LITERATURE CIRCLE
BOOK
By Johanna
Hopkins and
Jazmyn Rivera
ETTING
This is a picture of the firehouse
Montag works at.
chicagojournal.com






• In the book, Fahrenheit 451 , by Ray Bradbury, the main character moves setting a
lot. The main places in the book are Montag’s house, the firehouse, the corner
where he and Clarrise met, Faber’s house, the bus station, the railroad, and the
woods.
Montag’s house is small, dark, has standard rooms, two beds, and air ducts. His
house also includes a “parlor”, a wall sized television screen.
The firehouses in Montag’s time era are very similar to todays. There is a living
area (where they play poker), a brass fire pole, and an area where the fire
trucks and fireproof equipment are stored.
The corner where Clarisse and Montag met is very important to Montag. He
feels as if the corner is magical, and he felt as if someone was waiting for him
there.
Faber’s house is big for him. He lives by himself with only his technology
keeping his company . Montag uses this house as a “rest stop” when he is
running away from the government.
The bus station is similar to subways in our time era. Montag spends most of
his time on a bench, thinking, and waiting for the bus.
The railroad Montag discovers is “home” to a secret network of people that
have photographic memory , and have memorized a library of books.
HARACTERS
Guy Montag is a guy. He is the main character of the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray
Bradbury. He works at the firehouse. In this era, the firemen burn books instead of saving people
from fire. It’s also illegal to own any type of book. In the firehouse, it’s very similar to the firehouses
that we have today. It has the fireman’s pole, a living area and fire-proof gear. In the living area, they
play poker while they wait to be called to burn books. All the houses in Montag’s time are fire
proof, thus why they don’t need any firemen to save people from fire. He takes pleasure in burning
books at first. Then, as the book goes on, he realizes what he’s doing and doesn’t have that pleasure
anymore and eventually stops. He questions the motives of the firehouse. He doesn’t understand
why they are burning books and why nobody is allowed to have them. He then finds out (by
Captain Beatty telling him) that they burn books because they don’t want to make people think.
They want the people to only know happy things, to never be sad. He then brought books home.
People came to think that Montag was too philosophical, that he thought too hard about things.
Montag began to go crazy, to not know what to do with himself. He let Faber guide and control
every step that he made after he was given the little green bullet, a communication device in which
he could talk to Faber with. After he killed Captain Beatty, he began to be more like a normal
person. He began to think for himself and control his actions. He was his own man.
HARACTER
Mildred Montag is Guy Montag’s wife. Mildred is also called Millie
by her husband and some friends. She is a little crazy. She once took too
many sleeping pills and had to have an operation in which they pumped her
stomach to make sure she was okay. She is with the government. She thinks
that they shouldn’t have the books. She calls the firehouse and turns in their
books. Montag then gets a call at the firehouse, which he then finds out is
meant to burn his house. Mildred is like one of the many sheep of a flock.
She will follow whatever the other sheep will do, no matter how hurtful or
stupid it is. She also listens to whatever the government says on the news on
her Seashell. A Seashell is a device you put in your ear to listen to the news.
She doesn’t really love Montag, even though they are husband and wife. She
doesn’t want to look bad and sucks up anything that the government says. She
would even go against her husband, Guy, if need be. Mildred can be nice if
things are going smoothly. If her life gets harder, then she doesn’t have
everything right with the world. She started to get into fights with Guy when
he brought those books home. She was a little scared of them, because if
someone found out about it, they would lose everything they had worked
hard for all those years.
HARACTER
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/378815-charries
This is Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse is 17. She has very,
very light blonde hair and very light skin that makes her
look ghostly in the moonlight.
Clarisse McClellan is a very odd girl that lives very close to Guy Montag. She is one of
the minor characters, not too important. They met at the corner of the sidewalk, close to their
houses. Guy Montag felt that it was more than a coincidence. Many people call her crazy. She
would think way outside the box in her way of doing things. For example, she would stare at the
moon at night and would say that there was a face or ‘man’ on the moon. Nowadays, this is a
normal thing to know that there is a face on the moon. Then, you wouldn’t really care what went
on around you, just what went on with you. So, Clarisse looking at the moon and seeing shapes in
it was considered crazy in their era. Clarisse wanted to know the ‘why’ behind things, not the ‘how’
like other ‘normal’ people in Montag’s time. Clarisse was killed by the government because she
was different and that was it. She wanted to know more, to have more knowledge and be smart, but
all the government did was call her names. Oddball, crazy, weird, out-of-the-ordinary, a mistake.
Clarisse never did anything to them, but they didn’t stop to put an end to her, to her questions, to
her life. She was just another mistake that they needed to get rid of. A pothole in the street, an
infestation of cats, nothing more. To them, she was nothing but a piece of garbage. A little flimsy
thing that needed to be thrown away. A piece of garbage and nothing more. That was what Clarisse
McClellan meant to them.
HARACTER
 Captain Beatty is the captain of the firehouse, Guy Montag’s boss. He’s a little
more important minor character. The captain is bold and brash. He doesn’t really
care what people think about him, as long as they don’t think he’s breaking the law
by owning a book. Captain Beatty is the antagonist of this book. He’s the antagonist
because he tries to talk Guy Montag into not following what Faber says. He also
doesn’t care when Guy Montag gets his house burned down. In fact, he enjoys it. A
real friend would try to console him and not laugh at him all the way. Captain
Beatty is all for the burning of books. He thinks it’s right and should be done until
every last page is gone. He also tried to encourage Guy Montag that he wanted to
burn books, to have pleasure in it, when Guy Montag was starting to doubt the
burning of books. Beatty went to Guy’s house when Guy had stolen the book from
the house they had burned down. He knew about the book and tried to tell him
false lies about how books are bad, hurt people’s minds, make them go crazy, and
all sorts of rubbish like that. After Guy burns his own house down, he then burn
Beatty and kills him. Captain Beatty was provoking Guy and laughing and making
jokes. He wanted to do die. We don’t know for what reason, we can only guess.
Maybe he wanted it to stop Montag and make him go crazy, make him have a
horrible life. Maybe it was because he wanted Guy to be in big trouble. We’re not
sure. But all we know is that he, for some odd reason, wanted to die.
HARACTER
 Faber is an old man that lives alone and becomes a friend of Guy Montag.
He’s a kind of important minor character. Faber would do just about
anything just to hold a book. He helped Guy Montag a lot by giving him a
gadget. It was shaped like a little green bullet. You would put this little
green bullet in your ear and you could communicate with someone. In this
case, Faber and Guy Montag were communicating with each other. He was
very book smart and combined with Guy’s bravery, they were invincible, at
least, they thought. At the start, Faber was a coward. He didn’t want to go
out or do anything that might endanger him. He was scared, but wanted to
help in some way so he was talking with Guy Montag through the green
bullet. As the book proceeds, he gets braver and braver and Guy Montag
helps him along the way. Finally, at the end of the book, he’s brave
enough to really stand up to the government. When Guy Montag is
running away from the Hound (mechanical device that’s like a dog to track
bad people and kill them) he stopped by Faber’s house. Faber said that he
didn’t care if the Hound came, following Guy Monatag’s scent, into his
hour. Faber said that he would try to buy as much time he could so that
Guy Montag could run away. Faber also gave him directions to tell him
where the river was, so that it could wash him and his scent away.
LOT-RISING ACTION
pnxsolutions.info
Definition: Events in a story that lead up to the
climax.
The rising action in Fahrenheit 451 is:
 Guy Montag was a firemen and loved it
 Guy Montag meets Clarisse McClellan
 Mildred Montag eats too many sleeping pills and has to have her
stomach pumped
 Clarisse starts talk Montag into a new perspective of life
 Montag starts to question the motives behind the burning of books
 Clarisse is killed by the government
 Montag quits his job
 Montag joins the fireforce again, only to receive shocking news…
LOT-CLIMAX
Montag looked with horror
when he realized his friends
were burning his house.
ltfexperts.com
Definition: The main event in a story. Most of the
time, the entire story is based off of this one event.
 The climax in our story is when the firemen are playing poker.
Beatty receives an alarm, and tells his crew to suit up, but does not
tell his men where they are going. As they arrive at the house,
Montag looks with horror when he realizes it is his house they will
be lighting on fire. Mildred called Captain Beatty, reporting that
there were several books in her and Montag’s house.
 This climax is Man vs. Society because the firemen Montag works
for is burning his house down. Society made a law that prevents any
person to own books, and gives the permission to take necessary
measurements to make sure it never happens again, in this case,
burning his house down.
LOT- FALLING ACTION
Definition: The events in a
story that “tie up loose ends”. Generally
happens after the climax.
The
group
Montag
found
The falling actions in our book is when Montag finds the secret
escaping
network of people, throughout the United States, that have the city
incredible memories, and combined, have enough knowledgelived on
of written books to fill a library. This network of people is railroad
secret because, again, posessing written books is against the tracks.
froginaw
law. Montag finds this
ell.net
group on railroad tracks after he escapes the city
because the firemen he once called his job were burning
his house down.
MOOD
 “Books bombarded his shoulders, his arms, his upturned face. A
book lit almost obediently, like a white pigeon in his hands, wings
fluttering. In the dim, wavering light, a page hung open and it was
like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon. In all the
rush and fer vor, Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it
blazed in his mind for the next minute as if stamped there with fier y
steel. ‘Time has fallen asleep in the af ternoon sunshine.’ He
dropped the book . Immediately, another fell into his arms.” (p.41 ,
Bradbur y)
 The mood is suspenseful. This is because this passage is ver y
moving. For example, when the book falls into his arm, will he read
it?
http://www.barnstable.k12.ma.us/bhs/Libr
ary/BHSLibMysteryThrillers.htm
These were our eyes when we read this
passage. It’s very suspenseful.
MOOD
 “In the bathroom, the water ran. He heard Mildred shake the
sleeping tablets into her hand. ‘Fool Montag, fool, fool, oh God you
silly fool…’
‘Shut up!’ He pulled the green bullet from his ear and jammed it
into his pocket.
It sizzled faintly ‘…fool…fool…’” (p.104, Bradbur y)
 The mood in this passage is crazy. You can’t really get a grip of
what is happening because it’s happening so fast.
http://www.lilesnet.com/romanc
e/crazy.htm
This represents the word ‘crazy’,
like a crazy person.
MOOD
 •“’Get up!’ he told himself. “Dammit, get up!” he said to
the leg, and stood. The pain were spikes driven in the
kneecap and then only darning needles and then only safety
pins, and after he had shagged along fifty more hops and
jumps, filling his hand with slivers from the board fence, the
prickling was like someone blowing a spray of scalding water
on that leg.” p. 125
 •The mood in this passage is an uncomfortable mood. The
main character, Montag, is in incredible amount of pain. This
passage is all about Montag trying to regain his strength,
running from the mechanical hound. There is so much detail
that you as the reader is uncomfortable reading it.
Montag felt immense pain is his knee in this passage.
dreamstime.com
HEME AND
ESOLUTION
The theme of Fahrenheit 451 is that we should not take what we have for granted.
Especially education. In Montag’s era, having books is against the law, and voicing your
opinion is very much looked down upon. We should be lucky that we live in a society
where we can read freely and have debates to express what they feel.
The resolution is when Guy
Montag and his new friends are
making plans about what they
are going to do when they reach
the city.