CHARACTER STUDY: Faber
(Page numbers are from the hardback edition of the novel.)
Faber is a character in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. His age is not
stated, but he tells Montag (p. 76-78) that he lost his job forty years earlier, so it would
make sense that he is a man in his late sixties or seventies, possibly older. He was a
university English professor but is now retired and living alone.
Professor Faber looks old. He has “white in the flesh of his mouth and his cheeks
and his hair was white and his eyes had faded” (p. 82). When Montag visits him, he first
looks “very old,” “very fragile and very much afraid” (p. 82); when he sees Montag’s
book, he looks better. He is described as an old man in a black suit (p. 76). Faber speaks
poetically (p. 77).
Faber talks about being afraid of getting in trouble because of books (p. 76, 82,
87). He wants to help get rid of the firemen, but he won’t risk getting caught with books
because it might mean being burned (p. 87). He talks about what is important about
books: the quality of what they used to have in them (p. 84-85), and the fact that, unlike
the television, they can be closed to let you think (p. 86). Faber says that he is a coward
when he gives Montag the two-way radio that he invented (p. 92). He shows that he is
trusting when he gives Montag a slip of paper with his address on it (p. 77). He helps
Montag by listening and talking to him when Montag faces Captain Beatty (p. 108-111).
He also helps Montag escape after Beatty is killed (p. 132).
Faber wants to work with Montag to wreck the fireman operation (p. 88), so he
advises Montag and helps him get away from the city (p. 137-138).
Faber is a dynamic character who changed because of meeting and working with
Montag; he began to act on his wish to fight back against the fireman system instead of
only inventing things like the two-way ear radio.
Faber is an important character in the story because of the ways he is able to help
Montag. Without Faber, Captain Beatty might have convinced Montag to give up his
interest in books. Faber told Montag what he was missing, picking up where Clarisse had
left off when she was killed. Faber also made it possible for Montag to escape from the
Mechanical Hound and cross the river to safety.