant religion in England, even though it was againstthe will
of Queen Mary.
SECTION 14
Montag wanted to look at the book, but doesn’t want to becaught
SECTION 15
Montag asks his wife “When did we meet. And Where?
She can’t remember, says it was so long ago
It was 10 years ago
She swallows more pills
If she died he confesses he wouldn’t cry
“How did you get so empty?”
SECTION 16
Mildred Calls the TV the relatives- her family
Tries to have a conversation with Mildred about Clarisse
She is gone
Dead- run over by a car, 4 days ago. Family has “moved”
Hears the HOUND
SECTION 16