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Fahrenheit 451
Pathfinders · 7th–9th
Beatty and Faber both try hard to win Montag over tonight. Is either of them really leaving Montag free to think for himself?
The tension Beatty beats the books' defender with books, “What traitors books can be! You think they’re backing you up, and they turn on you.”, and urges “Stick with the fireman”; Faber answers that he too will have his say, yet “I want it to be your decision, not mine, and not the Captain’s.”
How a night at the firehouse, with a whisper in one ear and the Captain across the table, tests whether Montag can hold his own ground.
Montag crosses the lawn on his way to work, trying not to see how dark and deserted Clarisse McClellan’s house is. On the train, Faber’s voice talks to him, and Montag feels he is two people: himself, who knows nothing, and the old man. Faber promises that the talk will go on night after night until Montag is no longer only Montag but “Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water,” and at last something new: wine. The voice scolds and consoles. It tells Montag to pity the people he lives among, admits that his raging made Faber feel young, and asks him to take on some of Faber’s caution: to tiptoe round Captain Beatty and let Faber listen for him. Montag says he made the women unhappy, that maybe it is best not to face things, and that he feels guilty. Faber says he must not go back to being just a fireman. Outside the firehouse, Montag’s feet will not move. Faber tells him mistakes can be profited by, that he was beaten with sticks for showing his ignorance when he was young, and that the two of them are twins now. Montag’s feet move, and he asks the old man to stay with him. The Mechanical Hound’s kennel is empty. Beatty waits with his back turned, calls Montag a fool, holds out his hand, and tosses the book Montag gives him into the trash without looking at the title. He welcomes Montag back from his “fever” and deals him into a poker game. Montag feels the guilt of his hands; twice he leaves to wash them, then he hides them under the table, and Beatty jokes that he wants them in sight. Beatty sets one quotation against another and asks what Montag thinks. Montag says he does not know. Beatty says a few lines of reading make a man a drunkard. Then he tells a dream in which Montag yelled quotations and Beatty calmly answered each with another, and he urges, “Stick with the fireman.” Faber whispers that he is slippery. As the dream goes on, Montag feels beaten; Beatty takes his wrist and enjoys his racing pulse. Faber whispers that he is muddying the waters. Beatty says books are traitors, because others can use them too, and ends his dream with the two of them riding back to the firehouse in peace. He lets go of the wrist, and Montag sits like a carved white stone. Faber says Beatty has had his say and Faber will have his, and the decision must be Montag’s own, though he warns against the tyranny of the majority. The alarm rings. Beatty reads the address, pockets it, and says it can wait forty seconds while he wins the hand. Montag puts his cards down. On the Salamander, Montag thinks of the women and calls his reading to them senseless, one rage traded for another. Beatty, who never drives, drives tonight, smiling furiously. The Salamander stops. Montag cannot bear to go on burning things. Beatty asks if something is the matter, and Montag says they have stopped in front of his house.
Before reading, ask the student what it would be like to have two people advising them at once, one in a whisper and one out loud. Read aloud to “stay with me.” and stop: ask what got Montag’s feet moving. Read on to “They all laughed.” and stop again: ask what Montag’s hands are doing, and why the men laugh. Read Beatty’s dream slowly, to “Montag sat like a carved white stone.”, and leave a silence before anyone speaks. Read Faber’s answer and stop at “with which ear you’ll listen.”: ask which voice the student would trust, and why. Then read to the end without stopping. Do not say who turned in the alarm or what happens at the house; the reading ends on Montag’s words at the curb. Do not say Beatty knows about the green bullet in Montag’s ear; nothing he says here shows it. Do not say Beatty’s dream really happened. Do not treat Beatty as a simple liar; his quotations are real, and the reading lets him win the exchange. Do not treat Faber as a pure guide; he gives orders too, and calls his own caution cowardice. Do not say Montag has chosen a side.
Retell The student tells the reading back in three parts. First the way to work: Clarisse’s dark house, the train, Faber’s voice and the picture of fire and water turning to wine, his advice to pity the women and tiptoe round Beatty, Montag’s guilt, his frozen feet, the story of the sticks, and “stay with me.” Then the card table: the empty kennel, the book in the trash, the welcome back, the restless hands, the quotations set against each other, “I don’t know,” the drunkard, Beatty’s dream, the pulse, “What traitors books can be!”, Montag like a stone, and Faber’s answer. Last, the alarm: the address in Beatty’s pocket, the forty seconds, the cards put down, the ride, Montag’s thoughts of the women, Beatty at the wheel, and the Salamander stopping. Ask for three or four sentences for each part, in order.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes five sentences built like the first passage, about a habit or a voice that slowly changes someone: a long sentence that repeats a phrase and ends on three pairs set off by commas, like “drop by drop”; a sentence that ends on three verbs that grow stronger, like “told him, assured him, promised him”; a sentence with a chain of verbs joined by “and”; a short line with no verb, like “Out of two separate and opposite things, a third.”; and a sentence that ends by naming the same thing twice. Then three sentences built like the second passage, about an argument someone thinks they have won: a short exclamation; a sentence that piles up a list with “and” where commas would do, like “nouns and verbs and adjectives”; and a sentence that repeats someone’s spoken words with no quotation marks, like “Going my way?”
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. Reasons Faber leaves Montag free: he says “I want it to be your decision, not mine, and not the Captain’s”; he tells Montag to take in Beatty’s say as well as his own; his lesson outside the firehouse is that a man learns by his own mistakes. Reasons neither man does: Faber asks to “hear him for you,” tells Montag to tiptoe, and says the Captain belongs to “the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom” in the same breath as “your decision”; Beatty answers his own questions, wins with quotations Montag cannot answer, and dreams of Montag riding back “in beatific silence.” One side argues each, with a reason and a line from the reading, then they switch. A student who wants to argue for Beatty may, using only this reading. No side may say who turned in the alarm, what happens at the house, or that Montag has chosen a side.
Purpose Close on where the reading stops: “Why,” said Montag slowly, “we’ve stopped in front of my house.” Ask why Bradbury ends on Montag’s words and not on what Beatty says back. Then set the end beside the beginning: the reading opens with Montag trying not to see how dark and deserted Clarisse McClellan’s house is, and closes with him looking at his own. Ask what Montag tried not to see at the start, and what he cannot help seeing at the end. Do not say what happens at the house, or who turned in the alarm.
Easier Read aloud together from Beatty’s “Stop blushing.” to “Montag sat like a carved white stone.” Talk through the fourth discussion question (why Montag’s hands seem “gloved with blood”). Then answer the last written question aloud, starting from what Faber says he wants the decision to be and where Beatty’s dream leaves Montag.
On level Talk through the five discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to the three 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 give them a puzzle from the reading itself. Beatty’s last quotation warns against “mistaking a metaphor for a proof,” and the promise Montag hears on the train rests on a metaphor, fire and water turning to wine. Ask whether the warning catches Faber as well as Beatty, using only this reading. The answer must not say what happens at the house.
1. On the train, Faber’s voice promises that Montag will turn from “fire plus water” into “wine.” When that happens, how much of Montag will be left?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to weigh the picture Montag carries to work. On the train he feels that he is “two people”: Montag, “who knew nothing,” and “the old man who talked to him and talked to him.” In the nights to come the voice will go on “drop by drop, stone by stone, flake by flake,” until “he would not be Montag any more, this the old man told him, assured him, promised him.” He would be “Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water,” and then “neither fire nor water, but wine. Out of two separate and opposite things, a third.” Montag already feels “the going away from the self he had been.” The student decides how much of Montag the wine keeps. It takes up one part of the last written question: Faber’s plan for Montag, made before Montag has judged anything. Do not treat Faber as a pure guide; the promise is his.
More than before. Wine is a new thing made from both, and the picture ends with Montag able to see his old self clearly. He is not wiped out; he grows.
Out of two separate and opposite things, a third.
And one day he would look back upon the fool and know the fool.
Very little. The voice wears at him like water on stone, he is already leaving his old self behind, and the promise is the old man’s, not his own.
the going away from the self he had been
he would not be Montag any more, this the old man told him, assured him, promised him
A strong answer A strong response might say more of Montag is left than before: wine is “a third” thing made “Out of two separate and opposite things,” and the picture ends with Montag looking back to “know the fool” he was, which only a self can do. Another might say very little: the voice works on him “drop by drop, stone by stone,” the way water wears down rock, until “he would not be Montag any more,” and that is what “the old man told him, assured him, promised him.” A careful answer may notice that Montag hears all this as “good listening” and feels it as “the going away from the self he had been,” and may ask whose journey it is.
2. Montag’s feet freeze outside the firehouse, and Faber keeps talking until Montag feels “his right foot, then his left foot, move.” What in Faber’s talk got them moving?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to work out what gets Montag through the firehouse door. He has just said he feels guilty, and Faber has told him he must not go back to being “just a fireman.” “Montag perspired.” Then: “My feet won’t move!” Faber speaks “gently”: “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by.” He tells how, when he was young and “shoved my ignorance in people’s faces,” “They beat me with sticks,” and he says, “If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.” He ends, “We’re twins, we’re not alone any more,” and promises to sit “right here in your eardrum making notes!” Then “Montag felt his right foot, then his left foot, move.” The student decides what in Faber’s speech did it. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether Faber is teaching Montag to stand on his own feet or carrying him. Do not treat Faber as a pure guide; a little earlier he told Montag to “tiptoe round” Beatty.
It makes mistakes safe. Montag is afraid of getting it wrong, and Faber shows him that being hit is how a person learns.
Mistakes can be profited by.
If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.
The lesson matters less than the company. What moves his feet is hearing that he is not alone, and his first words after are a plea to keep the voice.
We’re twins, we’re not alone any more
stay with me.
A strong answer A strong response might say the story makes mistakes safe to make: Montag is “afraid of making mistakes,” and Faber, who was beaten “with sticks,” says “Mistakes can be profited by” and that a man who hides his ignorance will “never learn.” Another might say the lesson matters less than the company: Faber ends with “We’re twins, we’re not alone any more,” and Montag’s first words once his feet move are “stay with me.” A careful answer may notice that Faber’s story praises showing your ignorance, while his plan for the night is to “tiptoe round” the Captain, and may ask which of the two Montag carries through the door.
3. Beatty welcomes Montag back “now that your fever is done and your sickness over.” How does it help Beatty to call Montag’s trouble a sickness?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to look at the word Beatty chooses for Montag’s trouble. Montag puts the book in Beatty’s open hand, and “Without even glancing at the title,” Beatty tosses it into the trash-basket. Then: “Welcome back, Montag. I hope you’ll be staying, with us, now that your fever is done and your sickness over.” A little later he calls it “the crisis” and says “the sheep returns to the fold.” While he tells his dream, he seizes Montag’s wrist and reads his pulse: “God, what a pulse!” At the alarm the word comes back: “Montag, you don’t look well? I’d hate to think you were coming down with another fever…” The student decides what the word does for Beatty. It takes up one part of the last written question: if Montag’s reading was a sickness, nothing he thought while reading needs an answer. Do not treat Beatty as a simple liar; an illness is also something a man is forgiven for. Do not say Beatty knows about the green bullet in Montag’s ear; nothing he says here shows it.
It lets him take Montag back. Nobody is to blame for a fever, so Beatty can forgive him and deal him back into the game with a welcome.
Welcome back, Montag.
the sheep returns to the fold
It lets him wave away Montag’s ideas. Thoughts that come from a fever need no answer, so the book goes in the trash unread, and Montag is handled like a patient.
Without even glancing at the title
God, what a pulse!
A strong answer A strong response might say the word lets Beatty take Montag back: no one is to blame for a fever, so he can say “Welcome back, Montag” and “the sheep returns to the fold.” Another might say it lets him wave away Montag’s ideas without answering them: the book goes in the trash “Without even glancing at the title,” and at the table Beatty seizes Montag’s wrist and reads his pulse like a doctor, “God, what a pulse!” A careful answer may notice that the word comes back at the alarm, “I’d hate to think you were coming down with another fever,” and may ask what Montag could say about books that Beatty would not call a symptom.
4. Montag’s hands took the books when his conscience first woke up. So why do they seem “gloved with blood” at the firehouse?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to read a puzzle inside one sentence. At the card table, “In Beatty’s sight, Montag felt the guilt of his hands.” His fingers are “like ferrets that had done some evil and now never rested.” These are “the hands that had acted on their own, no part of him, here was where the conscience first manifested itself to snatch books,” and yet “now, in the firehouse, these hands seemed gloved with blood.” The hands that obeyed his conscience feel like a killer’s. “Twice in half an hour” he leaves the game to wash them, and then he hides them under the table. Beatty laughs: “Let’s have your hands in sight, Montag.” “They all laughed.” The student decides which deed the blood belongs to: the books the hands took, or the burning they did before. It takes up one part of the last written question: before Beatty’s quotations start, and while Faber is “a grey moth asleep in his ear,” something in Montag is already judging him. Do not say Beatty knows about the green bullet in Montag’s ear; nothing here shows it.
The blood is for the books. In Beatty’s sight, taking them was a crime, and his fingers move like animals caught doing wrong.
In Beatty’s sight, Montag felt the guilt of his hands.
His fingers were like ferrets that had done some evil
The blood is for the burning. Back in the firehouse they are a fireman’s hands again, and his waking conscience sees what the job has done.
now, in the firehouse, these hands seemed gloved with blood
how can I go on burning things?
A strong answer A strong response might say the blood is for the books: the guilt comes “In Beatty’s sight,” his fingers move like “ferrets that had done some evil,” and in that room the hands that saved books are a thief’s hands. Another might say the blood is for the burning: “now, in the firehouse,” they are a fireman’s hands again, and at the curb Montag asks himself “how can I go on burning things?” A careful answer may notice that in Beatty’s telling of his dream, Montag screams “Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer!”, and may ask who the murderer at that table is.
5. Montag says “I don’t know” to Faber on the train, and again to Beatty at the card table. What does he mean each time?Character
What it asks It asks the student to hear the same three words in two places. On the train, Montag tells Faber he made the women unhappier than they have been in years: “Maybe they’re right, maybe it’s best not to face things, to run, have fun. I don’t know. I feel guilty—” Faber breaks in: “No, you mustn’t!” At the card table, Beatty sets one quotation against another, “But on the other hand,” and asks, “What do you think of that?” Montag answers, “I don’t know.” Faber whispers, “Careful.” Beatty adds another line and asks, “Where does that put you?” “Montag bit his lip.” Then Beatty says, “I’ll tell you.” The student decides what Montag means each time. It takes up one part of the last written question: both men hear Montag say he does not know, and neither lets the not-knowing stand for long. Do not get lost naming who wrote each quotation; watch what the quotations do to Montag.
Honest the first time, a shield the second. With Faber he is really unsure. With Beatty he is keeping his thoughts hidden, and he bites his lip to keep them in.
Maybe they’re right, maybe it’s best not to face things, to run, have fun.
Montag bit his lip.
Honest both times. Faber wanted him to stop doubting, and Beatty’s lines point two ways at once, so “I don’t know” is the truest answer he has.
No, you mustn’t!
But on the other hand
A strong answer A strong response might say he is honest the first time and careful the second: on the train he is truly torn about the women (“Maybe they’re right”), but at the table Faber whispers “Careful” right after it, and at Beatty’s next question “Montag bit his lip,” so “I don’t know” keeps his real thoughts out of Beatty’s reach. Another might say he is honest both times: Beatty’s lines pull “on the other hand,” and a man caught between two quotations that disagree may truly not know. A careful answer may notice that neither listener lets the words stand, since Faber answers “No, you mustn’t!” and Beatty answers “I’ll tell you,” and may ask what Montag might have found if someone had waited.
1. Beatty’s dream sets books against each other, and then he says, “Stick with the fireman.” What would Montag have to believe to take that advice?
What it asks It asks the student to test the step in Beatty’s argument. In his dream, Montag yells quotations and Beatty answers each one with another; he boasts that he was “using the very books you clung to, to rebut you on every hand, on every point!” “What traitors books can be! You think they’re backing you up, and they turn on you.” Others can use them too, he says, “and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor.” Early in the dream he has already drawn his lesson from a line of Dr. Johnson’s, “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.” Then: “Stick with the fireman, Montag. All else is dreary chaos!” “Don’t listen,” whispers Faber. “He’s trying to confuse.” The student names what Montag would have to believe for that step to hold, and judges whether he should believe it. Write a claim with evidence, in complete sentences, and answer the strongest case for the other side. It takes up one part of the last written question: Beatty’s way of winning Montag over. Do not treat Beatty as a simple liar; his quotations are real, some cut both ways, and the reading lets him win the exchange. Do not say the dream really happened.
That no one can judge between books. If every line can be met by another, a steady job is safer than chaos, and tonight Montag cannot answer a single line.
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
Montag’s head whirled sickeningly.
That books hold nothing worth keeping because they can be turned. That does not follow, and Beatty’s own lines warn that clever quoting proves nothing, a warning that cuts against his dream as much as against Montag.
The folly of mistaking a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths
The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue that Montag would have to believe no one can judge between books: if every line can be met by another, then, as Beatty’s Dr. Johnson puts it, a wise man will not “quit a certainty for an uncertainty,” and the night seems to prove it, since Montag cannot answer and his “head whirled sickeningly.” Another might argue that the step needs Montag to believe books are worthless because they can be turned, and that this does not follow: Beatty’s own lines warn against “mistaking a metaphor for a proof” and say “The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose,” which fits the man doing the citing. A careful answer may grant that Beatty won the exchange and still ask whether winning an argument is the same as being right.
2. On the Salamander, Montag thinks that reading to the women was like “trying to put out fires with water-pistols.” Where does that thought come from?
What it asks It asks the student to trace a thought to where it started. The Salamander rounds a corner “in thunder and siren,” and Montag thinks of “the chaff women in his parlour tonight, with the kernels blown out from under them by a neon wind, and his silly damned reading of a book to them. How like trying to put out fires with water-pistols, how senseless and insane. One rage turned in for another.” Earlier, at the table, Beatty told him a few lines had made him “for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff.” Before that, on the train, Montag told Faber, “I made them unhappier than they have been in years,” and Faber answered, “Forget the poor, silly women.” The student decides whose thought this is. Write a claim with evidence, in complete sentences, and answer the strongest case for another reading. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether Montag, after a night between two voices, has a thought of his own. Do not say Montag has chosen a side.
Beatty’s. The barrage has just ended, and Montag now sees his reading the way Beatty told it: a few lines, then a rage.
Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff.
One rage turned in for another.
His own. He was sorry about the women before Beatty said a word, and he pities them, which Beatty never does.
I made them unhappier than they have been in years
with the kernels blown out from under them by a neon wind
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue the thought is Beatty’s: the barrage has just ended, Beatty told him that a few lines make a man “a drunkard,” and now Montag calls his own reading “senseless and insane,” “One rage turned in for another.” Another might argue it is his own: on the train, before he saw Beatty, he told Faber “I made them unhappier than they have been in years,” and the “chaff women” with “the kernels blown out from under them” are seen with a pity Beatty never shows. A careful answer may notice that Faber is in the thought too: on the train he asked for “Pity, Montag, pity” and called them “the poor, silly women.” It may ask whether a thought put together from three voices can still be Montag’s own.
3. Beatty and Faber both try hard to win Montag over tonight. Is either of them really leaving Montag free to think for himself?
What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones: how much of Montag will be left once fire and water turn to wine; what in Faber’s talk gets Montag’s feet moving; how it helps Beatty to call Montag’s trouble a sickness; why the hands that took books for Montag’s conscience seem “gloved with blood”; what Montag means each time he says “I don’t know”; what Montag would have to believe to “Stick with the fireman”; and where his thought that reading to the women was like “trying to put out fires with water-pistols” comes from. Now the student judges both teachers. Faber tells Montag to “tiptoe round” Beatty: “let me hear him for you, let me feel the situation out.” While Beatty tells his dream, Faber whispers, “Don’t listen,” and once it ends he says, “You must take it in.” He says, “I want it to be your decision, not mine, and not the Captain’s,” and in the next breath warns that the Captain belongs to “the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom.” Beatty drops the book in the trash “Without even glancing at the title,” beats Montag with quotations, and ends his dream with the two of them driving back to the firehouse “in beatific silence, all dwindled away to peace.” At the alarm he asks, “Going out of this game?”, and when Montag says yes, “Hold on.” The student writes a judgment with evidence, in complete sentences, and answers the strongest objection. Do not say Beatty knows about the green bullet in Montag’s ear, who turned in the alarm, or what happens at the house. Do not say Montag has chosen a side. Do not treat Beatty as a simple liar or Faber as a pure guide.
Faber, in the end. He gives orders and takes sides, but he is the only one who says the choice is Montag’s, and he tells Montag to take in both voices, the Captain’s too.
I want it to be your decision, not mine, and not the Captain’s.
All right, he’s had his say. You must take it in.
Neither. Beatty’s dream ends with Montag riding home silent, and Faber asks to do Montag’s hearing for him and says the Captain belongs to the enemy before Montag has judged anything.
let me hear him for you, let me feel the situation out
But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue that Faber, for all his orders, leaves Montag free in the end: he says “I want it to be your decision, not mine, and not the Captain’s,” and tells Montag to take in Beatty’s say as well as his own. Another might argue that neither does: Beatty’s dream ends with Montag riding back “in beatific silence, all dwindled away to peace,” and Faber, who asked to “hear him for you,” names the Captain part of “the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom” in the same breath as “your decision.” A careful answer may notice that Faber’s last words leave Montag to choose “with which ear you’ll listen,” when one of his ears already holds Faber, and may ask whether a man can be free while one teacher lives in his ear.