Summary

**The Hearth and the Salamander: **
During the first part of the book the reader is introduced to Guy Montag a firemen who is seemingly happy in his life as a firemen who burns books. Within the first few pages Guy meets his new neighbor Clarisse, girl who is unlike other girls her age. Unlike most teenagers Clarisse does not enjoy violence or the destruction of public property, she hate the fast pass and callus world that has been created. Montag spends several moments talking to Clarisse in those few moments she is able to begin a change in him. Montag begins to question his own false happiness and the shallow world he is living in, but tries to brush it off, as he walks home. Once home Montage heads to bed, only to find his wife had attempted to kill herself with an overdose of pills. Montag call for help and technicians arrive and pump his wife Mildred stomach. Montags lack of concern revealing the lack of love between him and his wife. After the technicians leave Montag finds himself restless and wonders only to find himself outside Clarisse house watching her family and how they interact with one another. Montag stands and watches fascinated for a while before he goes home and goes to bed. The next day Montag finds Mildred in the kitchen acting as if nothing happened the night before. When Montag attempts to tell her what has happened, Mildred brushes him aside and instead talks about her TV “family” that consumes her life, and which she watches on her three wall encompassing TV’s in her living room. Montag finally gives up and leaves for work. Only to find Clarisse outside walking in the rain catching rain in her mouth, the two talk for a few moments before Montag tells her to get to her psychiatrist for her appointment. After checking to make sure she is gone Montag then leans his head back and catches the rain in his mouth. Once Montag reaches the firehouse he tries to pet the mechanical dog who growls at him and becomes very aggressive. Montag tells his fire chief Beatty about it, they proceeded to talk about the dog and his inability to think for himself. Over the next few weeks a friendship develops between Montag and Clarisse. One day at the fire house Montag ask it firemen of the past and if they once put out fires, tow other firemen pull out there hand books and show him where it talks about Benjamin Franklin establishing the first firehouse in 1790 to burn British influenced books. This is fallowed by the sounding of the alarm to an old decrepit house where an old lady is hording books in her attic. The fire department comes to burn the house, after tarring the books apart and spreading accelerant on them. During this process a book falls into Montags hand and without further thought he hides it within his pocket, then Beatty tells the old women to leave, when she refuse he assures her that they will burn it whether she is out or not. Montag is horrified and sicken when the women sticks a match herself and set the house ablaze well still inside. He is also confused by the depth of the women comment to her books that she would sacrifice her life rather then live without them. The ride back to the station is unusually quite. Montag goes home and hides the book underneath his pillow, he starts to feel disconnected from Mildred, more so then before, as Mildred seems to dive further into the fake world of TV. When Montag tells his wife that she hasn’t seen Clarisse in four days she causally informs him that she was hit by a car. The next morning Montag is sick and becomes ill at the smell of Kerosene. Montag experiences feelings of guilt over the old women, but when he tries to share them with Mildred, but she refuses to listen. Montag tries to get Mildred to argue with him by insisting on talking about books but she refuses to be pulled in. It is all ended when Captain Beatty comes to the house claiming to be checking on Montag. Beatty tells Montag that he had a feeling that Montag would be calling in sick today. He assures Montag that there comes a time in every firemen’s career that he questions his job and the rightness of it. What proceeds is a monolog from Beatty that is a semblance of ranting about the history of firemen and how books became outlawed. Beatty seems to make historical reference that have not connection to what they are talking about and he is able to cleverly twist history to his needs in defending the destruction of books. During there conversation Mildred becomes bored and starts to clean the rooms, well she is straightening she comes across the book in Montags pillow and tries to bring attention to it. But Beatty pretends not to notice and goes on with his ranting and tells how eventually the public demanded the destruction of all books. Beatty goes on to explain that after houses were made fire proof firemen’s jobs changed from putting out fires to setting all books ablaze. Beatty even admits that he has a file on Clarisse and her family and that the fire department had had there eye on the family for years. Beatty informs Montag that every firemen become curios about books and that he himself had even read some. Montag ask what would happen if a firemen happened to “accidentally” take a book home, Beatty says that he would have 48 hours to bring it to the fire house to burn it. After this Beatty leaves inquiring if Montag will come into work later, before he goes. Once Beatty gone Montag tells Mildred that he’s not going back and shows her a stash of books he has hidden in the air vent. In a panic Mildred tries to burn them but Montag is able to stop her, telling her that he wants to look through them and see if he can find the answers to why he is so unhappy. Montag demands 48 hours of support from Mildred. Montag hopes to find a reason for their importance of them, so that maybe they can share it. There is a knock on the door, but both ignore it and eventually the visitor goes away. It is later revealed that the knock was from the mechanical dog.

**The Sieve and the Sand:**
Montag and Mildred spend the rest of the afternoon reading. Montag desperately searches for answer in the books and to how they made Clarisse special. Mildred refuses to talk about someone who is dead, and she complains that the books are no where as interesting as her TV. with its pretty colors and nice sound. Montag is convinced however that some where in the depths of these books is the path that will lead him from his ignorance and into enlightenment, he is sure that if he just knew how to read them properly he would be able to figure them out. At this point Montag recalls a English professor named Faber, he meet at the park once, he recalls that Faber had been reading poetry before Montag arrived, and he thinks Faber might be able to help him. Montag recalls that after he assured the professor that it was safe, he had begun to talk about Shakespeare and other famous writers. Montag finds the phone number that Faber gave him and calls the professor. Montag then asks him how many copies of the bible are left on earth and Faber believing that he is being tricked tells him none before hanging up. Montag goes back to his pile of books and discovers that the book he took from the old women is in fact a bible the last copy in the world. Montag debates on weather to give Beatty another book in place of the bible but worries that he might already know which book Montag took and guess that he had more. Montag decides to go to the professors house, after Mildred tells him that she is going to have friends over to watch TV. Montag takes the subway reading along the way and talking to himself drawing the attention of the other riders. Montags attempts to read are interrupted by the commercials be broadcasted through the car from the radio until feed up Montag finally snaps and gets up in front of the rest of the riders and starts to scream at the radio to shut up well waving his book around. Montag then decided to get off at the next stop. Montag then proceeds to Fabers house and shows him the books. Montag asks Faber for his help to understand the books, struggling to overcome Fabers fear of him. Once Faber gets over his fear of Montag ,he gives him the secrets to understanding books. First he needs quality information, secondly he needs quiet and time to digest the information, and thirdly he needs the freedom to act upon it. Montag then makes a suggestion for how they could take down the firemen and return books to the world. Montag suggest that they plant books in the houses of firemen and then call them in so that the firemen must burn their own houses down. Faber at first is frightened of the idea, but with a little incentive from Montag with the use of bully tactics in namely the ripping of pages from the bible, Faber is able to find some nerve. Faber shows Montag a two-way radio that will allow for them to stay in contact and for Faber to be able to help Montag with Beatty that night. Faber also tells Montag of an old college friend who still has a printing press and might print them copies of the books. Montag then leave to go to the bank and withdraws money for Faber to buy the copies, and Montag listens to the radio which is reporting the countries mobilization for war. Once at home Montag is greeted with the sight of Mildred with her friends, who are enthralled with the TV. In an attempt to connect with them Montag turns off the TV and attempts to have a conversation with them. All three women are distressed at the loss of their TV “family” but finally given into Montags attempt at conversation. Unfortunately all three women prove to be only interested in their on shallowness, in an attempt to bring depth to the conversation, Montag brings out one of his books of poetry. He begins to read one of the poems to the distress of the three women, one of which begins to cry. When it is finished Mildred attempts to cover up Montags odd behavior she tells her friends that all firemen must do this sort of thing in order to prove the ills of books. Soon after the women leave and Montag decides to put the book back upon doing so he discovers that Mildred has been burning them one by one, and so Montag decides to re-hide them in the backyard behind a bush by the fence leading to the alley behind his house. After relocating the books Montag heads off to the fire station with Fabers voice in his ear simultaneously scolding and consoling him. Once at the fire station Montag hands Beatty his books, Beatty welcomes Montag back well he callously throws the books into the trash without a second glance. Beatty then proceeds to bombarded Montag with a host of literary questions in an attempt to confuse him. Montag fears making a mistakes to the point that he is unable to move, Faber reassures him that mistakes are okay and they only help to sharpen the mind. Montag and Beattys conversation is interrupted by the sound of the alarm. Beatty takes the wheel of the fire truck and drives himself and Montag to the site. Montag is confused and astonished to find the truck pull up to none other then his own house.

**Burning Bright:**
Upon pulling up to his own house Montag discovers that Mildred was the one to pull the alarm, his last glimpse of his wife is of her getting into a cab and speeding off. Beatty reveals that he was the one to set the mechanical dog to Montag as a type of warning. Beatty then proceeds to force Montag to suit up so that he can burn his own house. Well Beatty readies the house Montage suites up, Montag then proceeds to torch his own house to the ground. But when it is all over and Beatty tells him that he will now go to jail, Montag turns his flame thrower onto Beatty, at first just threatening him with it but at some point the two way radio hold Fabers voice falls out and Beatty picks it up and hears Faber. He then threatened Montag telling them that after they are done with him they will go after his friend, despite the threat of the flame blower Beatty continues to bait Montag until finally Montag takes action and sets Beatty ablaze the smell of charred flesh and agonizing screams fill the air. Montag stands there for a few minutes until he hears the sound of the mechanical dogs charging him. Montag turns his eyes from Beattys charred remains to find two mechanical dogs bearing down on him, Montag is able to set fire to one of the dogs but the other sinks his teeth into him paralyzing his leg, before he can set it too aflame. Montag attempts to flee are hindered by his leg, and his need to go to the back of the house and grab the book he has hidden there. As he runs Montag continually stumbles, do to the numbness in his leg, the sounds of approaching sirens giving him the motivation to keep going. Montag puts in a regular sea shell in his ear and he listens to the police report his own chase. Montag finds a gas station and stops into the bathroom to wash off the soot on his face. He then decides to walk to Fabers house ,on the way there he is almost run over by a bunch of teens speeding down the street, he also creeps into a fellow firemens house and plants a book in it, before calling him in. Once at Fabers house he tells him everything that has happened since the radio fell out. Faber then show Montag a small TV that he owns and the two of them watch the police track him with the use of the mechanical dogs. For a moment Montag pictures his own capture before he shakes himself free and with Fabers help devises a plan. Once Montag left, Faber was to turn on his sprinklers, open all the windows, and burn the chair Montag had sat in, so that his smell would be diminished if not erased. Faber was to then buy a ticket, and go stay with his friend that owned the printing press. Meanwhile Montag headed to the river dressed in some of Fabers old cloths. Well running Montag continued to listen to his own chase, he listen to the pleas of the police who requested that all at once everyone get up and look out their doors. As the announcer counted to three Montag could picture every persons movements to their door up until the point in which it opened. But just as the third count was reached Montag stumbled into the river. He walked the river for the rest of the night until morning when he came across a farm house where he slept in the barn. When he continues his journey Montag comes across a train track and decides to fallow it. Well he walks he has the overwhelming sensation that Clarisse once walked here. The train track leads Montag to a fire where several men sit, and they welcome him into their circle. Montag quickly realizes that these men know exactly who he is and don’t care in fact they wish to help. They give him food and a chemical injection that changes the chemical make up that cause his smell. They then show him the tv on which they have watched his progression and tell him not to worry for the chase will be over soon, Montag is confused but watches as the police corner and kill “Montag”. The group, which Montag now knows are the rebels who still read and believe in books that the government half heartedly looks for, explain that the guy was the scapegoat that was some poor innocent fool used so that the police didn’t seem like failures. Montag then ask what happens next to which they reply that they would continue to travel and wait until the world was ready for what they had to offer, the stories that they had memorized. And just as they go to begin their journey an explosion permeates the air and the group run into a field. A mushroom cloud is visible over the city and for a brief moment Montag feels a twinge of sorrow for Mildred. But is then overcome with worry for Faber and hope that he made it out alright. Then one of the older men inform Montag that the world is now ready for the knowledge that they have. Then the group heads toward the city to find survivors and to rebuild from the ashes.