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As the firetruck arrives the neighbours turn on their lights and open their doors to watch the spectacle of a home burning. Beatty tells Montag he was fooled by Clarisse, which upsets him. Montag soon realises that it is his street and his home that they are heading to. As they pull up he sees Mildred leaving in a taxi with a suitcase. He asks her if she sounded the alarm. She ignores him and leaves. The firemen begin destroying Montag's house. In his ear, Montag can hear Faber telling him to run away. But he can't. He knows the hound will chase him. Montag begins to set the flame-thrower at his house burning the books and Mildred's screens. He asks Beatty if it was his wife who had turned him in. Beatty says yes, but notes that the neighbours had reported him before Mildred did. Beatty was going to ignore it, but the second report could not be ignored.

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Beatty realises that Montag is talking to someone and takes the earpiece from Montag to hear Faber. Montag knows there is no going back now. In order to escape and protect Faber, he turns the flame-thrower at Beatty and the other firemen, killing them brutally. As he tries to run away the mechanical hound lunges at him and manages to bite him. It begins to insert the poisoned needle tooth into Montag's leg just as he destroys it with the flame-thrower. Montag realises he must run and he must warn Faber. Before he leaves the house though, he takes the remaining few books he had managed to hide in the garden.

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Opening Scene - 'It is a pleasure to burn....'

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Opening Scene - 'It is a pleasure to burn....'

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We meet Guy Montag, a fireman who lives in a dystopian future city of America, where books are illegal and the job of a fireman is not to put out fires, but to seek out books and burn both them and the homes of the people who own them. Montag is a career fireman, who believes he is protecting society and there is a higher purpose and nobility in his role.

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Montag meets a young woman as he walks home from his fire station shift one evening. Clarisse McClellan is his neighbour. She is different from everyone he has ever met before. She seems free and curious and unconventional. She questions everything and appreciates nature and their surroundings. She makes him think about things he has never considered before. Clarisse asks him why people are afraid of fireman and explains how in the past firemen put out fires. She eventually asks him a pivotal question, 'Are you happy?' This causes Montag to spiral into thoughts that he has never had before and he begins to question his life and purpose. He admits to himself that he is indeed, not happy.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Montag's Encounter with Clarisse) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Upon returning home, Montag feels empty and without enthusiasm to enter his home and see his wife. The setting is compared to a cold, stone mausoleum. He enters the bedroom and finds his wife barely breathing. An empty pill bottle lies on the dark floor. She has overdosed. Montag is torn apart with emotion, but quickly gets on the phone and calls the hospital for help. A futuristic ambulance team arrives with a machine that pumps out her stomach and replaces all the blood in her body in order to eliminate the drugs. Montag asks them why a doctor does not come and why they are so cavalier and unfeeling as they perform their duties. They tell him that there are hundreds of people doing what Montag's wife Mildred has done every evening. People are not happy in this futuristic society.

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There's More to Life Than the Screens on the 'Parlour' Walls

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There's More to Life Than the Screens on the 'Parlour' Walls

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Montag can hear Clarisse and her family next door talking and laughing into the night. The contrast to his own house is stark. The next morning his wife Mildred wakes up with no memory of the overdose and her rescue. All she can do is chatter incessantly about the latest TV show on her parlour walls. (The entire walls of everyone's lounges are covered in giant screens to create an overwhelming surround of wall to wall media.) Mildred is not interested in conversation or the real world, all she is interested in is what is on the screens.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Mildred Overdoses) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag Can't Get Clarisse Out of His Mind. 

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Montag Can't Get Clarisse Out of His Mind. 

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Montag meets Clarisse again as he walks to work. She talks of dandelions and nature and asks him a million questions. She plays a game with him saying that if the dandelion leaves a yellow mark on your chin, you are in love. When Montag holds the dandelion to his chin, there is no yellow marking left behind. Her conversation makes him wonder if he was ever in love with his wife. She makes him begin to question why he is a fireman. She makes him yearn for meaning and purpose.

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For some reason the mechanical hound (the robot dog) that the firemen rely upon to help them track book-loving criminals is malfunctioning. While at the station it keeps snarling at Montag. It begins to sniff at him and unfurl its deadly poison infused, needle-like teeth. Montag is unnerved. As a fireman, the hound is meant to serve his bidding.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Montag at the Firehouse) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag Continues to Meet Clarisse on His walks Home for Another Week

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Montag Continues to Meet Clarisse on His walks Home for Another Week

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Clarisse and Montag continue to meet as Montag walks to and from work. They talk of society and history and nature and family relationships. Clarisse does not fit in. She tells Montag stories of what the world was like before books were banned and complains about the superficiality of the world they live in. Montag begins to wonder about things he had never thought of before and he looks forward to their daily walks. But... as suddenly as she appeared, one day Clarisse is gone.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Montag Talks to Mildred and Clarisse) | Summary & Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag and his fireman colleagues are called out to a house. Usually when they are commissioned to burn down a house found to be full of books, the occupants have been arrested and taken away. But this time the Police have neglected to take everyone. An old woman stands on the porch of the house refusing to leave her library of books. Montag tries to coax her away. But she claims she would rather die than see her books burned. Before Montag can react she pours kerosine across herself and grabs his lighter. He has to watch helplessly as she burns along with the house and the books behind her.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Burning the Old Woman's House) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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We realise that Montag is secretly beginning to become obsessed with books and what is in them. Before the house is lit on fire he hides a book in his coat. This is a very risky thing to do, expecially as a fireman.

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The mechanical hound is heard sniffing around Montag's front door as he tries to get to sleep. Traumatised by witnessing the woman burn to death with all her books, Montag cannot get out of bed and go to work the next day. He asks his wife to help him, by getting aspirin and calling his boss, Captain Beatty. But Mildred is too distracted by the media she watches and listens to to be interested. She shows him no empathy. Montag realises that their relationship is 'empty' and he is not in love with his wife. Mildred informs him that she has heard the girl who lives next door, Clarisse, is dead. She was reportedly run over by a speeding car. Meanwhile Captain Beatty arrives at the house to see why Montag has not shown up to work. Beatty gives Montag a lecture about why books are dangerous. Mildred tries to plump his pillow and feels the book hidden behind it. She almost blows Montag's cover, but he yells at her to be quiet. Beatty implies that he suspects Montag has become interested in books and warns him against such rebellion. Montag asks about the girl next door, Clarisse. Beatty tells him that they have a whole investigation file on her and her family, but have never found a book.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 1 (Montag Gets Sick) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag reveals to Mildred that he has been hiding multiple stolen books up in the air conditioning vent in the hallway. She is horrified. Montag tries to get her to read them with him, but she is scared and feels betrayed. Beatty comes to the door again as they look at the books and Mildred is terrified. They do not answer the door and he soon leaves.

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Montag and Mildred sit on the hallway floor all day reading through the books. Mildred is reluctant, she wants to watch her screens. At one point a sniffing and mechanical scratching is heard at the door. The mechanical hound has the scent of something. Mildred is scared that Captain Beatty knows and will come to burn the house and her beloved TV screens. As they read, they can hear the bomber planes tear across the sky. Montag wonders if the lack of books has something to do with the constant war. He wonders if the solution may be in the books somewhere, yet no one has the access to find it. Montag remembers an older man he met a year ago at the park. He was sitting on a park bench and Montag suspected he was quickly hiding a book under his coat. As a fireman, he was duty-bound to do something about it and turn him in, but he didn't. Instead he showed mercy and sat and talked to the man about poetry. His name was Faber and he used to be a university Professor of Literature before books were banned.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 2 (Montag and Mildred Read and Talk) | Summary & Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag looks up the phone number he had recorded in his file for Faber. (He never did turn him in for investigation). He telephones him. Faber is hesitant to talk and mistrustful. But Montag perseveres and asks him if he thinks there is still a copy of the Bible left in the world. Faber will not talk on the phone, afraid it is a trap. So Montag decides to go to his house in person with the Bible tucked in his coat jacket. As he takes the subway and the train he is bombarded with visual and sound media and advertising that is incessant and overwhelming. He feels as though he cannot think. Faber, although suspicious, sees the tantalising book under Montag's arm and lets him in. Faber looks at the pages of the book and begins to chat. He admits that he was ashamed to say he was a coward, because back in the early days, when it might have still been possible to fight back against the book ban, he had stayed quiet. Montag admits he is curious and wants to understand why the world is so violent and unhappy. He feels the answer must be in the books and asks Faber to teach him how to understand them. Faber begins to explain that books contain substance and have the power to make people think critically and understand how and why the world is connected and formed. Books build empathy and understanding. This is the opposite of the fast-paced and shallow media that they are surrounded by in their current world where books are banned.

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Montag and Faber make a plan to frame all the firemen by leaving a book in their houses and reporting them, so that they are mistrusted and their homes are burned down. Faber is joking when he makes the suggestion, but Montag feels so passionately that banning books is wrong he jumps at the idea. Faber is shocked and refuses to agree. In this moment Montag shows he has changed. He has become a rebel - he has become an activist. Montag threatens Faber by standing at the door and beginning to burn individual pages of the Bible. Faber cannot resist. He cannot bear to see the book destroyed, so agrees with the plan. Faber sets Montag up with a secret espionage electronic device he has invented that allows Faber to hear everything Montag hears and says remotely from a room in his home. They agree upon a plan to frame and discredit the firemen.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 2 (Montag Talks with Faber) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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As Montag is returning home he hears a media announcement saying another war has been declared. He chats to Faber over the earpiece as he walks home from the station. They are providing comfort and company to one another and becoming friends. Once home, he walks in on his wife Mildred and her two friends who live next door. The women are watching the parlour walls together. Montag gets frustrated with them when he tries to have a meaningful conversation and they are unable to make more than shallow remarks. He asks them if they are worried about the war. He asks them if they even care about their husbands who have been sent to fight. In a bid to provoke them into feeling something, Montag recklessly pulls out a book and reads them some poetry. One of the women responds with extreme emotion and breaks down. They leave, a bit hysterical and angry at Montag. Mildred is angry and mortified and scared. Montag realises that Mildred has already begun destroying and hiding his book collection. He manages to find a few and hide them in the garden.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 2 (Montag Reads Poetry) Summary & Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag returns to work, with Faber talking in his ear all the while. Montag is nervous he will stand out and extremely scared the mechanical hound might sniff him out again, but it is not there. Montag goes through the motions of returning a book to Beatty and confessing. Beatty throws the book in a trash can and burns it. The Captain tries to confuse Montag as he lectures him about the evils of books. Ironically, Captain Beatty quotes lots of famous lines from literature as a way to berate and bully Montag. The Captain is angry and he is weaponising literature to punish Montag. Then, there is a call out and the fire crew jump onto the fire truck to race to a house that needs burning. This time Captain Beatty is driving, not Montag.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 3 (Montag Burns His House) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag is on the Run As the Whole City Watches

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Montag is on the Run As the Whole City Watches

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Montag begins to limp away with his damaged leg numb. He finds a seashell radio air piece and listens to the news media alerting the citizens of the city that a dangerous fugitive is on the run. Guy Montag. Police helicopters circle above blazing searchlights down on the street. They are air dropping mechanical hounds down to sniff out and search for Montag. Montag makes it to Faber's door unseen and warns him. They look at the TV and see that the news broadcasters are live streaming the chase and telling citizens to look for him. Faber suggests Montag should head for the river where his scent could lost by he tracking hounds. He tells him about a group of outlaws who live as vagabonds and travel the countryside.They are book friendly. Montag changes his clothes. He is worried about Faber, so he pours whisky on his clothes and turns on the garden sprinklers to help hide the scent long enough for them both to escape. It works and Montag heads for the river. We don't hear what happens to Faber.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 2 (Beatty Taunts Montag) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 3 (Montag Goes on the Run) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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As he runs along the road a car speeds towards Montag. he thinks it is the police, but it ends up being a carload of youths speeding with the deliberate aim of swerving to hit pedestrians (anyone walking the street) for fun. Montag lies flat on the ground and they miss him. But he is left wondering if this is how Clarisse died. When Montag gets to the river, the pace shifts, the intensity of his escape is replaced with the soft sounds of nature and the cooling water of the river as he allows it to carry him downstream and far away from the city. Montag drifts on the water and contemplates his life and situation and the society that has shunned him because of his curiosity for books. The river plan seems to work. No mechanical hounds follow him and he eventually washes up on the shore of the river near fields of farmland.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 3 (Montag Visits Faber) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Montag begins to walk. He realises that he is following the old railway lines that Clarisse once told him she used to spend her time walking. Eventually he is attracted to a warm-looking glow. As he gets closer he sees it is a campfire. People sit around keeping warm, chatting, relaxing. The fire seems inviting and comforting. Nothing like the fire of his flame-thrower. A man senses Montag's presence in the shadows and calls to him to join them. They offer him coffee and begin to chat. The man who invited him in is called Granger and he explains that they are a travelling group of ex- writers and academics. They operate outside of society and hide in the margins because they value books. He explains that there is a network of rebels around the country working to rescue and keep the knowledge in books. They each memorise the words in a book and hold it as oral history to one day write down again and publish when the world has changed and realised the freedom and value held in a book. They ask Montag if he has anything to contribute to their cause. He says he has some of the book of Ecclesiastes. They are happy with that and invite him to join them. One of the group has a screen and they watch the news as a camera follows the helicopters and mechanical hounds chase 'Guy Montag'. Montag is shocked to see an innocent man out for an evening walk is chased and apprehended on television. The cameras do not show his face, but the news reader states that Guy Montag has been caught.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 3 (Montag Joins the Outcasts) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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The band of book-loving travellers decide to move downstream. But as they pack up camp and travel there are loud noises and in the distant horizon they witness the city being struck with bombs. The group lay flat on the earth to weather the intense atomic winds and dust and upheaval. Montag grieves for his wife Mildred, who must surely be dead. When the winds stop and the dust settles, the group continues to travel north, silently grieving and ruminating on the myth of the phoenix.

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Fahrenheit 451  | Part 3 (Civilization Is Bombed) | Summary and Analysis | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | 10 Things You Didn't Know | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Author Biography | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Context | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Characters | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Plot Summary | Ray Bradbury

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Fahrenheit 451  | Symbols | Ray Bradbury