Fahrenheit 451 Analysis Questions, Part 1
1. What might be signified by Montag’s seemingly permanent grin, visible even in his
sleep, after torching the house and the books within it?
2. How is Clarisse characterized, by Montag’s observance of her?
3. Can you think of any significance in either character’s names?
4. Contrast Montag’s memory of fire as a child with how Montag employs fire as an
adult.
5. What might have been the purpose behind this society’s inverting of a fireman’s
traditional role, and making reading illegal?
6. What do Clarisse’s stories of her uncle’s two arrests (and one jailing) tell you about
this society?
7. Why is Montag so startled to find Clarisse’s house lights on?
8. Note in your journal some inventions Bradbury predicts in his 1951 novel that have
become standard today.
9. Explain the meaning behind Montag’s impressions of his bedroom.
10. Discuss the seashells. What’s their purpose? Are they a positive marvel of
technology, or something else? How do you know?
11. Why are the thimbles compared to wasps?
12. What do the handymen reveal about this society in their attitude about their job, and
the nightly frequency with which they perform it?
13. What’s telling about Montag’s acknowledging of his wife as “this woman” in lines
6-7, p. 20?
14. What constitutes “quality programming” in this society?
15. Considering the impact it would have on Montag’s salary, make a comparison to
what one could purchase today that would be equivalent to Montag’s purchase of a
new TV. How grateful is Mildred of this purchase?
16. What does the game played by the firemen reveal about their character, and Montag?
17. What is being taught at the schools of tomorrow?
18. What constitutes “fun” at a Fun Park?
19. Benjamin Franklin is credited as being the “First Fireman.” Do a quick Internet
search and find the real story here
20. Again, use the Internet to find the significance of this quote on p. 39. Whose candle
does she light?
21. How are potential suspects reported? Who reported Mrs. Blake? Again, generalize
what you learn from this to the larger society.
22. Tragicomedy is the mixing of tragedy and comedy in a single scene. How is the
scene between Montag and his wife tragicomic?
23. Here we learn how this dystopia got created. Where did it come from, if not the
government?
24. How are the dead dealt with in the future?
25. What’s the ironic purpose of early schooling?
26. Why don’t houses of the future have porches? What about gardens and rocking
chairs?
27. In his criticism of non-fiction authors, Beatty says, “All of them running about
putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun.” What’s his contention with them?
28. What therapeutic advice does Mildred offer Montag to soothe his sudden rage?
29. What ironic idea begins to germinate within Montag that he will carry a bit farther
later in the book with Faber?
30. Mildred echoes Beatty’s words when she says that a fictional novel “…doesn’t mean
anything!” This follows a quote from Gulliver’s Travels about eggs. A larger
portion of the quote is provided below. Explain the possible significance of
Bradbury selecting this quote. Note that Lilliput (the country where the egg law is
passed) is at war with Blefuscu.
Whereupon the emperor his father published an edict,
commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to
break the smaller end of their eggs. The people so
highly resented this law, that our histories tell us,
there have been six rebellions raised on that account;
wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his
crown. These civil commotions were constantly fomented
by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were
quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that
empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons
have at several times suffered death, rather than
submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many
hundred large volumes have been published upon this
controversy: but the books of the Big-endians have been
long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable
by law of holdarsloyments.
Fahrenheit 451 Questions Part 2
1. What’s revealed about Montag’s country’s war history? How was Bradbury’s vision
predictive of where the U.S. stands in relation to the world today?
2. What parallel does Montag make between his childhood memory of the sieve and the
sand, and his situation at the present? How has this society perverted the primary
figure of the New Testament?
3. In what way might Faber’s allusion of the battle between Hercules and Antaeus relate
to their society?
4. What two kinds of reading subjects were endorsed by the Government, to assist in the
development of this “perfect society?”
5. Authors often use setting details to create mood. Examine the weather description
on p. 94, and write what specific emotions Bradbury evokes in his details.
6. Why did Faber choose “The Book of Job” to share with Montag?
7. What might Montag mean when he alludes to Mildred’s friends possessing “Cheshire
Cat smiles”?
8. Describe the “quality programming” found on p. 96. What’s the literary term which
describes what Bradbury is doing here (particularly in the women’s reactions to this
swill)?
9. How do we know that Mrs. Phelps is worried about the war, despite her contrary
assertions?
10. What does Mrs. Bowles mean when she says raising children are like “washing
clothes”?
11. Contrast between the two political candidates. How does the choice of Mr. Hoag
represent no choice at all? Pay attention to subliminal suggestion.
12. What does the poem “Dover Beach” seem to be about? What’s the one constancy in
a world of darkness and ignorance? Why might Mrs. Phelps be so affected by it?
(Note: it is written by Mathew Arnold, and the first two stanzas have been omitted.
13. Many times in the story Montag experiences a separateness of consciousness from his
body, as when he’s about to enter the firehouse. When and why does this happen?
INFO: Faber’s quoting Jaqque in Shakespeare’s As You Like It: “…here comes
a strange beast which in all tongues is called a fool.” He then quotes the poet
John Donne’s “Triple Fool”: “Who are a little wise, the best fools be.”
14. What is Beatty attempted to demonstrate with the particular quotes he assails Montag
with?
Fahrenheit 451 Analysis Questions, Part 3
1. Who has been sending the Hound after Montag, and to what purpose?
2. Significance of the death’s-head moth imagery?
3. What’s Montag’s reaction as he burns his own things?
4. What evidences leads Montag to conclude that Beatty wanted to die?
5. What technologies do the police employ in their search for Montag?
6. Stylistically, what does Bradbury achieve his repetition of “the beetle” and using
such terse sentences here?
7. What is Bradbury’s comment on this world’s population in the way Montagnearly
meets his end?
8. Why is describing the helicopters as “fluttering like torn bits of paper in the sky” such
a powerful image?
9. Consider what Montag might have chosen for his last words in the maw of the metal
hound for the viewing public. What few words might he have chosen that would
“…sear all their faces and wake them up?”
10. Examine the details Montag ascribes to the assisting public who help look for him.
What does this characterization say about them as people?
11. A séance is a ritual of communication with the dead. What “great séance” has
Montag left behind? Who are these murmuring ghosts?
12. Why does Montag renounce using fire to destroy things?
13. Contrast the fire of the camp with the fire of Montag’s profession. How can it smell
differently?
14. How does Granger’s gift save Montag from the Hound?
15. Why was it necessary for the police/government to fake Montag’s successful capture?
16. How do Montag’s new friends keep literature alive?
17. What’s Granger’s plan for returning literature to the world? Why is it important
that the members of this secret society be scattered?
18. Granger refers to today as a Dark Age. How is the modern day in Montag’s world
similar to the Dark Ages of history? (Early Middle Ages, 400-1400 A.D.)
19. What effect does Bradbury achieve by summing up the beginning and end of this
fearful war in one sentence?
20. What finally triggers Montag’s memory of Chicago? What happened there?
21. Elaborate on the connection between the story of the Phoenix, and man. How can
mankind free itself from this curse?
22. The lines beginning, “To everything there is a season…” come from Ecclesiastes,
Chp. III verses 1-8. The italicized quote comes from the New Testament, in
Revelations, Chp. XXII verses 1-2. Why do you suppose Bradbury includes these
quotes at the end of his story? Is this a religious story? Interpret these quotes and
the very last line of the novel, “When we reach the city.”
23. In Bradbury’s “Afterword to the Novel,” he talks about some change or additions
he’d like to have made to the novel. What are they? Why do you think he wanted to
make those changes? Why, in the end, did he leave things as they are?