MLA Heading:
Fahrenheit 451 Study Guide
MLA Page #:
Part One: The Hearth and the Salamander
____1.
List at least two behaviors Montag exhibits to show that he is very comfortable with his job.
____2.
What does Montag do to show that he is a sort of daredevil?
____3.
What does Montag think he senses as he walks home every night after work?
____4.
**Bonus: Look up the name Montag. What is ironic about that being his name?
____5.
What is unusual about Clarisse? Name at least three things.
____6.
What is ironic about Montag’s job? What type of irony is it?
____7.
What were the causes of Clarisse’s uncle’s two arrests?
____8.
What question does Clarisse ask Montag right before she goes in the house?
____9.
The author gives foreshadowing when he says that Montag has something hidden in the ventilator grille.
What might it be?
____10.
How does Montag think his bedroom is different now that he has come in from the night walk with
Clarisse?
____11.
Who is Mildred?
____12.
What does she listen to while she sleeps?
____13.
What does Montag’s foot kick across the floor?
____14.
What sound does Montag hear “screaming” as he screams, realizing Mildred is unconscious?
____15.
Who comes to the house and what do they do?
____16.
Clarisse’s uncle is the voice of reason in many ways. What is the point of his comment that Montag
hears outside the window?
____17.
What is the first “trick” we find out the house can do?
____18.
How are Mildred’s and Montag’s attitudes about the overdose different?
____19.
How is television different in this future time?
____20.
On page twenty-one, Bradbury leaves a gap. Why here?
____21.
Why is the scene about the dandelion in the novel?
____22.
How can we tell already (page twenty-four) that Montag isn’t like all the other firemen?
____23.
What is the mechanical hound, and how does it kill its victims?
____24.
How does the hound act toward Montag?
____25.
How does Beatty act toward Montag after he comes up to where the men are playing cards?
____26.
Clarisse says she doesn’t fit the usual meaning of social. How has our meaning of social changed today?
____27.
What does Clarisse say about: kids her age? What people talk about?
____28.
What happens to Clarisse?
____29.
Why was the man from last week’s fire supposedly taken to an asylum? Why was he really taken?
____30.
Where does the quote, “Play the man, Master Ridley…” (36) come from and why is it used?
____31.
Why does Montag feel guilt at this fire when he hasn’t felt it at the others?
____32.
What is the woman holding as the firemen leave? What will she do with it?
____33.
Name at least two clues that show you Montag and Mildred aren’t close.
____34.
What question is Mildred unable to answer?
____35.
What does Mildred forget to tell Montag?
____36.
What makes Montag want to call in sick to work?
____37.
Who arrives at the door, and how does he act that is unusual?
____38.
Why does Beatty say books were shortened and then finally destroyed?
____39.
What does Mildred almost pull out from behind Montag’s pillow?
____40.
What is Mildred probably saying as she mouths the words?
____41.
Beatty calls firemen “the Happiness Boys.” What is his version of making people happy? Give at least
three details.
Find an example of each of the following in the novel.
____42.
Simile
____43.
Metaphor
____44.
Alliteration
____45.
Personification
____46.
Allusion
____47.
Symbolism
____48.
What “itch” does Beatty say every fireman gets in his career?
____49.
How long is a fireman permitted to keep a book?
____50.
Infer: Why does Beatty say what he says about the itch and firemen with books?
____51.
What is Montag planning on doing about his job on the day he doesn’t go in?
____52.
What is missing from new houses and why?
____53.
What does Mildred offer Montag as a solution to his stress?
____54.
Montag decides he is not _______________ like Mildred says she is.
____55.
What does Montag pull out of the ventilator grille?
____56.
What sound interrupts Montag’s speech to Millie about the woman who was burned with her books?
____57.
Bonus: From what novel does the quote come that starts, “’It is computed that…’”?
Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand
____58.
Define the word sieve.
____59.
As you read, decide what the sieve symbolizes and what the sand symbolizes. Come back and write
them here.
____60.
What is different about the parlor as Montag and Mildred read?
____61.
Why doesn’t the door-voice announce the second visitor?
____62.
Infer: Who is the second visitor at the door?
____63.
When Montag’s trying to decide how to teach him and his wife about what’s in books, what flashback
does he have?
____64.
What is Faber hiding in his coat?
____65.
What book does Montag own for which he might want to turn in a substitute?
____66.
Describe the childhood flashback Montag has on the subway.
____67.
Montag is trying to remember something on the subway but keeps being interrupted. What is he trying
to remember? What is the interruption?
____68.
How does Faber say he reacted when all the book censorship was first happening?
____69.
How is his reaction like many people’s reactions today?
____70.
Faber says that the books themselves aren’t magical. Why does he say they’re valuable, though?
____71.
What three things does Faber tell Montag society needs?
____72.
What is Montag’s plan for fighting book burning?
____73.
What seemingly cruel trick does Montag do to convince Faber to help him?
____74.
What invention does Faber give Montag and why?
____75.
How is the bank in Montag’s time like our time?
____76.
What book of the Bible does Faber whisper in Montag’s ear?
____77.
What is unusual about the cartoon the ladies are watching and enjoying?
____78.
What is unusual about Mrs. Phelps’ marriage?
____79.
What is Mrs. Bowles’ attitude toward her children?
____80.
How do you know the government only gives one side in an election?
____81.
What does Montag read to the women?
____82.
How is it ironic that Montag chooses that poem to read?
____83.
How does each woman react to the poem?
____84.
What does Montag give Beatty at the fire station?
____85.
What does Beatty begin to quote during the poker game? Why are these quotes ironic?
____86.
What interrupts the poker game?
____87.
What does Beatty do on the Salamander that he doesn’t usually do?
____88.
Whose house is being burned at the end of part two?
Use the rest of this page to respond to the book so far. What are your favorite/least favorite parts? What do
you not understand? Write a paragraph. You may also illustrate the novel so far if you choose.
Part Three: Burning Bright
____89.
What mythical allusion is Beatty making on page 113?
____90.
Who does Beatty say fooled Montag with her “flowers, butterflies…phases of the moon?”
____91.
Where does Mildred go and why?
____92.
What is ironic about the other firemen’s names and why?
____93.
Who ends up having to burn the house?
____94.
Faber keeps trying to get Montag to do what during the fire?
____95.
What does Montag do to Beatty and why?
____96.
What two injuries does Montag receive at the fire?
____97.
What makes it hard for Montag to run from the fire?
____98.
For what reason does Montag run back to the fire?
____99.
What conclusion does Montag reach about Beatty’s death?
____100.
How had Montag “burnt Faber”?
____101.
What does Montag hear on the seashell as he runs?
____102.
Where does he decide to run?
____103.
What makes the helicopters of the future so effective and different from our helicopters today?
____104.
What problem does Montag encounter when crossing the street?
____105.
What does Montag do to fight back on his way to Faber’s?
____106.
Where are Faber and Montag going to go?
____107.
What is going on in the world that is being ignored for the sake of broadcasting Montag’s chase on TV?
____108.
What metaphor is used to describe Montag’s chase?
____109.
What trail does Faber need to get rid of, and what are the steps he will take to do it?
____110.
What is the government’s plan to catch Montag, since the hound is having difficulty finding him?
____111.
How does Montag finally escape the chase?
____112.
What thought process does Montag have that makes him realize he can’t ever burn again?
____113.
BONUS: What is an asbestos weaver, and why is its guild mentioned here?
____114.
Where does Montag imagine he will sleep?
____115.
Who else comes to his mind when he thinks of that place?
____116.
What set of eyes does Montag mistake for the hound?
____117.
What does Montag use as a path, and what unproven fact comes to him there?
____118.
What does Montag see in the forest that takes him fifteen minutes to reach?
____119.
List as many ways as you can that the title of this section applies. These could be positive or negative.
____120.
Who welcomes Montag to the group, and what does he ask Montag to do?
____121.
Why is the chase running the other way?
____122.
What is a scapegoat?
____123.
Who are the men around the fire?
____124.
What new “identities” do the men adopt? Which one will Montag be? Why do they have to do this?
____125.
Why are the men occasionally searched but never arrested?
____126.
How is their plan for changing society different from the one that Montag tried to start?
____127.
Clarisse looked up to his uncle. To whom does Granger look up?
____128.
Apostrophe is a literary device where a speaker talks to someone who can’t hear him. What three
people does Montag apostrophize, and what does he say to each of them?
____129.
What does Montag finally remember as he thinks of Millie dying in the bombing?
____130.
After the men get up from lying on the ground during the blast, they smell “a coming rain.” What might
this symbolize?
____131.
What metaphor does Granger discuss about man, and why does he make that negative comparison?
____132.
Even though our world doesn’t burn books, Granger gives some thoughts about how we do treat books.
What does he say?
____133.
INFER: What kind of factory does Granger want to build and why?
____134.
Montag suddenly becomes the leader of the hobo group. Why do you think that is?
____135.
What direction are the men walking, and why is that symbolic?
____136.
BONUS: There are two Biblical allusions in the last two pages. Where do they come from, and why are
they appropriate to be at the end of the novel?