FAHRENHEIT 451
by Ray Bradbury
Firemen

“It was a pleasure to burn” (p. 3)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
Happiness vs. Masks

“‘Are you happy?’ she said” (p. 10)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
Millie Montag

“There was only the singing of the thimble-wasps in
her tamped-shut ears” (p. 13)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
Something to Hide

“He stood looking up at the ventilator grille…” (p.
10)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
Taste the Rain

“[H]e tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few
moments, and opened his mouth…” (p. 24)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
The Salamander and the Phoenix

Firemen’s Symbols (p. 6)
Day 01 (p. 03-24)
Worthless Marriage

“When did we meet? And where?” (p. 42)
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
Guilt

“The growl simmered in the beast and it looked at
him” (p. 26)
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
Captain Beatty

“None of those books agree with each other…
Snap out of it! The people in those books never
lived” (p. 38)
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
The Old Woman Martyr

“You can’t ever have my books” (p. 38)
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
More About the Old Woman and Her
Match

Why did Bradbury choose to make this character a
woman, and why did she strike a match?
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
The Hound

“He did not open the window” (p. 48)
Day 02 (p. 24-48)
Realization

“I’m not going to work tonight” (p. 49)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
Books

“There must be something in books, things we can’t
imagine” (p. 51)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
The Pep Talk

“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.
Burn it” (p. 58)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
The Problem with Books

“People want to be happy, isn’t that right?” (p. 59)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
Part One

The Hearth and the Salamander (p. 2)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
What Book?

“It is computed that eleven thousand persons have
at several times suffered death rather than submit
to break their eggs at the smaller end” (p. 68)
Day 03 (p. 48-68)
Noise at the Door

“It’s only a dog, that’s what!” (p. 72)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
Teachers

“Poor Montag, it’s mud to you” (p. 74)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
The Sieve and the Sand

“[I]f you read fast and read all, maybe some of the
sand will stay in the sieve” (p. 78)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
The Three Missing Things

“It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that
once were in books” (p. 82)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
Montag’s Plan

“I’ve a list of firemen’s residences everywhere” (p.
86)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
Faber’s Plan

“I’m the Queen Bee, safe in the hive. You will be the
drone, the traveling ear” (p. 90)
Day 04 (p. 71-91)
Why the Book of Job?

“I’ll read so you can remember” (p. 92)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
Relationships

“You heave them into the ‘parlor’ and turn the
switch… They’d just as soon kick as kiss me ” (p. 96)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
The Alliance

“He would be Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water,
and then, one day… there would be neither fire nor
water, but wine” (p. 103)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
“Dover Beach”

“Where ignorant armies clash by night” (p. 100)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
The Captain

“[T]he Captain belongs to the most dangerous
enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving
cattle of the majority” (p. 108)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
Irony

“[W]e’ve stopped in front of my house” (p. 110)
Day 05 (p. 91-110)
It’s Personal

“Your house, your cleanup” (p. 116)
Day 06 (p. 113-136)
Values

“We never burned right…” (p. 119)
Day 06 (p. 113-136)
Look Both Ways

“The beetle came in a single whistling trajectory,
fired from an invisible rifle” (p. 127)
Day 06 (p. 113-136)
Personal and Public Parallels

“You know the war’s on?” (p. 131)
Day 06 (p. 113-136)
Montag’s Problem: Beatty

“Don’t face a problem, burn it” (p. 121)
Day 06 (p. 113-136)
Cleansing

“[H]e walked out in the river until there was no
bottom and he was swept away in the dark” (p.
139)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Epiphany

“[H]e knew why he must never burn again in his life”
(p. 141)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Duality of Fire

“It was not burning. It was warming” (p. 145)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Body Odor

“Drink this, too. It’ll change the chemical index of
your perspiration” (p. 147)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Cover-up

“They’re faking… They can’t admit it” (p. 148)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Human Books

“We’re nothing more than dust jackets for books”
(p. 153)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Realization

“Mildred!” (p. 159)
Day 07 (p. 137-160)
Discussion Questions, p. 137-160




On 140, it says the river was going away from the
people who ate Shadows, Steam, and Vapor. What
does this mean?
On 141, what does the sun burn? How?
On 142, Montag imagined a farmhouse. With
whom in it? Why?
On 144, there is more than enough to fill him.
Enough what? Why?
Discussion Questions, p. 137-160




How could it be ironic that now Montag is finding his
way along the railroad track?
And then, Montag saw a fire. What was different
about this fire than all other fires he had seen?
On 149, Montag watches himself get killed. How?
On 151, Montag is talking to some men. They are
all confident that Montag can recite the book of
Ecclesiastes. Why are they so confident?
Discussion Questions, p. 137-160




On 152, it is explained why these men have to
keep their mouths shut for now. Why? What are
they waiting for? Why?
On 153, it is explained that these men cannot feel
superior to anybody. Why not?
On 156, Montag explains what is so sad about
Millie. What is? Why is that sad?
On 157, how is nature superior to man, even with
man's bombs?
Discussion Questions, p. 137-160


On 157, still, there is a line that says, “I hate a
Roman named Status Quo!” What's wrong with the
Roman named Status Quo?
On 159, how does Montag imagine Mildred's end?
History Repeats Itself


“Phoenix” (p. 163)
After thinking about the war and looking into the
fire, Granger says the word “phoenix.” The
phoenix, he says, was “a silly damn bird” which
“every few hundred years” built a pyre “and
burned himself up.”
Day 08 (p. 160-179)


Granger imagines the bird as “first cousin to Man”
because the bird was continually going through
rebirth only to destroy himself again.
There’s a famous saying that history repeats itself.
We keep making the same mistakes over and over
– to the detriment of our very lives – only to learn
for a short time and repeat the process later.
Altruism


“They’ll be needing us up that way” (p. 163)
As soon as the city is destroyed, Granger, Montag,
and the rest of the exiles feel compelled to return
to the city and lend aid to any survivors.
Day 08 (p. 160-179)



Right at the end of the book, Montag recalls the
words from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which says, “To
everything there is a season… A time to break
down, a time to build up.”
This passage reminds him that there is a time for
dying or killing, and there is a time for living and
healing.
He also thinks about a prophetic passage from
Revelation 22 that talks about trees whose fruit
would heal the nations.
Part Three



Burning Bright (p. 111)
The title given to Part Three alludes to William
Blake’s poem “The Tyger.” This poem, from Blake’s
Songs of Innocence and Experience, is often
interpreted as a meditation about the origin of evil
in the world.
The first four lines of the poem are: “Tyger, Tyger,
burning bright, / In the forests of the night: / What
immortal hand or eye, / Could frame they fearful
symmetry?”
Day 08 (p. 160-179)


In Blake’s poem, the tiger is often considered a
symbol for a world in which evil is at work; it
speaks also of the dual nature of all existence.
Appropriately, Part Three’s title, “Burning Bright,”
serves a dual function: it summarizes the situation at
the conclusion of the book, for even while the city is
still burning brightly from the war’s destruction, the
spirit of the commune is also brightly burning,
signifying a future of hope and optimism.
The Moral


“There is more than one way to burn a book” (p.
176)
Fahrenheit 451 is clear in its warnings and moral
lessons aimed at the present. Bradbury believes
that our social organization can easily become
oppressive and regimented unless it changes its
present course of suppression of an individual’s
innate rights (freedom from censorship or other
forms of control, for example).
Day 08 (p. 160-179)


The degenerated future depicted in Fahrenheit 451
represents the culmination of dangerous tendencies
that are submerged in our own society.
At the very least, the book asserts that an
individual’s freedoms include his or her freedom of
imagination.
They Just Don’t Get It

“I discovered that…editors…censored some 75
different sections from [Fahrenheit 451]” (p. 177)
Day 08 (p. 160-179)
They Just Don’t Get It


“I discovered that…editors…censored some 75
different sections from [Fahrenheit 451]” (p. 177)
The ultimate irony is that this book whose main
theme is about the existence and dangers of
censorship has been censored. “There is more than
one way to burn a book” (176).
If you liked Fahrenheit 451, you might also
like the following:


Books – Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, 1984
by George Orwell, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Movies – Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium (2002) and
George Lucas’s THX 1138 (1971)
Day 08 (p. 160-179)