Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

It was a pleasure to burn. 

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his 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. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.

 Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.

 He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked, in the mirror. Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered. 

Open Ended

What is action or event is happening in the opening of this passage? How do you know?

Multiple Choice

In the sentence: "his great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world", the writer is using a metaphor to describe the fireman pouring gas on a house in order to set it on fire. In that context, the word venomous could also mean:

• Deadly

• Feared

• Painful

• Destructive

He hung up his black beetle-colored helmet and shined it; he hung his flameproof jacket neatly; he showered luxuriously, and then, whistling, hands in pockets, walked across the upper floor of the fire station and fell down the hole. At the last moment, when disaster seemed positive, he pulled his hands from his pockets and broke his fall by grasping the golden pole. He slid to a squeaking halt, the heels one inch from the concrete floor downstairs.

 He walked out of the fire station and along the midnight street toward the subway where the silent air-propelled train slid soundlessly down its lubricated flue in the earth and let him out with a great puff of warm air onto the cream-tiled escalator rising to the suburb.

 Whistling, he let the escalator waft him into the still night air. He walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular. Before he reached the corner, however, he slowed as if a wind had sprung up from nowhere, as if someone had called his name.

 The last few nights he had had the most uncertain feelings about the sidewalk just around the corner here, moving in the starlight toward his house. He had felt that a moment prior to his making the turn, someone had been there. ... 

Multiple Select

Look at this sentence : "..he showered luxuriously, and then, whistling, hands in pockets, walked across the upper floor of the fire station..."

Which words show the connotation that Guy Montag is in a positive, relaxed mood? Check all that apply.

• Luxuriously

• Pockets

• Upper Floor

• Whistling

"Do you mind if I walk back with you? I'm Clarisse McClellan." 

"Clarisse. Guy Montag. Come along. What are you doing out so late wandering around? How old are you?"

 They walked in the warm-cool blowing night on the silvered pavement and there was the faintest breath of fresh apricots and strawberries in the air, and he looked around and realized this was quite impossible, so late in the year.

There was only the girl walking with him now, her face bright as snow in the moonlight, and he knew she was working his questions around, seeking the best answers she could possibly give. 

"Well," she said, "I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane. Isn't this a nice time of night to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise." 

They walked on again in silence and finally she said, thoughtfully, "You know, I'm not afraid of you at all." 

He was surprised. "Why should you be?" 

"So many people are. Afraid of firemen, I mean. But you're just a man, after all ..." 

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. Her face, turned to him now, was fragile milk crystal with a soft and constant light in it. It was not the hysterical light of electricity but—what? But the strangely comfortable and rare and gently flattering light of the candle. One time, as a child, in a power failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery, of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and grew comfortably around them, and they, mother and son, alone, transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again too soon …

And then Clarisse McClellan said: "Do you mind if I ask? How long've you worked at being a fireman?" 

"Since I was twenty, ten years ago." 

Open Ended

What do you know about Clarisse McClellan? What can you infer about her personality? Explain your answer.

"Do you ever read any of the books you burn?" 

He laughed. "That's against the law!" 

"Oh. Of course." 

"It's fine work. Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official slogan." 

They walked still farther and the girl said, "Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?" 

"No. Houses have always been fireproof, take my word for it." 

"Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames." 

He laughed. 

She glanced quickly over. "Why are you laughing?" 

"I don't know." He started to laugh again and stopped. "Why?" 

"You laugh when I haven't been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I've asked you."

Multiple Choice

What does this ending conversation tell the reader about the setting?

• The characters do not like to read

• Guy and Claire are in a rebellion against the government

• Books are illegal in this society

• This is a primitive, uneducated society

Multiple Select

Which elements of a dystopian society are apparent (obvious) from this passage? Check all that apply.

• Futuristic setting

• Controlling, restrictive government

• Futuristic society (fireproof houses)

• Propaganda

• Citizens cannot communicate with each other