Part One, Reading 2 · The Hearth and the Salamander — Teaching Companion

This chapter's big question

Clarisse tells Montag that being a fireman “just doesn’t seem right for you.” Is she seeing him truly, or seeing someone who isn’t there?

The tension The men with the machines say “We get these cases nine or ten a night” and Mildred wakes only hungry, hoping she “didn’t do anything foolish at the party”, while in the afternoon rain, after Clarisse says “You’re not like the others,” Montag feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness.”

Today's focus

Follow Montag through the day after the night of the pills: two men with machines, a wife who remembers nothing, a dandelion in the rain, and a Hound that growls at his touch.

The shape at a glance

It is two in the morning, an hour after Montag found Mildred still beside an empty bottle of sleeping-tablets. Two men he has never seen arrive with two machines: one pumps out her stomach, the other changes her blood. They smoke as they work, tell him they get “nine or ten a night”, charge fifty dollars, and leave for the next call. Montag sits by his wife and thinks that nobody knows anyone. Laughter comes from Clarisse’s lit-up house; he crosses the lawn and stands outside it, wanting to go in and only listen, and hears a man’s voice, perhaps her uncle’s, call this “the age of the disposable tissue.” Back in bed, his thoughts fall like rain until he says “I don’t know anything any more” and takes a sleep-lozenge. In the morning Mildred is hungry and remembers nothing; she thinks there was a party, and Montag lets her. In the afternoon he tells her she took all the pills, and she says she would never do such a thing. She is rehearsing a play on the wall screens in which she speaks the missing part, and she wants a fourth wall screen that would cost a third of his pay. Outside, in the rain, Clarisse rubs a dandelion under his chin and says he loves no one. He insists he does, but cannot picture a face. She tells him about her psychiatrist, and then asks how he came to be a fireman: he is not like the others, and the job does not seem right for him. He feels himself split in two, sends her off to her appointment, and alone, opens his mouth to the rain. At the firehouse, after midnight, he touches the Mechanical Hound and it growls at him. He wonders aloud whether someone has set it against him, and thinks of what he has hidden behind the ventilator grille at home. Captain Beatty promises to have it checked, calls it a fine rifle, asks if Montag has a guilty conscience, and laughs softly.

A way in

Before reading, ask the student whether a stranger can see something true about you that the people at home miss. Read aloud from the opening to “I never saw them before in my life!” and stop: ask how the two men behave and how Montag feels about it. Read on through the uncle’s speech and the rain-drop list to “I don’t know anything any more,” and stop again: ask what kind of night this has been. Read breakfast and the play straight through, then the walk with Clarisse to the rain in Montag’s mouth, then the firehouse to the end. The reading opens on the stomach pump; name it plainly and move on, since the lesson is how everyone treats the night, not the machines. Do not say whether Mildred is lying or truly forgot, why the Hound growled, or what Beatty knows: the reading stops at his laugh.

Lesson plan

Retell The student tells the reading back in four scenes. First the night: the two machines and their smoking operators, “nine or ten a night”, the strangers, the uncle’s disposable tissue, the rain-drop list and the sleep-lozenge. Then the house: breakfast, “A few people”, the pills Mildred denies, the play with her part missing, the fourth wall. Then the rain: the dandelion, the face that will not come, the psychiatrist, “You’re not like the others”, the split, and the open mouth. Last, the firehouse: the Hound’s growl, the master file, the grille at home, and Beatty’s question and laugh. Ask for three or four sentences for each scene, in order.

Imitate the author After copying, the student writes five sentences built like the first passage, about someone doing a job without feeling: a question, a short answer that does not answer it, a sentence with a “but did not” paradox, and two comparisons that make a person into a thing (Bradbury’s are a trench and a layer of marble). Then two or three sentences built like the second passage, describing an ordinary machine at home as if it were a sleeping animal: one sentence with a pair of paradoxes, and one that repeats a soft word three times.

Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. Reasons Clarisse sees him truly: he looks at her when she talks; her words make him feel “his body divide itself”; alone, he opens his mouth to the rain; he pities the Hound for knowing only hunting. Reasons she sees someone who isn’t there: she says she forgets he is a fireman; he sends her off to her appointment and jokes that she needs the psychiatrist; the night before, he took a sleep-lozenge; he once bet on the Hound’s kills. One side argues each, with a reason and a line from the reading, then they switch. Neither side may say why the Hound growled or what Beatty knows.

Purpose Close on where the reading stops. Beatty asks, “Why? You got a guilty conscience about something?” Montag glances up, and Beatty looks at him steadily “while his mouth opened and began to laugh, very softly.” Ask why Bradbury ends the reading on that laugh and not on anything Montag says. Then set the laugh beside the laughter that blew across the lawn from Clarisse’s house, “relaxed and hearty and not forced in any way”, and ask what the two laughs tell Montag, and the reader.

Three levels

Easier Read aloud together the walk in the rain, from “The rain was thinning away” to “opened his mouth…”, and talk through the fourth discussion question (why the dandelion shakes him). Then read the end of the firehouse scene, from “I was just figuring” to Beatty’s laugh. Answer the last written question aloud, starting from what Clarisse says Montag does that the others do not, and what Montag does right after she runs off.

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 two times “What a shame” is said: Clarisse says it when the dandelion finds no love in Montag, and Montag says it of the Hound, “What a shame if that’s all it can ever know.” Ask whether the echo helps one side of the argument, and how. The answer must not say why the Hound growled or what Beatty knows.

Discussion

1. Once the men leave, Montag thinks, “Strangers come and take your blood.” They were only doing their job. What, if anything, did they do wrong?Moral reasoning

What it asks It asks the student to name what, if anything, the two men did wrong, and to point to it. Strangers he has never seen pump out his wife’s stomach and change her blood. One smokes over “the silent woman” and explains how bad blood hits the brain “like a mallet”; Montag shouts, “Stop it!”, and “His anger did not even touch them.” They ask for fifty bucks, say they get “nine or ten a night,” and leave for the next call. Yet they also tell him, “Sure, she’ll be O.K.,” and how to look after her: “Keep her quiet.” Once they are gone, Montag thinks, “Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take your blood.” The student must find the wrong in the page, not in a feeling about the scene, or say plainly that there is none. It takes up one part of the last written question: these are the first of “the others” the reading shows, and the question is how far Montag stands apart from them. Keep the talk on the men and on Montag, not on the details of the pumping.

A strong answer A strong response might name a real wrong: the men smoke over “the silent woman” without blinking, describe her brain being hit “like a mallet” while Montag listens, ask “That’s fifty bucks” before he knows whether she will live, and “His anger did not even touch them.” Another might say they did nothing wrong: they tell him “Sure, she’ll be O.K.,” leave her with a contra-sedative and plain advice, and get “nine or ten a night,” so calm may be the only way to do that work. A careful answer may notice that Montag is a fireman, a man who also does his job in other people’s houses, and ask whether he would pass his own test.

2. Outside Clarisse’s house, Montag hears a man say that people get used like tissues and thrown away. Does Montag himself ever treat anyone that way?Theme

What it asks It asks the student to turn the uncle’s words back on the man who overhears them. Montag stands outside the lit, laughing house and wants to say, “Let me come in. I won’t say anything. I just want to listen.” What he hears is a man’s voice, which he takes for the uncle’s: “this is the age of the disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another.” The student decides whether Montag, too, uses people that way, and finds the moments that say so or say not. A close reader will find the wish Montag makes just before, sitting beside Mildred: that the men could have taken “her mind along to the dry-cleaner’s” and brought it back clean. It takes up one part of the last written question: Clarisse says he is not like the others, and the uncle names what the others do. Keep the uncle in the talk; his speech is the one place where the reading says out loud what the night has shown.

A strong answer A strong response might say yes: Montag wishes the men could have taken Mildred’s mind “to the dry-cleaner’s” and brought it back “in the morning”, which is the operators’ way of thinking, take out the old and put in the new, and he once bet “with the best of them” on the Hound’s kills. Another might say no: he feels for “the warmness of breath on his palm”, tucks her in “carefully”, and stands in the cold just to listen to people talk. A careful answer may notice that the wish to clean her mind may come from love, and still treat her as something that can be swapped.

3. Mildred tells Montag, “I should think you’d consider me sometimes.” Which of them is lonelier in that house?Character

What it asks It asks the student to weigh two lonely people against each other. Mildred spends her day with “electronic bees” in her ears and a play where her lines are written for her. She wants a fourth wall so the room would be “just like this room wasn’t ours at all, but all kinds of exotic people’s rooms.” When Montag says the wall costs a third of his pay, she says, “I should think you’d consider me sometimes.” Montag, for his part, thinks “Nobody knows anyone,” tries once to tell her what happened last night and is told “Never in a billion years,” and stands in the hall looking at her. The student decides who is more alone, and must give Mildred a fair hearing. It takes up one part of the last written question: if the house is this empty, it matters a great deal whether anyone outside it truly sees Montag. Do not let Mildred become a joke; she is cheerful, she asks for something, and her forgetting is frightening.

A strong answer A strong response might say Mildred is lonelier: with “electronic bees” in her ears and a wall full of “exotic people”, she has filled the house with strangers, and she has to ask her husband to “consider me sometimes.” Another might say Montag is: he alone knows about last night, he thinks “Nobody knows anyone,” and he can only stand “in the hall looking at her.” A careful answer may notice that neither of them says the word lonely, and that the fourth wall would make the room “wasn’t ours at all”, so it would push them further apart.

4. Clarisse’s dandelion game says Montag loves no one. Why does a playground game shake him so badly?Character

What it asks It asks the student to explain a big reaction to a small thing. Clarisse rubs the last dandelion of the year under Montag’s chin and says, “What a shame,” and then, “You’re not in love with anyone.” He cries, “Yes, I am!” and then “I am very much in love!” and the book adds: “He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face.” He blames the flower, “You’ve used it all up on yourself,” and Clarisse agrees, “Of course, that must be it,” then says sorry and asks him to forgive her. He says, “I’m not angry. Upset, yes.” The student decides what really upset him. It takes up one part of the last written question: here Clarisse tests him with a playground game and finds something, and the student can ask whether it was really there. Do not say Clarisse and Montag are falling in love; the game says he loves no one, and the reading offers nothing more.

A strong answer A strong response might say the game told the truth: Montag shouts “I am very much in love!”, but when he tries to “conjure up a face to fit the words”, “there was no face,” not even Mildred’s. Another might say what shakes him is Clarisse: she sees it in his face, “Oh please don’t look that way,” and then lets him keep his excuse with “Of course, that must be it.” A careful answer may notice that he says “Upset, yes” and not angry, and that being upset is closer to being hurt by something true.

5. Montag says the Hound threatened him twice last month. Still, at one in the morning, he goes down alone and touches its muzzle. Why go near it at all?Inference

What it asks It asks the student to explain why a man reaches out to a machine he has reason to fear. At one in the morning Montag slides down the pole, smokes a cigarette outside, then comes back to bend over the Hound and whisper “Hello,” “fascinated as always with the dead beast, the living beast.” He touches its muzzle; it growls, half rises, and pushes out its needle, and he escapes up the pole “trembling.” Only afterward does he tell Beatty, “This isn’t the first time it’s threatened me,” and “Last month it happened twice.” Upstairs, he stands thinking of the ventilator grille at home. The student decides why he went near it at all, and may give more than one reason. It takes up one part of the last written question: Clarisse says he is not like the others, and here Montag seems to suspect something about himself. Keep the scene a measure of Montag’s fear, not a thrill. Do not say that someone set the Hound against him, what lies behind the grille, or that Beatty knows; the reading gives only Montag’s guess and Beatty’s laugh.

A strong answer A strong response might say he is testing it: he knows “This isn’t the first time it’s threatened me,” and once it growls he can only stand “thinking of the ventilator grille in the hall at home,” so he went down half wanting to know what it knows. Another might say he is drawn to it: he is “fascinated as always with the dead beast, the living beast,” whispers “Hello” and “No, no, boy,” and later says, “What a shame if that’s all it can ever know.” A careful answer may notice that earlier in the reading Montag tried the rain for the first time, and ask whether touching the Hound is another kind of trying, and what he learns about himself when it growls.

Critical thinking

1. At breakfast, Montag lets Mildred think there was a party. That afternoon he tells her she took all the pills. She says she would never do that. He says, “All right if you say so.” Was he right to let it go?

What it asks It asks the student to judge what Montag does, and what he could have done instead. At breakfast Mildred says she feels like she has a hangover: “Who was here?” Montag answers “A few people,” and when she hopes she “didn’t do anything foolish at the party,” he says, “No.” Then the toaster hands him bread, and he holds it “feeling grateful.” In the afternoon he tries: “You took all the pills in your bottle last night.” She says, “I wouldn’t do a thing like that. Why would I do a thing like that?” He says, “All right if you say so,” and she goes back to her script. The student writes a judgment, with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the strongest case for the other side. It takes up one part of the last written question: letting it go may be exactly what “the others” do, or it may be the only kind thing left. Do not say whether Mildred is lying or truly does not remember; the reading shows her denial, not what is behind it.

A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue he was right: he does say it plainly, “You took all the pills in your bottle last night,” and she answers “Why would I do a thing like that?”, so pressing on would only hurt a woman who has just come back from the edge. Another might argue he was wrong: his “A few people” and “All right if you say so” put him beside the men who get “nine or ten a night”, and his gratitude for the toast looks like relief. A careful answer may notice that he does try once, which none of the others do, and may ask whether trying once and stopping is closer to Clarisse or to the operators.

2. Clarisse tells Montag that being a fireman “just doesn’t seem right for you.” Is she seeing him truly, or seeing someone who isn’t there?

What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones: what, if anything, the men with the machines did wrong, whether he treats anyone like a tissue, who is lonelier in his house, why a dandelion shook him, why he went near the Hound, and whether he was right to let the pills go. Now the student weighs Clarisse’s words. In the rain she tells him, “You’re not like the others. … When I talk, you look at me,” and that being a fireman “just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow.” He feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness”, sends her off to her appointment, and then, alone, tilts his head back and opens his mouth to the rain. Later, at the firehouse, the Hound growls at his touch, and Beatty asks if he has “a guilty conscience about something,” and laughs. The student writes a judgment with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the strongest objection. Do not say that someone set the Hound against Montag, that Beatty knows about the grille, that Clarisse and Montag are in love, or where Clarisse goes next; the reading stops at Beatty’s laugh.

A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue she sees him truly: Clarisse says, “When I talk, you look at me,” her words make him feel “his body divide itself”, and alone he opens his mouth to the rain she told him about. Another might argue she sees someone who isn’t there: she says “Sometimes I even forget you’re a fireman,” and the man she praises sends her off with “You’d better run on to your appointment” and the night before let a sleep-lozenge dissolve on his tongue. A careful answer may notice that the split cuts both ways: a man who was only a fireman would not divide in two, but a man who was only what she sees would not send her away, and the Hound and Beatty seem to notice the same split from the other side.