Mr. Craig – Ninth Grade Literature and Composition – Rockdale Career Academy – 1 October 2015
Fahrenheit 451 Comprehension/Annotation Questions
Part 1.1: “The Hearth and the Salamander” [pp. 1-31]
1.
How are the books that are being burnt described?
a. Example: “Eaten… blackened and changed…the tatters and
charcoal ruins of history… flapping pigeon-winged books…
went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned
dark with burning” (1-2). The whole scene is described as
glorious, like a fireworks show or patriotic celebration.
2.
What is Montag’s job? Does he like his job?
3.
How does the author describe the girl that Montag meets near his home?
What is her name? How old is she? What does she like to do?
4.
What symbols does Montag wear on his uniform? Look up the symbols in
a dictionary. What do they represent?
5.
What does Montag smell of? Why does he smell like this?
6.
How old is Montag? How long has he been a fireman?
7.
What questions does Clarisse ask Montag that upsets him?
8.
Explain the significance of the following quotation: What does it tell us
about the society in which Montag lives? “I sometimes think drivers don’t
know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly,” she
said.
9.
5.
How is the book that is lit on fire described? How is it similar to how the
author describes the book at the beginning of the novel?
6.
Does the woman whose home the firemen have come to burn leave with
the firemen? What happens to her?
7.
When do the alarms come? Why do they come at this time of day?
8.
The woman is ranting. What does she say? Copy what she says into your
notebook. What is “heresy”? How could the woman’s actions be
considered heresy?
9.
What does Montag do with the book that he stole?
10. What is the joke Montag refers to Mildred? How is this joke representative
of Montag and Mildred’s relationship?
11. What question does Montag ask Mildred that neither of them can answer?
Would Montag cry had Mildred died from her sleeping pill overdose? How
does this revelation make him feel? What is Montag’s most significant
memory of Mildred?
12. Mildred never really listens to Montag. There are always too many
distractions. What are these distractions?
13. What has happened to Clarisse and her family? Who tells Montag about
what has happened? Why did it take so long?
Describe the billboards.
14. Who or what does Montag feel is outside that night?
10. Describe Montag’s bedroom. Is he happy?
11. What are the Seashells?
12. What kind of marriage do Montag and Mildred have? Explain.
13. What did Montag kick? Why is this significant?
15. What does Mildred look like? Use the text to support your answer. Do you
think she is attractive?
16. What is the relationship Mildred has with her parlour walls? What does
she consider them to be?
17. Montag wants Mildred to call Captain Beatty and tell him that he is sick
and will not be coming into the fire station that night. Why is Montag sick?
14. What happened to Mildred? Does she remember what happened?
15. Who comes to help Mildred? Why is Montag upset?
18. Explain the significance of the following: “There must be something in
books, things we can’t imagine to make a woman stay in a burning house.
There must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
16. Describe the parlor. Who really likes it?
19. Why do you think that Montag became a fireman?
17. What does Clarisse do with the dandelion? Why does this upset Montag?
What does this tell us about him?
18.
Why does Clarisse go to a psychiatrist?
19. What is the Mechanical Hound? What do the firemen do with it when they
are bored?
20. Why doesn’t Clarisse go to school? What is the Fun Park? Who goes
there and what do they do there?
21. What does Clarisse think about people her own age?
20. What is the realization that Montag comes to about books?
21. Who pays Montag to visit a home? Why does he come? Summarize
Beatty’s explanation why books have been banned in society.
22. What are people in this time and this society led to believe about
themselves?
23. Captain Beatty says the following about firemen: “We stand against the
small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting
theory and thought. We have our fingers in the dike.” What role does
Captain Beatty see firemen have in this time?
22. What happens to Clarisse?
24. What is the rule about a fireman who takes home a book?
23. What do the firemen look like?
Part 1.2: The Hearth and the Salamander [pp. 31-68]
25. What is and has been hidden behind the grille of the air conditioning
system? What is Mildred’s first response?
1.
What line from a book does Montag let slip in conversation with Captain
Beatty? How is this significant to Montag’s character development?
Part 2.1: “The Sieve and the Sand” [pp. 69-91]
2.
What are the fireman’s rules of conduct?
3.
What is being personified on page 41? How is Montag’s hand being
personified?
4.
What is the normal procedure when an alarm is called in on someone?
How is this alarm different?
1.
Whom is Montag still thinking about?
2.
What is Mildred’s impression of books? How do books compare to
the parlour walls?
3.
Montag relates the reader his chance encounter with the old man in
the park. In point form, discuss what happened. Why do you think
that Montag never turned in the old man?
Part 3: “Burning Bright” [pp. 111-165]
4.
What is the question Montag calls Faber to ask him? How does
Faber react?
5.
What does Montag question Mildred about?
6.
Montag feels numb. When does he figure that the numbness
started?
1.
Captain Beatty has stopped in front of Montag’s house. Montag is
surprised. Beatty does not think that this shoud come as a surprise to
Montag. Why?
2.
Who does Beatty think fooled and ruined Montag?
Where is Mildred in all of the commotion? Who is she worried about?
8.
3.
How does the following quote relate to how Montag feels about
books: “Once a child had sat upon a yellow dune in the sea in the
4.
middle of the blue and hot summer day trying to fill a sieve with sand,
because some cruel cousin had said, ‘Fill this sieve with sand and
you’ll get a dime.’ And the faster he poured the faster it sifted through 5.
with a hot whispering. His hands were tired, the sand was boiling, the
sieve was empty.
6.
What is a sieve?
9.
How is the train’s radio personified?
7.
Who turned in the alarm?
8.
What takes place between Montag and Beatty? What does Beatty
discover?
9.
Describe in detail what happens to Captain Beatty.
7.
10. Describe Faber.
There are books in the Montag house. Where were the books and how
did they get back into the house?
What does Beatty want Montag to do? Why? What does Faber want
Montag to do? Why can’t Montag do what Faber tells him to do?
When Montag finishes destroying the house, what is supposed to happen
to him?
11. Why do you think that Montag describes his wife as “dying”?
12. Why has Montag come to see Faber?
13. What are the three (3) things that Faber says are missing?
14. What would Faber like to see happen to the firemen?
15. According to Faber, are the firemen needed? What purpose does
Faber see the firemen as serving?
10. Explain the incident with the Mechanical Hound. What happens to the
hound?
11. How does Montag’s leg feel? Find the figurative language that the author
uses to describe it.
12. What does Montag look for in the backyard? What does he find and what
does he do? What are Montag’s feelings about what he has done?
16. What does Montag do with the Bible? Why does he do this? What
does Montag ultimately do with the Bible?
13. What realization does Montag come to about Captain Beatty? Why does
he believe this to be so?
17. How long has the story being told been going on?
14. What does Montag feel he has done to Faber? Why? Is Faber okay?
18. How did Faber earn his money since he has been an unemployed
English professor for 40 years?
15. What does Montag hear on the Seashells? What doe he do?
19. What is the green bullet? What is its purpose? Who made it?
Part 2.2: “The Sieve and the Sand” [pp. 91-110]
16. Why does Montag go to the gas station? What significant event does he
learn about there?
17. What or who does Montag think is after him? What happens? Who was it?
1.
What is the constant threat in the sky?
2.
Who comes over to the Montag house? Why do they come?
18. In whose house does Montag hide some books? Where does he hide
them? What does he do next?
19. Montag questions all that has happened in the last week and all that is
now lost? What is lost?
3.
What does Montag do that is very unusual for this society? What does he
insist that the women do with him?
20. Where does Faber suggest Montag should go? Who else will he find
there?
4.
Is Mrs. Phelps a good mother? What activity does she compare watching
her children with? Why?
21. Faber gives Montag a small postcard-sized TV. What is being broadcast
tonight? Is this event similar to anything you might have watched on TV?
5.
The women and this society put so much value on physical appearance.
How do they demonstrate how valuable an attractive person is?
22. It is very late or early morning. How would the people know to come and
watch the hunt on the parlor walls?
6.
What does Montag show to the women to shock them? What reason does
he tell Faber for showing them?
23. What instructions does Montag give to Faber for after he leaves? Does it
work?
7.
How did Mildred cover for Montag?
24. How does the audience become involved in the drama?
8.
Where does Montag now hide the books?
25. Describe the conflicts that are going on inside Montag regarding Clarisse,
Mildred, Beatty, and Faber.
9.
When Montag is at the fire station, what do his hands feel like? Why?
10. Who is driving the fire truck? Did this person usually drive? Why do you
think that he is driving tonight?
11. Where is the alarm that the firemen go to?
26. Explain the following symbols or ideas:
a. the river
b. burning
c. senses
d. fire
e. book burning
27. Who is Granger and what is his importance?
28. How does the book end? Explain why Bradbury ends it this way.