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Fahrenheit 451
Pathfinders · 7th–9th
Montag laughs off Clarisse’s question, “Are you happy?”, and minutes later tells himself he is not. Did she show him something he already knew, or put the doubt in his head?
The tension The fireman who burns books with “the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles”, a smile that “never ever went away”, is the same man who, minutes after Clarisse runs off, feels “his smile slide away, melt, fold over” and says to himself “He was not happy.”
Follow Montag’s smile through one night: from a burning house, along a short walk with a new neighbour, to a cold, dark bedroom.
Montag, a fireman of ten years, burns a house full of books and loves it; he goes to bed each night with the fire’s grin still on his face. Walking home from the subway, he slows at a corner where, for several nights, he has felt that someone was waiting. Tonight a girl is there: Clarisse McClellan, seventeen, his new neighbour, who calls herself crazy. She walks him home and asks him questions no one asks. Does he ever read the books he burns? Did firemen once put fires out? He laughs and answers at once, and she tells him he never stops to think. She talks about drivers who see only blurs, about billboards stretched to two hundred feet, about dew on the grass and the man in the moon, and he grows irritable. At her lit-up house she asks, “Are you happy?” and runs inside before he can answer. In his hall Montag insists to himself that of course he is happy. He glances at the ventilator grille, remembers that something is hidden behind it, and looks away. He thinks about her face, a mirror that gives a person back to himself, while most people are torches. He opens the bedroom door on cold darkness. His smile melts, and he admits he is not happy. His wife, Mildred, lies still on the bed with the Seashell radios in her ears. His foot strikes an empty bottle that had held thirty sleeping-tablets. Jets scream over the house, and Montag phones the emergency hospital.
Before reading, ask the student whether a person can be unhappy without knowing it. Read aloud from the opening to “It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered.” and stop: ask what the smile is like. Read on to “He turned the corner.” and stop again: ask what Montag expects to find. Read the walk through to Clarisse’s door shutting, then to the end without stopping. The reading ends with Mildred unmoving beside an empty bottle of sleeping-tablets and Montag calling the emergency hospital. Name that plainly and move on; the chapter gives no reason for it, and the lesson is the smile, not the bottle. Do not say what lies behind the grille or who the old man in the park was: the reading does not say.
Retell The student tells the night back in four parts. First the fire: the burning house, the grin, the smile that stays in the dark. Then the corner and the walk: the uneasy nights, Clarisse, her questions, the dew and the moon, and “Are you happy?” Then the hall: “Of course I’m happy”, the grille, the old man he half remembers, and her face like a mirror. Last, the bedroom: the cold dark, the smile that melts, “He was not happy”, the empty bottle, the jets and the call. Ask for three or four sentences for each part, in order.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes four sentences built like the first passage, about doing something they love: two short sentences that begin “It was”, then two long ones that each open with a phrase beginning “With”, so the reader waits for the subject, and that carry one comparison (Bradbury’s hose is a “python”; his fireman is a “conductor”). Then three or four sentences built like the second passage, about someone who understands them: one sentence with no verb, one that opens with a single word and a colon, and one question they ask themselves and do not answer.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. Reasons she showed him what he already knew: the uneasy nights at the corner; the smile “gripped” in the dark; the grille he cannot look at; the word “recognized”. Reasons she put the doubt there: he walks home whistling, “thinking little at all about nothing in particular”; he laughs off her question as “nonsense”; he says the girl “had run off across the lawn with the mask”. One side argues each, with a reason and a line from the reading, then they switch. Neither side may say what is behind the grille or what Montag will do next.
Purpose Close on one word and how often it comes. Clarisse asks, “Are you happy?” Montag answers, “Happy! Of all the nonsense.” In the hall he says, “Of course I’m happy.” At the bedroom door: “He was not happy. He was not happy.” Then: “He wore his happiness like a mask”. Ask why Bradbury lets Montag say “He was not happy” twice in a row, and what the second time adds to the first.
Easier Read aloud together from “Montag grinned the fierce grin” to “as long as he remembered”, and talk through the second discussion question (whether he wears the smile or it wears him). Then read the walk from “Do you mind if I ask?” to Clarisse’s door shutting, and the paragraph that begins “He felt his smile slide away”. Answer the last written question aloud, starting from what Montag says about being happy in the hall and what he says at the bedroom door.
On level Talk through the five discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to both written questions in complete sentences: a claim, two pieces of evidence from different parts of the reading, and an answer to the strongest objection.
Harder Ask the student to write the last written question as an argument: a claim, the strongest reason against it, and an answer to that reason. Then point out the word Montag uses at the bedroom door: he “recognized this as the true state of affairs.” To recognize is to know again. Ask whether that one word settles the question, or whether a person can recognize something only once someone else has named it. The answer must not say what lies behind the grille or what Montag will do next.
1. Read the first paragraph again. Did you enjoy the fire, even a little? What in the writing made you feel that way?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to own their first response to the book, before anyone in it raises a doubt. The opening paragraph is written as a delight: “It was a pleasure to burn”, Montag’s hands are “the hands of some amazing conductor”, he strides “in a swarm of fireflies”, and he wants, “like the old joke”, to toast a marshmallow in the furnace. The same paragraph calls the hose a “great python” spitting “venomous kerosene”, and the books “died” on the lawn. The student says honestly how the paragraph made them feel and finds the words that did it. Either answer is fine; the evidence is what counts. It takes up one part of the last written question: the happiness the night will take away begins here, and the reader is asked to feel it too. Do not tell the student the burning is simply evil, or that enjoying it was wrong; the prose asks the reader to enjoy it first.
Yes, at least a little. The paragraph sounds like music and a party: a conductor, symphonies, fireflies, a marshmallow on a stick. It is hard not to be carried along.
his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning
He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace
Not really, or only until something spoiled it. Mixed in with the fun are a snake, poison, and books that die like birds. The words warn you even while Montag is enjoying himself.
with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world
while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house
A strong answer A strong response might say yes: with the hose a “conductor” and the fire “symphonies”, and a man who wants to toast a marshmallow, the reader feels the joy before judging it, so Montag seems a man and not a monster. Another might say the pleasure never quite lands: the same sentence holds a “python” and “venomous kerosene”, and the books “died”, so the reader is uneasy even while Montag is not. A careful answer may notice that Bradbury lets us feel both at once, and that a joy this complete is one the reader will miss when the night takes it away.
2. Montag’s smile “never ever went away.” Does he wear that smile, or does it wear him?Character
What it asks It asks the student who is in charge, Montag or his smile. After the fire he grins “the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.” Going to sleep, he feels “the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark,” and “It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered.” He showers “luxuriously” and whistles all the way home. At the bedroom door the smile slides away, and he thinks, “He wore his happiness like a mask”. The student decides whether the smile is something Montag puts on because he is pleased, or something that has hold of him whether he is pleased or not. It takes up one part of the last written question: if the smile was already a mask before Clarisse, she did not take a real happiness away. If the student has not yet reached the bedroom door, let them find the mask there rather than telling them.
He wears it. He loves his work, and the smile is his own: he whistles, takes a long shower, and drops down the pole hole for fun. A man does not whistle under a smile he hates.
he showered luxuriously, and then, whistling, hands in pockets, walked across the upper floor of the fire station and fell down the hole.
Whistling, he let the escalator waft him into the still night air.
It wears him. The smile is “gripped” by his muscles, it stays on in the dark where no one sees it, and it never leaves. Later he calls his happiness a mask, and a mask is something put over a face.
Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark.
He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.
A strong answer A strong response might say Montag wears the smile: he grins at the flames, showers “luxuriously,” and whistles home, so the smile is just what a happy man looks like. Another might say the smile wears him: it is “gripped by his face muscles” even in the dark, it “never ever went away,” and by the bedroom door he calls his happiness “a mask”. A careful answer may notice that a smile you cannot take off is not quite a smile any more, and ask how long it has been since Montag chose it.
3. Clarisse bets Montag that there is dew on the grass in the morning. It annoys him. Why would dew annoy a grown man?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to explain a strange reaction to a small fact. Near the end of the walk Clarisse says, “Bet I know something else you don’t. There’s dew on the grass in the morning.” Montag “suddenly couldn’t remember if he had known this or not, and it made him quite irritable.” She shows him the man in the moon, and the book answers in one short line: “He hadn’t looked for a long time.” They walk the rest of the way in “a kind of clenching and uncomfortable silence” in which he shoots her “accusing glances.” Dew is harmless. The student works out what is really annoying him. It takes up one part of the last written question in small: Montag cannot tell whether Clarisse has told him something new or something he once knew and lost. Do not let the answer stop at “she is showing off”; ask what the dew says about him.
She is showing him up. A girl of seventeen keeps winning small bets against a grown fireman, and he does not like losing. The anger is at her, and his looks say so.
Bet I know something else you don’t.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, hers thoughtful, his a kind of clenching and uncomfortable silence in which he shot her accusing glances.
The anger is at himself. He cannot even tell whether he once knew about the dew. A man out walking every night who has stopped seeing what is on the ground, or in the sky, has lost something, and this small fact proves it.
He suddenly couldn’t remember if he had known this or not, and it made him quite irritable.
He hadn’t looked for a long time.
A strong answer A strong response might say the dew annoys him because Clarisse keeps winning: “Bet I know something else you don’t,” and he walks the rest of the way shooting her “accusing glances.” Another might say the anger is at himself: he “couldn’t remember if he had known this or not,” and a moment later “He hadn’t looked for a long time.” A careful answer may notice that Montag cannot tell whether the dew is news or something he forgot, and that losing a thing without noticing can sting worse than never having it.
4. In the hall, Montag thinks most people are like torches. Clarisse’s face is like a mirror. Which one is Montag?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to turn Montag’s own comparison back on him. Alone in the hall after the walk, he thinks Clarisse’s face is “like a mirror”: it can “take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought.” Most people, he decides, are not like that. He looks for a comparison and finds one “in his work”: torches, “blazing away until they whiffed out.” He never says which he is. The student decides, and may say he is changing. It takes up one part of the last written question: a mirror shows only what is already there, so if Clarisse is a mirror, what she showed Montag was already his. Do not answer for the student; a student may say he is neither, or both.
A torch. Fire is his work and his joy, and he blazes through the night with the fire’s grin on his face. At the bedroom door his smile goes out the way a torch whiffs out, melting like a candle “now blown out.”
People were more often—he searched for a simile, found one in his work—torches, blazing away until they whiffed out.
He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over, and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing and now blown out.
Becoming a mirror, or able to be one. He is the one who sees himself in her eyes and carries her face home with him. Now he asks what a torch never would: what other faces give back.
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
How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?
A strong answer A strong response might say Montag is a torch: the picture comes from “his work”, he blazed through the fire with a grin, and by the bedroom door his smile is “blown out” like a candle. Another might say he is starting to be a mirror: he sees himself “dark and tiny” in Clarisse’s eyes and stands in his hall wondering what other faces give back. A careful answer may notice that a torch could not ask this question about itself, so the fact that Montag asks it may count for something.
5. Bradbury writes, “The room was not empty.” A few lines later he writes, “The room was indeed empty.” Mildred is there both times. How can both be true?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to work out a contradiction Bradbury puts in on purpose. Montag opens the bedroom door on a room like “a mausoleum”: dark, “the windows tightly shut,” no sound from the city. “The room was not empty.” He hears the hum of the Seashells. Then he pictures his wife on the bed with “the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight” in her ears, and “an electronic ocean of sound” carrying her off, as it has every night for two years. “The room was indeed empty.” The student decides how a room with a person in it can be empty. It takes up one part of the last written question: what Montag comes home to every night was there long before Clarisse, and so was its loneliness. Keep the talk on the closed room and the Seashells, which come before the bottle. Do not say Mildred meant to die; the chapter gives no reason for the empty bottle, and the lesson is not the bottle.
Mildred is there in body but not in mind. The radios in her ears carry her off every night, so the person Montag might talk to is somewhere else. The room is empty of her.
And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.
Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning.
It is empty for Montag. He has come home from a girl who looked at him and asked him things; here no one will. Next to her lit-up house, his bedroom is a tomb, shut against the world, and he is alone in it.
the windows tightly shut, the chamber a tomb-world where no sound from the great city could penetrate.
There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea
A strong answer A strong response might say Mildred is there in body only: with the Seashells “tamped tight” in her ears, “an electronic ocean of sound” carries her off every night, so no one is home to Montag. Another might say the room is empty for Montag in particular: after a girl who looked at him and asked him things, he comes back to a “tomb-world” where no one will. A careful answer may notice “the last two years”, and say that this loneliness was waiting in Montag’s house long before he met Clarisse.
1. Clarisse tells Montag, “You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off.” Was that a kind thing to say to him?
What it asks It asks the student to judge Clarisse, not only Montag. She is seventeen, calls herself “crazy,” and has known him for a few minutes. She asks a fireman whether he reads the books he burns and whether firemen once put fires out. He laughs, and she says, “You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I’ve asked you.” He stops walking, calls her “an odd one,” asks, “Haven’t you any respect?” and taps “the numerals 451 stitched on his char-coloured sleeve.” She says she does not mean to insult him, whispers “Yes,” and changes the subject. The student writes a judgment, with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the best case for the other side. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether Clarisse hands Montag a doubt, or only makes him stop long enough to notice one. Do not make Clarisse a saint or Montag a simple villain; she teases and dodges, and he is proud of ten years of work.
No, it was rude. She is a stranger telling a grown man what is wrong with him, and he hears it as an insult. She seems to know it, because she says sorry and then hurries on to another subject.
Haven’t you any respect?
I don’t mean to be insulting.
Yes, it was kind. She is the first person in the reading to really look at him and say what she sees. She is not afraid of him, and she talks to the man, not the uniform.
But you’re just a man, after all…
It’s just, I love to watch people too much, I guess.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue it was rude: she is a stranger, Montag answers, “Haven’t you any respect?”, and she herself says, “I don’t mean to be insulting,” before she changes the subject. Another might argue it was kind: she says what she sees because she watches people closely, and she is the one who told him, “But you’re just a man, after all…” A careful answer may notice that a true thing can be rude and kind at once, and that Montag answers her not with a reason but by tapping the 451 on his sleeve.
2. Montag laughs off Clarisse’s question, “Are you happy?”, and minutes later tells himself he is not. Did she show him something he already knew, or put the doubt in his head?
What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones: whether the student enjoyed the opening fire, whether Montag wears his smile or it wears him, why dew annoys him, whether he is a torch or a mirror, how his bedroom can be empty and not empty, and whether Clarisse was kind to tell him he never stops to think. Now the student weighs where Montag’s doubt comes from. At her door Clarisse asks, “Are you happy?” He cries, “Am I what?” and then, “Happy! Of all the nonsense.” In the hall he asks the quiet rooms, “Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” He looks at the ventilator grille and moves his eyes away. At the bedroom door his smile melts, and he tells himself, “He was not happy.” The student writes a judgment with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the strongest objection. Do not say what lies behind the grille, who the old man in the park was, that Clarisse planned the meeting, or that Montag will turn against the firemen; the reading goes no further than one night’s unease.
She showed him what he already knew. He had felt something at the corner for nights. He remembers something hidden behind the grille and cannot look at it. When the words come, he does not learn them; he recognizes them.
He recognized this as the true state of affairs.
He stood looking up at the ventilator grille in the hall and suddenly remembered that something lay hidden behind the grille, something that seemed to peer down at him now.
She put the doubt there. Before her he walks home whistling, “thinking little at all about nothing in particular.” After five minutes with her he cannot stop thinking, and he says it himself: she ran off with the mask.
He walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular.
He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue she showed him what he already knew: the corner had troubled him for nights, he looks away from the grille, and when the words come he “recognized this as the true state of affairs.” Another might argue she put the doubt there: he walked home whistling, “thinking little at all about nothing in particular”, and by his own account “the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask”. A careful answer may notice that a mask can only be taken from someone who was wearing one, and may ask whether that makes the two answers less opposed than they look.