#1 CHARACTERS

Pg7
“He saw himself in her eyes, suspended in two shining drops of bright water, himself dark and tiny, in fine detail, the lines about his mouth, everything there, as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact.”

Pg 17
Montag moved out through the French windows and crossed the lawn, without even thinking of it. He stood outside the talking house in the shadows, thinking he might even tap on their door and whisper, "Let me come in. I won’t say anything. I just want to listen. What is it you’re saying?”

Pg 61
“… The important thing for you to remember, Montag, is we’re the Happiness Boys, the Dixie Duo, you and I wand the others. We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought… Hold steady…We depend on you. I don’t think you realize how important you are, we are, to our happy world as it stands now.”

Pg 73
“Why should I read? What for?”

Pg 75
“I don’t talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I’m alive.”

Pg 156-157
"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 your take your hands away. "

Clarisse is a very special character in this book. Her entrance begins the rising action of the story's plot diagram. Clarisse makes a difference in Guy's life. She plants a new seed in his mind; sparks a light that later turns out to be a big fire. I like her character. She questions everything until she has a personal understanding of the topic. She questions even the things other people just take for granted such as happiness. She takes the risk of thinking about things no one else thinks about and asking the question, "What if..." (a question no one ever asks). One thing she reveals about the universal human experience is that caring matters. Taking the time to be with someone and talk with that person just because it is nice to can have a huge impact on that person. I have to admit, Clarisse is not the typical seventeen year old girl in our world. She picks dandelions and rubs them under her chin. However, she is honest. Clarisse means what she says when she says them, and takes what others say seriously.

Guy Montag is one curious guy. Montag is the protagonist of this book. After working as a fireman for ten years, he suddenly realizes that he cannot burn anymore. His life becomes a confusing mess when he is not sure of what his life means. All his life he knew he was happy. But when one seventeen year old girl asked him the simple question, "Are you happy?" He had trouble answering it. Guy is a very unstable man. By the end of this book, he is begining to understand the world a little bit more. I do not particularly like this character because he is not sure of himself. One of the truths he reveals about life is that it is full of new and challenging beginnings. When something is "new," then that means that there is something that is not new- old. To Montag, "old" is everything- his job, his wife, his house, his boss, etc. Montag's "old" life is burned by an atomic bomb and he starts a new one.

Beatty is the most complicated character in this book. Similar to Montag, I do not think that he is sure of himself either. He burns books because that is the law and is against them, but has them all memorized in his head. Beatty can be seen as the antogonist of the story, although he is not evil. He is special in the way that all his life was dedicated to keeping people free from worry and therefore giving them happiness. Beatty reveals a truth about happiness. He says that people should not compare themselves with others. (Books with different ideas and magazines are some of the reasons people compare themselves with others.)We are all the same. And when we don't compare ourselves to others, we can achieve happiness.

Mildred Montag is Guy Montag's wife. She is not supportive of her husband. Instead, she is the obstacle in Guy's way that constantly drags him backwards. She is the one that calls the fire station and raises the alarm that Guy Montag has books in his house. Mildred Montag is a typical person living in this dystopian world. I do not like her greedy self-centered character. Her character is interesting because she is never satisfied and always goes looking for more but dies in the end. She is an example of a person living a meaningless life.

Faber is an important character in this book because he is Montag's first real friend. He is a coward and cannot courageously stand up for his beliefs. I like how Faber quietly loves books, but he just needs to find the courage to express his feelings despite others' opposing opinions. He shows that life is meant to be expressed. Nobody can stay quiet forever.

Granger is Montag's new friend. He is one of the people who is standing up for his beliefs and doing everything he can to keep them going, watching for the right time to act. I admire him for his individuality and smart, thinking-ahead mind. Granger reveals that there is a right time for everything and that we have only one life we should make the best out of.

#2 SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE

Pg 157

Grandfather’s been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convultions of my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me.

This passage was very meaningful to me because of how realistically, with detail, the author describes how he had been impacted by his grandfather.

When you are touched by a person, their fingerprints that were imprinted in you cannot erase, even after that person has died. The things that special person said, the way they said it and when, and their voice will stay in your mind.

It is a very significant thing for someone to influence your life, and even more for you to influence others' lives. I love how Ray Bradbury talks about the big ridges of this grandfather's thumbprint under the skull in the convulsions of the brain. Influence is invisible. It is not something anyone can see, but something everyone can feel. However although it is imperceptible, it is powerful. It is as if somebody has literally opened up your brain and smeared his or her fingerprints over it. It might be several slight marks, or one clear print, but the important fact is that it was left by that person and it will always remain- right at the place it was marked.

#3 CLIMAX

Pg 119

He switchedthe safety catch on the flame thrower. Beatty glanced instantly at Montag's fingers and his eyes widened the faintest bit... Beatty grinned his most charming grin... "We never burned right..." "Hand it over, Guy," said Beatty with a fixed smile. And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering mannikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one contiunous pulse of liquid fire on him.

Pg 122

Beatty wanted to die. In the middle of the crying Montag knew it for the truth. Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, joking, needling, thought Montag, and the thought was enough to stifle his sobing and let him pause for air. How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad and then...

Guy Montag was living a happy life until a girl named Clarisse came over and shook up his world. After his first conversation with Clarisse, Montag's mind was like a seesaw, teetering up and down, trying to balance it self out. He finally made the decision as to which side he wants up and which side down when he shot Beatty with the flame thrower.

Montag is a curious guy, and he was out in search for the truth; in search for true happiness. Montag believed he lived a very happy life until Clarisse asked him, "Are you happy?" Guy thought, "Of course I am," but after those words stumbled out and wondered if they should go back into his mouth or not. Clarisse gave him a wanting to do something illegal- Guy wanted to read books. Beatty encouraged Guy to keep up his work of keeping people happy by giving them nothing to worry about. However, is that really true happiness? Is it possible to have a perfect world and for everyone to always be happy? Beatty warned him that books brought unhappiness to people and arguments, fights, murder, and wars, that the way they live now is good, and a fireman's job is to keep it that way. Beatty continued to get on Montag's nerves. He continuously bothered him, and that is when one side of Guy's seesaw dropped, never to rise again. It was done with teetering back and forth. He switched off the safety switch on the flame thrower and murdered Beatty. He chose to fight for the books, and Beatty was right. Books brought murder- something Guy could not rewind. Montag, how ever much regret he felt, made the decision to search for true happiness, even if it meant other things such as sadness, regret, worry, and depression came along with it. This truely is a dystopian novel.

#4 SETTING

Pg 91-92
The way the clouds moved aside and came back, and the way the stars looked, a million of them swimming between the clouds, like the enemy discs, and the feeling that the sky might fall upon the city and turn it to chalk dust, and the moon go up in red fire; that was how the night felt.

Guy Montag walks out of Faber's house onto the dark street and he is a little bit different from the Guy Montag that morning. Now, he has a plan. Other than to burn books and homes and the several people who choose to die with their books, Montag has something that he wants to accomplish in this world, something he wants to live for, and maybe die for. However it is still the beginning. Montag's desires are not strong enough to be able to stand against the harsh winds alone. In this sentence, the setting portrays a picture of the sky Montag is walking under, but it is framed by his mind and the way he feels. He is physically and mentally under a dark, black sky with ghost-like clouds, threatening stars, and a burning moon. He says he feels as if this sky will fall on him, crush him, and "turn it to chalk dust." Montag is not sure of anything yet. It is a shaky beginning and the future does not look too bright. In the midst of all the fog, Montag is not even sure about where his next step will take him, and even if he should take that step or not.

This passage is memorable to me because of the way the author uses the setting to help readers feel with the main character, and by helping readers to relate with the main character, sense the mood and tone of the passage and of the author's voice.

#5 ENTRY OF CHOICE

Pg 145
That small motion, the white and red color, a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning. It was warming.

Fire plays a big part in this book Fahrenheit 451. At first, it is portrayed as some kind of evil. The only purpose of fire at the beginning of the story is to burn (mainly books). Firefighters are no longer called firefighters, but firemen. They are not those who hear the alarm and immediately get on to their firetrucks, speeding away to the burning house with a hose pumped up with water, ready to put the fire out. Firemen are just the opposite. They hear an alarm, rush to the house, and set it on fire, burning the house and the books found in that house.
An object is what it is. However, people take the object in their minds and dress it up, styling its hair and designing its shape until it looks like how they want it to look, or how they want it to be. For many people, once it is formed the way it is in their minds, it is very difficult, nearly impossible, for it to transform. This is unless the person has experienced some kind of extraordinary occurance that changed the object by force. For example, imagine a desk. In your mind, it is probably rectangular with four legs and a flat surface, maybe with some books, papers, and even a pencil case. If one day, someone comes along and paints spikes on the smooth surface of your desk, or adds an extra ten feet to its legs. You would think that that person has ruined the desk. This is because the purpose of a desk is to have a smooth surface at the right height when sitting on a chair for a comfortable space to study, but with spikes or if it's too high, it does not serve its purpose. Therefore, you could conclude that after that person added some extra brushstrokes to your painting, the desk is now strange. This is the word Montag uses to describe the small sparks of red and white he saw. They looked familiar. They were familiar. He saw it nearly every day for ten years, but it looked strange because it "meant a different thing to him." It served a different purpose, and therefore it did not match the picture of fire that was already drawn into his mind. "It was not burning. It was warming." All his life, fire served one purpose, and that was to burn. Now, fire served a different objective- to warm. Now, Montag's life is different.

#6 MOOD

Pg 18
“’I don’t know anything any more,’ he said, and let a sleep lozenge dissolve on his tongue.”

Pg 140-141
Burning. The river bobbled him along gently. Burning. The sun and every clock on the earth. It all came together and became a single thing in his mind. After a long time of floating on the land and a short time of floating in the river he knew why he must never burn again in his life. The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!

Pg 144
He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than enough.


In almost all stories, the mood of the book is conveyed by the feelings of the main characters. Guy Montag is one confused man. In this book, his life is destroyed and he starts a new one, with new friends, new thoughts, new beliefs... Life is full of new things, and every time we encounter something new, we change. The Guy Montag at the beginning of this book and the Guy Montag in the last page is not the same. He realizes how "everything burns." The sun burns itself, time burns, and firemen burn. However since the sun cannot stop burning and time will forever burn, Guy realizes that he must be the one to stop, and decides to never burn again, to quit being a fireman. This is a big step for Guy- he has been a fireman for ten years. Now he must find a new job. When someone asks him, "Who are you?" or "What do you do?" He cannnot say that he is a fireman anymore. He must come up with a different answer, a different identity for himself. Also, his purpose is no longer to retain other people's happiness nor to burn books. He does not live in the same kind of world anymore. Before, he lived in the kind of world where nothing was ever enough. this can be seen through his wife, Mildred's behavior. Mildred is a model of a normal person in the dystopian world of Fahrenheit 451. She is not satisfied with what she has and is always looking for more. This is the kind of world Guy lived in at the beginning of the story. However, when he jumps into a river and is carried downstream, the river flows into a whole new beginning. When Montag reaches land, his thoughts on land itself is different. Now, he says, "There would always be more than enough." Throughout the story, Montag goes through a big shift in his life. Similiarily, the mood is also altered. For most of the story, its mood is frightening, sinister, unsettled, and confused. To read a book is illegal, there is a new kind of machine called the mechanical hound that kills people, there is no honesty between people anymore, and Guy is at a loss as to where he stands in the world. However Montag leaves all of this behind and chooses a new beginning. His home is destroyed by atomic bombs. All of his friends and family that he knew are now dead, and he begins a journey with his new friends, searching for the right place and the right time for him to plant his beliefs into the ground so that they will be able to spring up and become prolific. The mood does have a sense of sadness because of everything Guy gives up and leaves behind. also, the word burning gives a dark, gloomy tone to the story in the first place.