Fahrenheit 451
Know what Montag hid behind the grille of the air-conditioning system that caused his wife to panic
He hid a dozen or so books
Regarding the quote from Captain Beatty in the previous question, understand what it says about Beatty's characteristics.
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Know why Montag is upset that bombers are always flying above his house
Because he is not informed of what is going on out there and the government is not addressing it.
Understand why Mildred says this to her husband about the old woman who was reported to authorities for having books: "She's [the old woman] nothing to me; she shouldn't have had books. It was her responsibility, she should've thought of that. I hate her. She's got you going and next thing you know we'll be out, no house, no job, nothing."
Burning books(and the old woman) is really hurting Montag. So Mildred is really upset about it.
When considering how Montag was crossing the street and was almost killed by a group of young people in a car, understand what that incident says about society.
Disregard for human life.
When Montag reads to the women- Mrs.Phelps and Mrs.Bowles- who are visiting Mildred.
Dover's Beach.
When Faber says, "I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and Know I'm alive," understand what Faber's point is.
Faber doesn't talk about silly, meaningless stuff like most people. Instead, he talks about important ideas and the meaning, the WHY of things.
Understand what this quote by Montag says about him: "Kerosene is nothing but perfume to me."
He burns books so much that the smell of kerosene is going to stay on his clothes and body forever.
The following quote from Clarisse to Montag shows that Montag lacks independent thinking and, therefore, laughs at Clarisse's words because he doesn't stop to think about everything she says: "You laugh when I haven't been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I've asked you." Be able to identify what theme is displayed in this scene that shows how Montag fits into society.
He doesn't think the same way she does so he laughs at things that aren't funny. Montag doesn't know how to think for himself, so he just laughs at Clarisse without thinking.
Understand how alienation and loneliness is a theme seen in this passage: "He [Montag] made more soft sounds. He stumbled toward the bed and shoved the book clumsily under the cold pillow. He fell into bed and his wife cried out startled. He lay far across the room from her, on a winter island separated by an empty sea."
He is so paranoid about the books that he stays away from Mildred
Understand the elements in this passage when Montag meets Professor Faber- "[Now Montag] remembered how it was the day I the city park when he had seen that old man in the black suit hide something. quickly, in his coat. "... the old man leaped up as if to run. And Montag said, 'Wait!" "'I haven't done anything!' cried the old man, trembling."
He realizes that he is unhappy and he feels the way to become happy is to read. He remembers that Faber had books and wants to talk to him about it.
When Faber says the following quote, understand what his frustration with society is: "Off-hours, yes. But time to think? If you're not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can't think of anything else but the danger, then you're playing some game or sitting in some room where you can't argue with the four wall televisor. WHy? THe televisor is 'real.' It is immediate, it has dimension. t tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn't time to protest, 'What nonsense!'"
He says people don't care about anything and people don't want to use their brains anymore and don't want to think.
Understand what Clarisse is saying about her family in this quote: "Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It's like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time- did I tell you?- for being a pedestrian. Oh, we're most peculiar."
Her family is so strange and breaks rules so they can actually think. Clarisse's uncle got arrested for walking and driving to slow because he was observing things She and her family actually have meaningful conversations and think for themselves.
The word hand is used 139 times throughout the novel. In this case, Granger uses the word hand: "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies... A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at the tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do," he said," so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away." Understand what is important in this passage, according to Granger.
It is important that everyone leaves a legacy to pass on information and to make everyone feel important.
Understand what this quote says about Captain Beatty: "What traitors books can be! You think they're backing you up, and they turn on you. Others can use them, too, and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor, in a great welter of nouns and verbs and adjectives."
It seems that at one point or another in Captain Beatty's life he was an avid reader of books. At some point in his life it seems as if books had turned on him.
Using the same passage from Faber in the previous question, understand what is shows about popular culture and mass media.
Its all about selling products and entertaining people.
Understand what Clarisse is saying in this quote: "People don't talk about anything.. THey name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else."
People are so set to the standards they don't have room for anything else. People do not think for themselves and there is no diversity in thinking in their society.
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Know how Montag escaped from the Mechanical Hound
Set it on fire with a flame thrower
Understand what this quote says about Clarisse and Montag: "I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames."
She heard from someone who probably read a book that firemen put out fires instead of starting them.
Understand what this quote shows about Clarisse's and Montag's relationship: "Why is it that I feel I've known you so many years?"
She knew him for a few days but learned so much about him. Some things he didn't even know about himself.
Know what Clarisse teaches Montag to do
She teaches Montag to think and ask questions.
Know what Faber owned that was smaller than his hand, the size of a postcard.
Small TV
in this passage, when Montag talks to his wife about her friends, understand how it characterizes Montag: "Did you hear them, did you hear these monsters talking about monsters? Oh, God, the way they jabber about people and their own children and themselves
That he cares about the people around him and is upset how others dehumanize people.
Know why Ray Bradbury maned the title of his novel Fahrenheit 451
That is the degrees that books burn
Be able to identify what happened to end the police search for Montag.
The hound killed a random person walking in the street.
Know what happened with the old woman who owned all of the books in the ancient part of the city
The lady was burned alongside her books and home.
Understand what Captain Beatty is saying in this quote, "There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time."
There were no rules back then which led to thinking. (That was unacceptable)
Know what rituals this society observes upon a person's death
They burn them and forget them
During his talk with Montag, Granger says about all of the men in exile with him, "We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John." Understand what Granger is saying about these men.
They each memorized a particular author to keep their works for generations.
Know what the men whom Granger is with are identified as.
They identify as books
Personfication
giving human characteristics to something that is not human
Know what the name the firemen's fire truck is.
salamander
Auditory Imagery
use of language to represent an experience pertaining to sound
Dramatic Irony
when the audience knows what is occurring in the story but the characters do not
Simile
A comparison using "like" or "as"
Metaphor
A comparison without using like or as
Understand how Montag has been affected when he says, "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing."
Clarisse makes him wonder about little things like why would someone risk there life for books. Montag knows that books are important and he wants to know they are important.
An extended metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things that continues longer than a sentence. In this case, the extended metaphor runs through most of the third part of the book. Here are three passages that are part of one extended metaphor. Identify what Bradbury is comparing in n extended metaphor that is given to you on the test.
#1 (Found online) The comparison is of Montag's house, and a circus/People watch both for entertainment.
Given two excerpts from the book, identify the point of view of this novel. (Found these online, hopefully they are right) 1. "With the brass nozzle in his (Montag's) fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history." 2. "There are too many of us, he (Montag) thought. There are billions of us and that's too many. Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take your blood. Good God, who were those men? I never saw them before in my life!" Considering these two excerpts, identify the point of view of this novel.
1. Showing how the power behind the fire is burning all the knowledge. 2. Montag is saying that people don't know each other, and they don't know why they are even here. Also, this is when he starts to think about society.
Allusion
A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the sound it represents.
Right before Montag hands Captain Beatty his book in the firehouse, Beatty says, "Well, here comes a very strange beast which in all tongues is called a fool." Beatty's quote is a line from Shakespeare's play As You Like It. Understand what Beatty is saying about Montag.
Beatty is calling Montag a fool and asking him to play a hand of poker, in which is a symbol; Beatty holds all the cards. Beatty begins breaking down Montag mentally by quoting books,
After the city has been destroyed by war, understand what Granger is saying, especially about the mirrors: "And someday we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest ******* steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look at them."
Bradbury again returns to the images of destruction and construction, the grave and the factory. He arrives at the idea of learning from the past, burying it, and then building a new future by constantly looking or evaluating oneself
The protagonist in the novel is Montag. Be able to identify who the two antagonists are.
Captain Beatty and Mildred because they restrict him from observing and thinking.
When Captain Beatty went to Montag's home to find out why Montag was not at work, know what kind of car Captain Beatty was driving
Captain Beatty's car was a Phoenix car.
When Captain Beatty is scolding Montag before Montag kills him, understand what Beatty means when he says, "Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of Creation. You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them."
He thinks books are confusing and controversial and instead of uniting society they destroy society instead.
When Granger and the men are frying bacon after the war began and ended, know what mythical creature Granger talks about.
Icarus
In this passage, understand how it characterizes Faber: "The old man looked as if he had not been out of the house in years. He and the white laster walks inside were much the same. THere was white in the flesh of his mouth and his cheeks and his hair was white and his eyes had faded, with white in the vague blueness there."
It shows Faber as a hermit that never leaves his house/ Also, he is very old and tired-looking.
Be able to identify the situation Mildred is in when she is first introduced in the novel.
Mildred had swallowed all of her medication to try and kill herself.
Be able to identify the theme developed when Mildred tells Montag about how she is excited to play a part in a television show in this quote: "Well, this is a play that comes on the wall-to-wall circuit in ten minutes. They mailed me my part this morning... They write the script with one part missing. It's a new idea. The homemaker, that's me, is the missing part."
Mildred is so stuck to the parlors she calls them family.
Understand elements of Mildred's characterization after her televisions are burned and she says this: "Poor family, poor family, oh everything went, everything, everything gone now."
Mildred is too reliant on technology and feels like she has nothing new.
Know who burned Montag's house and all of his books
Montag
Understand how Montag feels after reflecting about losing his wife when he says: "It's strange. I don't miss her. It's strange. I don't feel much of anything. Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don't think I'll feel sad. It isn't right. SOmething must be wrong with me."
Montag feels that he should feel bad that his wife died but he doesn't. He never really loved her and feels that he might of actually despised and hated her.
When Montag hears this on the radio: "The seashell hummed in his ear./ "What for a man running... watch for the running man... watch for a man alone, on foot.. watch..."
Montag is running from the authorities because he killed Beatty and hid books in his house.
In this excerpt, Montag is referring to Mildred. Understand what Montag sees and thinks about his wife: "I think of her hands but I don't see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lay there on her lap or there's a cigarette in them, but that's all."
Montag is starting to miss Mildred and he is starting to feel bad because he is thinking that this is all his fault. Montag also might be going a little bit crazy in the head from everything going on. He realizes all the tragedies that has happened in the past week.
Understand what Faber is saying when he gives Montag accumulation device to put in his ear, telling Montag, "I'm the Queen Bee, safe in my hive. You will be the drone, the traveling ear."
Montag will do all the work while Faber tells him what to do.
Understand how Mrs.Bowles is characterized and how she sees her purpose in society in this passage about reproduction: "I've had two children by Caesarian section. No use going through all that agony for a baby. the world must reproduce, you know, the race must go on. Besides, they sometimes look just like you, and that's nice. Two Caesarians turned the trick, yes, sir."
Mrs. Bowles is describing her children and how she had them. Of course, Mrs. Bowles is one of those people who thinks that it is crazy to go through pain just to have a baby. She does not feel that she is a motherly type. She is cruel to these children because she doesn't love them. She does not want to love them and she does not want to care for them.
Understand what Professor Faber says about religion in society in this quote: "It's as good as I remember. Lord, how they've changed it in our ' parlors' these days. Christ is one of the 'family' now. I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down? He's a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when he isn't making veiled references to certain commercial products that every worshiper absolutely needs."
No one really has a religion anymore and that the government uses religion to sell more products to people and brain wash them.
Understand what the following passage describing Montag's escape from the city says about how Montag changes and what is symbolic in this passage: "Then he dressed in Faber's old clothes and shoes. He tossed his own clothing in the river and watched it swept away... He walked out in the river... and he has swept away in the dark... He felt as if he had left a stage behind and many actors. He felt as if he had left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts. He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new."
Notice that it is the river which cleanses Montag of his old smell, his old identity. Getting in touch with nature, as cheesy as that sounds, is his saving grace against the machinery of the government.
Understand what Captain Beatty is saying about society in this quote: "Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten-or twelve-line dictionary resume. I exaggerate, of course... Do you see? Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more."
People are so stuck in their daily routine that there is no time for thinking so that's why they burn books. Beatty is saying society has a very short attention span and that people slowly stopped caring about classics so they kept be condensed to make it easier to see.
In this passage, Mildred tells Montag about television. Understand how It characterizes Mildred: "Books aren't people/ You read and I look all around, but there isn't anybody!... Now,...[m]y 'family' is people. THey teach me things: I laugh, they laugh! And the colors!"
She is brained washed into this society that focuses all on watching TV. She cares more about her fake tv family then her own family and disagrees with books because that is what she is taught to do.
When Montag says "Let you alone! That s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while, " understand how Clarisse has had an effect on him.
She taught him how to let his mind run freely so he talked back o Mildred and said that he really needs to be bothered once in a while because it lets him think Clairrse has shown Montag that society is not perfect like everyone thinks and that people must think for themselves.
Considering Montag's characterstics and family situation, know what is ironic about Clarisse being so friendly with him
She was Montag's only friend and when she got hit by a car he was very emotional and torn.
When Montag "Walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular," understand what the narrator is showing about Montag's thoughts and actions, as well as how that connects to society as a whole.
That Montag really doesn't care yet that he is burning peoples houses and does not think twice about his job. He hasn't start to question anything going around him.
Understand Captain Beatty's beliefs when say the following passage in one of his last speeches: "What is a fire? It's a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledygook about friction and molecules. But they don't really know. Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the finance with it."
That the society shouldn't follow science, just like reading. The science is too controversial and there a re too many unanswered questions so it is easier to not learn it.
When Faber talks about books in this passage, understand what believes about them: "The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are... Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world. We haven't time, money or that many friends."
That they keep us informed and keep people in check with themselves, to not repeat history and to see things from many different point of views.
After riding the vacuum-underground to get to Faber's house, know what Montag shows him. Know what name the firemen's fire truck is.
The Bible
When Montag is pointing a flamethrower toward Captain Beatty, understand Beatty's character and what he is doing when he says: "Well, that's one way to get an audience. Half a gun on a man and force him to listen to your speech. Speech away. What'll it be this time? Why don't you belch Shakespeare at me, you fumbling snob? 'There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm'd so strong in honesty that they pass me as an idle wind, which I respect not! Go ahead now, you second-hand litterateur, pull the trigger."
Though Montag is capable of killing Beatty, Beatty continues to taught him, Beatty is not worried by the threats because he wants to die. Bradberry mentions this quotation from Julius Ceaser because it exhibits Brutu's strong since of bravery and confidence, characteristics that Montag has.
Visual Imagery
descriptive language that appeals to the sense of sight
Olfactory Imagery
descriptive language that appeals to the sense of smell
Gustatory Imagery
descriptive language that appeals to the sense of taste
Tactile Imagery
descriptive language that appeals to the sense of touch
Identify what kind of imagery Bradbury uses in this sentence and what kind of figurative language is used to enhance the imagery: "the pains were spikes driven in the kneecaps and then only darning needles and the only common ordinary safety pins, and after he had shacked up along fifty more hops and jumps, filling his hand with slivers from the board fence, the prickling was like someone blowing a spray of scalding water on that leg."
uses touch imagery