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Fahrenheit 451
Pathfinders · 7th–9th
The woman strikes the match herself before Beatty can. Did the firemen win that night, or did she?
The tension Montag has always told himself “You weren’t hurting anyone, you were hurting only things!”, and his first feeling in the attic is “an immense irritation” that she is there at all; then the woman on the porch “struck the kitchen match against the railing” herself, and on the ride home “Nobody looked at anyone else.”
Clarisse walks Montag to the corner for a week and then is gone. At the next alarm, an old woman will not leave her house of books, and Montag carries one out under his arm.
For seven days Clarisse is somewhere in the world each time Montag leaves the house: shaking a walnut tree, knitting on the lawn, leaving flowers, chestnuts and pinned leaves at his door, and walking him to the corner. At the subway she tells him why she is not in school. She is called anti-social, but school runs answers at the students and never lets them ask, and people her own age frighten her. She listens in subways and at soda fountains and finds that people do not talk about anything. Then, one afternoon, she is gone, and Montag feels uneasy without quite knowing why. At the firehouse, at one forty-five in the morning, Beatty watches him over the cards, and Montag suddenly sees that every fireman there looks like him. He asks what happened to the man whose library they burned last week (taken screaming to the asylum), and then, in a voice that seems to be Clarisse’s, whether firemen once prevented fires. Stoneman and Black lay out their rulebooks: the firemen were established in 1790, and the first was Benjamin Franklin. The alarm rings. At an old house the owner is still inside, reciting a line about lighting a candle. The men laugh and hack their way into the attic as books rain down. Montag is irritated that she is there; he reads one line from a falling book, and his hand steals another and hides it under his arm. The men soak the house with kerosene. The woman will not leave. Montag begs her to come; Beatty counts; she shows a kitchen match. The men back out, and before Beatty can light the kerosene, she strikes the match herself. On the silent ride back, Montag repeats “Master Ridley,” and Beatty finishes the quotation and names the two men burned at Oxford in 1555. Stoneman drives past their turn.
Before reading, ask the student whether a person can do something before they have decided to do it. Read aloud from the opening to Clarisse’s “Goodbye, Mr. Montag.” and stop: ask what Clarisse gives Montag during the week, and what he gives her. Read the firehouse days and the card table straight through to the alarm, and stop again: ask what Montag sees in the other men. Read the night at the old house to the end without stopping; it moves fast and should. Name what the woman does plainly and keep the talk on the men and on Montag. Do not say what has happened to Clarisse, what the stolen book is, or that Beatty saw Montag take it; the reading says none of these.
Retell The student tells the reading back in three scenes. First Clarisse’s week: the gifts at the door, the walks to the corner, school and its “bing, bing, bing,” people who “don’t talk about anything,” and the afternoon she is gone. Then the card table: Beatty’s look, the mirror faces, the man taken to the asylum, the question in Clarisse’s voice, the rulebook and the alarm. Last, the old house: the woman’s words about a candle, the falling books, the one line, the stolen book, the count, the match, and the silent ride home with Latimer and Ridley. 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, in which someone explains away something they do: an exclamation that sums it up, one long sentence that repeats a key word and builds to “there was nothing to” something, and three short pieces that tidy it away, as Bradbury does with “You were simply cleaning up.” and the two fragments after it. Then five sentences built like the second passage, about someone who answers that tidy story by acting: one long sentence that keeps its subject waiting to the end, three short ones that each grow shorter, and one long one that ends on what the person does.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. Reasons the firemen won: the house and the books burned, as the law says; Beatty called her kind “fanatics” and the pattern “familiar” before she struck the match; the truck heads back to the firehouse; Beatty can name her words, the men and the date. Reasons she won: she stopped Beatty’s count; she struck the match before his spark; the men cannot look at one another; they do not smoke; Beatty finishes her words; Montag has a book hidden under his arm; Stoneman misses the turn. One side argues each, with a reason and a line from the reading, then they switch. Neither side may explain her choice beyond what she says, or claim the books are proven good.
Purpose Close on where the reading stops. The truck drives right past “the corner where we turn for the firehouse,” and Beatty swears. Ask why Bradbury ends on a missed corner and not on anything Montag says or thinks. Then remind the student of another corner: all week, “Clarisse walked him to the corner.” Ask what the two corners have to do with each other, and what the men have lost track of on the way home. If there is time, set two words side by side: the “routine” Montag misses when Clarisse is gone, and the “ritual” the woman spoils.
Easier Read aloud together the attic, from “Books bombarded his shoulders” to “He held it close, as if he were blind,” and talk through the fifth discussion question (whether his hand stole the book alone). Then read from “You can stop counting” to the end. Answer the last written question aloud, starting from what the firemen came to do, and how the men act on the ride home.
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 how the reading tells its two weeks: Clarisse’s seven days come day by day, weather and all, while the firehouse days are “Third day.” and “Fourth day.” Ask what that difference shows about Montag’s two worlds, and which kind of telling the night at the old house belongs to. The answer must not say what has happened to Clarisse.
1. Clarisse asks Montag, “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?” He answers, “You sound so very old.” Why doesn’t he answer her question?Character
What it asks It asks the student to notice a question that goes unanswered. On one of their walks, Clarisse tells Montag about school, the Fun Parks, and people her age who shout or beat one another up. Then she asks, “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?” Montag answers, “You sound so very old.” She says that sometimes she is ancient, tells him six of her friends have been shot in the last year, and talks on; Montag never answers the question. The student decides why Montag steps around it. It takes up one part of the last written question: that night, in the attic, Montag remembers what he has always told himself, “You weren’t hurting anyone, you were hurting only things!” Do not say what has happened to Clarisse; the reading says only that she is gone.
He cannot answer it. Montag hurts people for a living, though he tells himself he burns only things. An honest yes would lead straight to his own work, so he turns her question into a remark about her.
Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?
You sound so very old.
He has simply never looked. All week Clarisse catches him seeing things for the first time, and he admits he has not had time. Her question is too new for him, so he says the thing that strikes him: how old she sounds.
You always seem shocked.
Did you look at the stretched-out billboards like I told you?
A strong answer A strong response might say Montag cannot answer: a fireman who noticed how people hurt each other would have to look at his own work, so he turns “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?” into “You sound so very old.” Another might say he has never thought about it: Clarisse tells him “You always seem shocked,” and he has only just looked at the billboards she told him about. A careful answer may notice that, in the attic that night, Montag remembers telling himself he was “hurting only things,” and ask whether the dodge on the walk is the same habit.
2. At the card table, Montag sees that every fireman there is a mirror image of himself. By the ride home, is he still one of them?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to test what Montag sees at the card table against the rest of the night. With his eyes closed he hears the voice-clock and the cards. Beatty looks at him “as if he were a museum statue,” and Montag wonders, “Guilt? What guilt was that?” Then he looks at the men: black hair, black brows, fiery faces, pipes always lit. “These men were all mirror-images of himself!” That same night the same men burn the old woman’s house. The student decides whether, by the silent ride home, Montag is still one of them, and says what being “one of them” takes: a face, a job, a habit or a choice. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether Montag can still stand wholly on the firemen’s side of the fire. Keep Beatty’s look as Montag feels it; the reading does not say what Beatty is thinking. Do not say that Beatty or anyone else saw Montag take the book.
Not any more. At the house he does what none of the others do. He protests, he asks her to come with him, he pulls at her arm, and he gasps when she strikes the match. He carries a book away against his chest.
You’re not leaving her here?
Montag felt the hidden book pound like a heart against his chest.
Still one of them. Whatever his hand did, he backs out of the door after Beatty like the rest, and he is as silent as the others on the ride home. He and Stoneman look at Beatty in the same startled way, then turn back to the street together. Her contempt is for them all.
Montag felt himself back away and away out of the door, after Beatty
Montag and Stoneman went back to looking at the street as it moved under the engine wheels.
A strong answer A strong response might say he is no longer one of them: at the house he alone protests, “You’re not leaving her here?”, tells her “You can come with me,” and feels “the hidden book pound like a heart against his chest.” Another might say he still is: he backs “out of the door, after Beatty,” rides home as silent as the rest, and “Montag and Stoneman went back to looking at the street” side by side, while the woman’s contempt is “for them all.” A careful answer may notice that Stoneman, who drives right past their corner, seems shaken too, and ask whether the change that night is only in Montag or in all of them.
3. When Montag asks if firemen once stopped fires, Stoneman and Black lay their rulebooks out for him. He has known those books for years. Why show him what he already knows?Inference
What it asks It asks the student why the men answer Montag’s question by showing him a page he already knows. Montag asks whether the work was always like this, and Beatty scoffs, “Once upon a time!” and “What kind of talk is that?” Then, in “a much younger voice,” Clarisse’s question comes out of Montag’s mouth: “Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?” Stoneman and Black lay out their rulebooks, with a brief history, where Montag, “though long familiar with them,” might read: “Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin.” Then come the five rules, from “Answer the alarm swiftly.” to “Stand alert for other alarms.” “Everyone watched Montag. He did not move.” The student decides what the showing is for. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether the firemen’s own story of what they are can hold, and which side of it Montag is on while they watch. Do not say what the men know or suspect about Montag; the reading says only that they watched him. Some students will know that the real Benjamin Franklin started a company to put fires out; the question does not need it, and the reading never says so.
To laugh at him. To the men his question is a joke, and the page is the punch line: the firemen were burners from the very first, and a famous name says so.
That’s rich!
Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin.
To put him back in line. The history runs straight into rules, and the rules are orders. Nobody argues with him; they show him the law and wait to see what he does.
Burn everything.
Everyone watched Montag. He did not move.
A strong answer A strong response might say the men are laughing at him: “That’s rich!”, and the page answers with a date and a famous name, so the firemen were burners from the first. Another might say they are putting him back in line: the history runs straight into “Burn everything.”, nobody argues, and “Everyone watched Montag. He did not move.” A careful answer may notice that this is how Clarisse says school works, answers run at you “bing, bing, bing,” and ask whether a book can be wrong about its own past, and why Montag could only ask his question in “a much younger voice.”
4. The woman is still in her house when the firemen break in. Montag feels “an immense irritation.” He thinks, “She shouldn’t be here, on top of everything!” On top of what?Character
What it asks It asks the student to work out what “everything” holds. On other nights the police took the owner away first, so the firemen found an empty house, and Montag could tell himself, “You weren’t hurting anyone, you were hurting only things!” Tonight the woman stands silent below while the men laugh and joke to cover it. Books fall on Montag as he climbs, and his thought is “How inconvenient!” Then: “Montag felt an immense irritation. She shouldn’t be here, on top of everything!” The student decides what she comes on top of; the answer can be near (the night’s work) or far (the whole week). Either way, irritation comes before pity. It takes up one part of the last written question: how far the old habit still holds Montag, even on the night his hand steals a book. Keep the talk on Montag and the men, not on what will happen to her. Do not say what has happened to Clarisse; the reading says only that she is gone.
On top of the job. The night is already dark, loud and hard: a stairwell to climb, books hitting him, men shouting. A woman who stays makes the work messy, and to a fireman she is one more thing in the way.
A fountain of books sprang down upon Montag as he climbed shuddering up the sheer stair-well. How inconvenient!
This woman was spoiling the ritual.
On top of his whole week. Clarisse is gone, every face at the card table is his own, his question was laughed down, and Beatty’s look set him wondering about guilt. The woman is one more weight on a man already shaken, and he is angry at the weight.
Something was the matter, his routine had been disturbed.
Guilt? What guilt was that?
A strong answer A strong response might say she comes on top of the work: books rain on him as he climbs, his first thought is “How inconvenient!”, and a woman who stays is “spoiling the ritual” of what should be “Janitorial work, essentially.” Another might say she comes on top of his whole week: Clarisse gone and his “routine had been disturbed,” the faces at the table all his own, a question laughed down, and “Guilt? What guilt was that?” A careful answer may notice that either way the feeling is irritation, not pity, and ask why: her “terrible accusing silence” makes the rooms “roar with accusation,” and it may be easier to be angry at her than at himself.
5. Montag tells himself he did nothing. His hand stole the book on its own. Do you believe him?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to judge Montag’s own account of what he did. In the attic one book lands in his hands “like a white pigeon”; he reads a single line, “Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine,” and drops it. Another falls into his arms, and “Montag’s hand closed like a mouth.” Then: “Montag had done nothing. His hand had done it all,” a hand “with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger.” It hides the book under his arm “with a magician’s flourish! Look here! Innocent! Look!” The student decides whether the hand really acted alone. It takes up one part of the last written question: Montag takes a book before he decides to, and a few minutes later, still near her while her hand twitches on the match, he feels it “pound like a heart against his chest.” Do not say what the book is; the reading never names it. Do not say that Beatty or anyone else saw him take it.
Yes. The hand moves before Montag thinks. He even dropped the first book. Afterward he stares at the hand as if it belonged to a stranger.
Montag’s hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest.
He gazed, shaken, at that white hand.
No. Blaming the hand is the same trick as saying he hurt only things. The hand has a conscience and a curiosity, and those are Montag’s. And a hand that only grabbed would not hide its catch so well.
with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief
with a magician’s flourish! Look here! Innocent! Look!
A strong answer A strong response might believe him: the hand “closed like a mouth” with “an insanity of mindlessness,” and afterward he gazes “shaken, at that white hand,” as if it were someone else’s. Another might not: the hand carries “a conscience and a curiosity,” which can only be Montag’s, and its “magician’s flourish! Look here! Innocent!” is what a person says who knows they are guilty. A careful answer may notice that he read one line, “Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine,” just before, and ask whether the hand was acting on something his mind had already met.
1. On the ride home, Beatty finishes the woman’s words. He knows who first said them, and where, and when. Does knowing all that make him more to blame than the other firemen?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh blame among the men who burned the house. On the silent ride back, Montag says “Master Ridley” and tries to repeat the woman’s words. Beatty finishes them for him, then adds: “A man named Latimer said that to a man named Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy, on October 16, 1555.” Stoneman and Montag look at him, “startled.” Beatty says, “I’m full of bits and pieces,” and that most fire captains have to be. Earlier that night he slapped her “with amazing objectivity,” began a count to ten, and flicked his fingers at the kerosene. 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: a captain who knows what her words meant may be the one fireman who understands what she did. Do not make Beatty only a brute: the reading gives him the quotation, the names, the place and the date, and never says how he came by them. Do not say that Beatty saw Montag take the book.
More to blame. Beatty knows the words were spoken by men burned for what they believed, and he still gave the count and reached to light the house. The others may not understand what they do. He does.
A man named Latimer said that to a man named Nicholas Ridley, as they were being burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy, on October 16, 1555.
Beatty flicked his fingers to spark the kerosene.
No more to blame. The men pumped kerosene through the house, and in the attic the men laughed and joked. Beatty says knowing things comes with the job, and even he seems surprised by what he knows. Knowing a fact is not the same as believing it.
They coated each book, they pumped rooms full of it.
Most fire captains have to be. Sometimes I surprise myself.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue Beatty is more to blame: he knows the woman’s words come from men “burnt alive at Oxford, for heresy,” and he still started the count and “flicked his fingers to spark the kerosene,” so he cannot say he did not understand. Another might argue he is no more to blame: the men “pumped rooms full of it,” the men laughed and joked in the attic, and Beatty treats what he knows as “bits and pieces” a captain has to carry, which may not be the same as believing anything. A careful answer may notice that Beatty, like Montag with his hand, seems surprised by himself, “Sometimes I surprise myself,” and ask whether that makes the knowledge more his or less.
2. The woman strikes the match herself before Beatty can. Did the firemen win that night, or did she?
What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones: why Montag steps around Clarisse’s question about hurting, whether Montag, who sees his own face on every fireman at the card table, is still one of them by the ride home, why the men show him a rulebook he already knows, what the woman comes “on top of”, whether his hand stole the book alone, and whether Beatty’s knowledge makes him more to blame. Now the student judges the whole night. The house burns, as the law says it must. But the woman will not leave: “You can’t ever have my books.” She tells Beatty, “You can stop counting,” and shows an ordinary kitchen match. Beatty backs out with “the faintest panic,” flicks his fingers, and is “too late”: she “struck the kitchen match against the railing.” On the ride back, “Nobody looked at anyone else.” They do not smoke their pipes, Beatty finishes her words, and Stoneman drives past the corner where they turn. The student writes a judgment with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the strongest objection. Name what she does plainly and spend the thinking on the men and on Montag. Do not explain why she stays beyond her own words, “I want to stay here.” Do not say the books are proven good, what Montag’s book is, or that Beatty saw him take it.
The firemen won. They came to burn the house and the books, and both burned. Beatty had a word for her before she struck the match: a fanatic, a familiar pattern. The law was kept, and the truck heads back to the firehouse.
You know the law
Besides, these fanatics always try suicide; the pattern’s familiar.
She won. She took the fire out of their hands and made them watch it. Beatty’s count was stopped, his spark came too late, and the men who laughed in the attic cannot look at each other on the way home. Even the captain is saying her words.
You can stop counting
They said nothing on their way back to the firehouse. Nobody looked at anyone else.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue the firemen won: the books and the house burned as the law says, and Beatty had already named her one of the “fanatics” whose “pattern’s familiar,” so to him nothing new happened. Another might argue she won: “You can stop counting” takes the count from Beatty, his spark is “too late,” and on the ride home “Nobody looked at anyone else,” while Beatty finishes her words for her and Montag has a book that pounded “like a heart” against his chest. A careful answer may notice that the firemen got everything they came for and still drive past the corner home, and ask whether a night can be won on the street and lost in the truck.