Part One, Reading 5 · The Hearth and the Salamander

Fahrenheit 451

Pathfinders · 7th–9th

Copywork

Digest-digests, digest-digest-digests. Politics? One column, two sentences, a headline! Then, in mid-air, all vanishes! Whirl man’s mind around about so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary, time-wasting thought!

He put his hand back up and took out two books and moved his hand down and dropped the two books to the floor. He kept moving his hand and dropping books, small ones, fairly large ones, yellow, red, green ones. When he was done he looked down upon some twenty books lying at his wife’s feet.

Read both passages aloud, one after the other. How does your voice change from the first to the second?

For the educator Two passages; copy them as shown. The first is Beatty in the middle of his history, speeding up as he talks about speed. Its first four sentences are scraps: a hyphenated word repeated and stretched, a one-word question, a list of three with no verb, and a short exclamation with “in mid-air” set off by commas. Then comes one long sentence that whirls. It lists “publishers, exploiters, broadcasters” and pictures the mind as a spinning machine that throws thought away. It holds both vocabulary words from the copywork, “exploiters” and “centrifuge”. Point out the hyphens in “Digest-digests”, “mid-air” and “time-wasting”, and the three exclamation marks. The second passage comes after Beatty has gone, when Montag empties the grille. Its first sentence chains four actions with “and” three times; the next lists the books by size and then by colour, set off by commas, with no “and” in the list; the last is quiet and plain. 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. Students may hear the first passage hurry and the second slow down, or hear the second as just as driven, one book after another. Let them find this for themselves; do not name it first. Some will say Beatty’s passage is more fun to read aloud. Take that seriously: his speech is quick and funny on purpose, and that is part of its pull.

Discussion

Narration Tell the reading back in order, from Beatty’s visit to the line about the eggs. Then choose the moment where Bradbury makes Beatty sound most convincing, and say how the writing does it.

1. During Beatty’s speech, Mildred yanks at the pillow. Twice she echoes him: “Snap ending.” and “Wow.” How much of the speech reaches her?Inference

2. Beatty says people gave up books on their own. So Montag asks, “what about the firemen, then?” How well does Beatty answer him?Theme

3. Montag asks how Clarisse came to be so different. Beatty answers, and ends by saying she is better off dead. Montag says, “Yes, dead.” What is he doing with those two words?Character

4. Beatty admits that when a show is empty, all he feels is the noise. Then he says, “But I don’t care. I just like solid entertainment.” What makes you believe him, or doubt him?Character

5. Montag says he wants to smash things and kill things. Mildred answers, “I always like to drive fast when I feel that way.” What does she know about that feeling?Character

6. Montag reads that eleven thousand people died “rather than submit to break eggs at the smaller end.” Mildred says it means nothing. What, if anything, does it mean?Theme

Make a Connection Montag remembers Clarisse saying that people once sat on front porches at night, talking or just thinking things over. Where, if anywhere, do you get time like that? Beatty says time to think is sad time. What is it like for you?

Vocabulary

centrifuge Whirl man’s mind around about so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary, time-wasting thought!A machine that spins things so fast that the heavier parts fly outward and separate. Beatty pictures the mind spun so fast that every slow thought is thrown off.

exploiters Whirl man’s mind around about so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary, time-wasting thought!People who use others, or things, for their own gain, often unfairly. Beatty names exploiters among the people who sped the world up.

censorship There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no!Official control over what people may read, see or say, usually by cutting or banning it. Beatty insists that no one banned books at first.

executor They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors.Someone who carries out an order or a sentence. In Beatty’s list, the firemen decide which books are bad and then carry out the burning themselves.

melancholy The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.A deep, quiet sadness that lingers, often with brooding thought. For Beatty, any hour with time to think is a sad hour.

bestial Any man who can take a TV wall apart and put it back together again, and most men can nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to slide-rule, measure, and equate the universe, which just won’t be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely.Like a beast: rough, low, less than human. Beatty says trying to measure the universe makes a man feel this way.

Critical thinking

1. For a year, Montag hid books in the house and never told Mildred. Now he drops them at her feet and says, “we’re in this together.” He calls this fair. Is it?

2. Montag agrees with Beatty that happiness is important, yet he feels he is not happy. Is Beatty’s kind of happiness worth having?