Mary Claire Dutton
Final Report- Installment 2
Fahrenheit 451- Summary The Hearth and the Salamander
Section 8
Fahrenheit 451 is divided into three
different sections. Theses sections are: The Hearth and the Salamander, The
Sieve and the Sand and Burning Bright. The book begins with Guy Montag. He is a
fireman who loves burning books. He wears 451, the degrees at which books burn,
on his helmet along with a black suit, with a salamander on the arm and a
phoenix disk on his chest. On his way home from the fire station he meets his
new neighbor named Clarisse. Even though Clarisse makes him feel uncomfortable,
he finds himself attracted to her. He knows he is attracted to her because of
all the questions she asks and her lifestyle. At the end of their encounter she
asks him if he is happy, which leaves him wondering how she could understand
him so well. Upon his return home, Montag finds his wife Mildred laying on the
bed with her earplugs in along with her bottle of sleeping pills beside the
bed. Montage calls the hospital and later on two hospital workers arrive and
pump Mildred’s stomach. After all this Montag reflects on everything that has
happened to him that day.
The next day, Mildred does not remember
anything about her attempt to commit suicide and when her husband tries to
confront her about it, she completely denies it. When Montag leaves for work he
finds Clarisse outside in the rain. They end up having a conversation which
leads to her asking him why he became a fireman. When Montag arrives at the
fire station he reaches down to pet the mechanical dog, it growls at him. Montag
ponders why the dog would growl at him and assumes it was one of the fireman
joking with him. When the alarm sounds in the fire station, the firemen go to
an old house where books are hidden in the attic. While in the house a book
falls into Montag’s hand and instead of burning it he hides it underneath his
coat. The woman who is in the house refuses to leave so she also burns. Montag
takes the book home and hides it.
Captain Beatty stops by
to check on Montag. While they are talking Montag’s wife begins to straighten
up the room and finds the book Montag had hidden. When she tries to call
attention to the book, Montage yells at Mildred but the book does not escape
Captain Beatty’s attention. Montag then asks Captain Beatty what would happen
if a fireman took a book home and Captain Beatty replied by saying that they
had 24 to 48 hours to return it and if he doesn’t, then the firemen will burn
it. After Captain Beatty leaves, Montag begins to read the book he took Gulliver’s Travels.
This section of Fahrenheit 451 focuses on Montag and his
life. It covers his life and job as a fireman. It also shows how a person’s
view on things can change. At the beginning of the chapter Montag loves to burn
books and by the end he is reading one. Just this one chapter of the book
showed me that you cannot judge a book by its cover.
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