FAHRENHEIT 451Montag’s Journey

Montag’s Development• We see Montag develop through the course of the novel• He goes through the following stages

• Questioning his role as a fireman• Upset at what he has done / the situation• Reaching for Help• Taking Action

• Questions to consider:• Why does he make this change?• What causes him to want to change?

Page 34 (bottom) – Questioning

"Montag, up here!"

Montag's hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest. The men above were hurling shovelfuls of magazines into the dusty air. They fell like slaughtered birds and the woman stood below, like a small girl, among the bodies.

Page 35 (top) - Questioning

Montag had done nothing. His hand had done it all, his hand, with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief. Now, it plunged the book back under his arm, pressed it tight to sweating armpit, rushed out empty, with a magician's flourish! Look here! Innocent! Look! He gazed, shaken, at that white hand. He held it way out, as if he were farsighted. He held it close, as if he were blind. (35)

Page 49 (top) – Upset at Situation

"This is the day you go on the early shift," said Mildred. "You should've gone two hours ago. I just noticed.”

"It's not just the woman that died," said Montag. "Last night I thought about all that kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before." He got out of bed. "It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it's all over."

Page 63 (bottom) – Upset at Situation"No, Millie, no! Wait! Stop it, will you? You don't know . . . stop it!" He slapped her face, he grabbed her again and shook her. She said his name and began to cry. "Millie!" he said. "Listen. Give me a second, will you? We can't do anything. We can't burn these. I want to look at them, at least look at them once. Then if what the Captain says is true, we'll burn them together, believe me, we'll burn them together. You must help me." He looked down into her face and took hold of her chin and held her firmly. He was looking not only at her, but for himself and what he must do, in her face. "Whether we like this or not, we're in it. I've never asked for much from you in all these years, but I ask it now, I plead for it. We've got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we're in such a mess, you and the medicine nights, and the car, and me and my work. We're heading right for the cliff, Millie. God, I don't want to go over.

Page 64 (middle) – Upset at Situation

"That woman, the other night, Millie, you weren't there. You didn't see her face. And Clarisse. You never talked to her. I talked to her. And men like Beatty are afraid of her I can't understand it. Why should they be so afraid of someone like her? But I kept putting her alongside the firemen in the House last night, and I suddenly realized I didn't like them at all, and I didn't like myself at all any more. And I thought maybe it would be best if the fire-men themselves were burnt."

Page 74 (middle) – Reaching for Help

Now as the vacuum-underground rushed him through the dead cellars of town, jolting him, he remembered the terrible logic of that sieve, and he looked down and saw that he was carrying the Bible open. There were people in the suction train but he held the book in his hands and the silly thought came to him, if you read fast and read all, maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve. But he read and the worlds fell through, and he thought, in a few hours, there will be Beatty, and here will be me handing this over, so no phrase must escape me, each line must be memorized. I will myself to do it. He clenched the book in his fists.

Page 78 – Reaching for Help"Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I'm one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the 'guilty,' but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself. And when finally they set the structure to burn the hooks, using the firemen, I grunted a few times and subsided, for there were no others grunting or yelling with me, by then. Now, it's too late." Faber closed the Bible. "Well—suppose you tell me why you came here?"

"Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read."

Page 78 (continued) – Reaching for Help

Faber examined Montag's thin, blue-jowled face. "How did you get shaken up? What knocked the torch out of your hands?"

"I don't know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around, he only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I'd burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help."

Page 144 (top) – Taking Action"What have you to offer?"

"Nothing. I thought I had part of the Book of Ea] estastt, and maybe a little of Revelation, but I haven't even that now.•

"The Book of Ecclesiastes would be fine. Where was it?”

“Here.” Montag touched his head.

"Ah." Granger smiled and nodded.

"What's wrong? Isn't that all right?” said Montag.

"Better than all right: perfect!" Granger turned to the Reverend."Do We have a Book of Ecclesiastes?"

"One. A man named Harris in Youngstown."

Page 144 (cont) – Taking Action"Montag." Granger took Montag's shoulder firmly. "Walk

carefully. Guard your health. If anything should happen to Har-ris, you are the Book of Ecclesiastes. See how important you've become in the last minute!"

"But I've forgotten!"

"No, nothing's ever lost. We have ways to shake down your clinkers for you."

"But I've tried to remember!"

"Don't try. It'll come when we need U. All of us have pho-tographic memories, but spend a lifetime learning how to block off the things that are really in there. Simmons here has worked on it for twenty years and now we've got the method down to where we can recall anything that's been read once. Would you like, some day, Montag, to read Plato's Republic?”

“Of Course!”

How does Faber influence Montag?• Look at Page 79-81• What does Faber say that moves Montag to action?