In
the beginning of the novel, Guy Montag burns books without thought of the
people inside. He is walking home
one night when he encounters seventeen-year-old Clarisse McClellan. She tells Montag that
it is so great to
think freely and think deeply about things with her family. This gets Montag thinking
about his
happiness and questioning his life.
Montag
enters his home thinking about the conversation he just had with Clarisse. Montag realizes that
his wife Mildred
is not breathing, instantly he calls the emergency hospital. Within seconds they arrive
at the house
with two machines, one slid into your stomach and the other pumped out all her
blood and replaced it with new blood.
The next morning Montag asks his wife Mildred if she
remembered what had
happened last night. She had no
recollection of what had happened, just overly hungry.
A
few hours later, Montag goes off to work. On his way he runs into Clarisse and
they talk for a little as he continues walking to work. He gets to work, where
he finds the Mechanical hound. This hound sleeps but does not sleep and lived
but did not live. The hound did
not like Montag and every time Montag got near him, he would growl. The alarm
went off and Montag ran off to burn books. He glanced at one of the books in a house and began to
wonder if fireman had always been this way, setting fires instead of putting
them out. The firemen are about to
set the house on fire, when montag realized the woman is still in the building.
He attempts to get her out but she refuses.
Montag
gets home and something seems wrong. He asks his wife if she remembered where
they first met. Mildred does not really care and starts talking about her TV
Family. The next morning, Montag feels sick and asks mildred is she would care
if he gives up his job. Captain Beatty comes to the house and talks to montag,
while Mildred find Montag’s book and tries to call attention to it. After
Beatty leaves, Montag tries to show Mildred about 20 books he had been hiding
and she tries to burn them.
Montag
and Mildred look through the books, but Mildred prefers TV than books. He
doesn’t understand what he is reading and decides he needs to find a teacher.
He remembers meeting an English professor named Faber. He calls Faber, but
Faber hangs up. Montag continues to connect with Mildred and asks her many
questions. Montag goes to visit Faber, shows him his book and asks if he will
help him understand the books. Faber explains to Montag that he is looking for
not what’s in the books, but what they contain.
Montag
withdraws money to give to Faber and on his way back, Faber reads to him from
the book of Job. He gets back and finds Mildred and her two friends watching
TV. He turns off the TV and attempts to engage in a conversation with the
women. Montag takes out a book of poetry and tries to read its. Two of the
women, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, start protesting him reading a book and run
out of the house fast. Montag runs to the Firehouse when the alarm goes off and
he sees that it’s his house. Beatty notices that Montag has a thing in his ear
and Strikes him on the head. When Montag gets up, he takes his flamethrower and
kills Beatty and two other men. He runs to a gas station and washes off and
then rushes to Faber’s house. Faber instructs him to go to the railroad tracks
and follow them to the other intellectual’s. Faber gives him some clothes and
Montag departs. Montag runs to the river, but on his way he notices that
everyone is looking for him, including the Mechanical dog. He gets to the place
and is greeted by Granger. The police found a man and killed him saying he was
Montag. Granger looks at Montag and says welcome back to life. Everyone is the
group around the world remembers bits and pieces of books and Montag had to be
a back up copy of a book. There was a huge shock wave and everyone but the
Intellectuals died. They heads back into town to restart life all over again.
