Fahrenheit 451

Part Three, Reading 3

Burning Bright

Ray Bradbury · Pathfinders 7th–9th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

He floated on his back when the valise filled and sank; the river was mild and leisurely, going away from the people who ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapours for supper. The river was very real; it held him comfortably and gave him the time at last, the leisure, to consider this month, this year, and a lifetime of years. He listened to his heart slow. His thoughts stopped rushing with his blood.

Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people’s heads, any way at all so long as it was safe, free from moths, silver-fish, rust and dry-rot, and men with matches. The world was full of burning of all types and sizes. Now the guild of the asbestos-weaver must open shop very soon.

Read both passages aloud. Where does your voice slow down?

For the educator Two passages; copy them as shown. Both are Montag in the river, close together: the first as the river carries him, the second near the end of the long thought it gives him. The first opens on a long sentence that turns on a semicolon and ends on three meals joined by “and”: “shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapours for supper.” Its second sentence turns on a semicolon too, and names one gift twice: “the time at last, the leisure”. Then come two short sentences, six words and seven, as his heart and his thoughts slow down. Have the student notice that “slow” is a verb here. The second passage opens on one long sentence that says “the saving” twice and builds two lists: where things could be kept, “in books, in records, in people’s heads”, and what could destroy them, ending on “men with matches.” Then a plain sentence about the world, and a short one that looks ahead, with “must” and “very soon”. Have the student copy the hyphens in “silver-fish”, “dry-rot” and “asbestos-weaver” exactly. For imitation, have the student read a passage twice, set it aside, rebuild it from memory, and then compare. The talk prompt has more than one answer. Many students will slow on the two short sentences that close the first passage, “He listened to his heart slow. His thoughts stopped rushing with his blood.”, where the sentences slow down as Montag does. Others will slow at the end of the second passage’s long list, on “and men with matches.”, or on its short last sentence with “must” and “very soon”. Once they have answered, ask which words did the slowing. Do not explain Montag’s thought about the sun or say whether it holds; the last written question asks the student to test it.

Discussion

Narration Tell the reading back in order, from the knock at Faber’s back door to the step onto the land. Then pick the quietest moment in it, and say how Bradbury makes it quiet.

Montag tells Faber that for a long time he “was saving something up”. What was it? Character
Watching his own hunt on Faber’s little screen, Montag thinks, “that’s all taking place just for me, by God.” What is he enjoying? Inference
As the doors open, Montag pictures the faces behind them “like grey animals peering from electric caves”. How fair is that picture? Moral reasoning
Close to shore, Montag thinks about how Millie would take all this silence, and he is sad. Who is he sad for? Character
Montag dreams of coming down a hayloft stair to a glass of milk and some fruit, “so fully aware of the world that he would be afraid”. What is there to be afraid of? Inference

Make a Connection Think of a time, in your own life or in a story you know, when someone had real quiet for the first time in a long while. What did they do with it?

Vocabulary

valise: He floated on his back when the valise filled and sank; the river was mild and leisurely, going away from the people who ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapours for supper. A small suitcase for carrying clothes on a trip. Faber packs this one with his dirtiest old clothes, so that at the river Montag can put them on and carry Faber’s smell instead of his own.
For the educator From French valise, which came from Italian valigia. Bradbury uses “suitcase” and “valise” for the same case in this reading. Ask what the valise was really carrying, and why it no longer matters once it fills and sinks.
guild: Now the guild of the asbestos-weaver must open shop very soon. A group of workers in one craft who join together, share their skill and set the rules of their trade. Montag pictures a guild whose work is the opposite of the firemen’s.
For the educator Medieval towns had guilds of weavers, bakers, masons and printers; a young worker learned the craft from a master. An asbestos-weaver weaves cloth from asbestos, a mineral that does not burn; the word comes from Greek for unquenchable. (It was later found to harm the lungs, and many countries now ban it.) Ask what a guild of asbestos-weavers would make, and set it beside Montag’s list: “in books, in records, in people’s heads”.
seance: He felt as if he had left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts. A meeting where people sit together in a dim room and try to call up the spirits of the dead. Montag uses it for the city watching its parlour walls.
For the educator From French séance, a sitting, from a verb meaning to sit. Bradbury calls the viewers “parlour-sitters” and the hunt on the walls a “fascinating seance”. Ask who the ghosts are in this seance, and notice that at Faber’s Montag felt himself become “a ghost” too.

Critical thinking

Before he runs, Montag tells Faber to burn the bedspread he touched, the chair and the rug. Once he has decided he must never burn again, would he still give that order?
When the searchlights swing back to the land, Montag feels “as if he had left a stage behind and many actors.” Which part of the night does Bradbury make more real, the chase or the river?
Floating in the river, Montag decides he must never burn again, because the sun and time already burn everything. Is that a good reason to give up burning?