Fahrenheit 451
Study guide Part 2, sections 1-4
Name ______________________________
Per. __________ Date _________________
Section 1
1. Part two, section 1 begins on the same day as the end of part one, what month is it?
2. When Millie hears a dog at the door and want to shoo it away, why won’t Montag let her?
3. How many atomic wars have been started and won by the U.S. according to Montag?
4. Whom does Montag think of when he decides he needs a teacher?
5. Although mentioned twice before (part 1, sections 3 and 12), what new character is finally
named?
6. Montag reads this quote in the second paragraph of part 2: “We cannot tell the precise
moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop
which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the
heart run over.” How does this passage seem to relate to the several named characters in
Montag’s life?
7. Montag has known about Faber for a year without turning him in. What are some possible
implications of this fact?
Section 2
1. What happens when Montag asks on the phone about how many copies are available of the
Bible, Shakespeare, and Plato?
2. What is the “only thing to do” that Montag decides on before he leaves the house?
Section 3
1. Where is Montag for most of Section 3?
2. What dangerous thing does Montag do in this passage?
3. This section includes the title-passage of part 2. What is the story behind the title “The Sieve
and the Sand,” and what do you think the title means in reference to the other issues that have
been discussed so far in the novel?
4. What is there about the subway train that is very much like Montag’s own home?
Section 4
1. What does Faber look like?
2.
Faber say, “three thing are missing” in the world of Fahrenheit 451. What are they?
3.
What plan does Montag suggest which Faber rejects at first?
4.
What “insidious plan” does Faber casually suggest, and which Montag agrees to carry out?
5.
What unusual “torture” does Montag use on Faber to make him help fight the system?
6.
How long ago was it that Faber was teaching and college newspapers were being printed?
7.
What does Faber give Montag before he goes to help him against captain Beatty?
8.
Faber’s “three things are missing” speech is one of the most important passages in the whole
book, and ranks with Captain Beatty’s lecture in part one, section 17. Briefly state the two
men’s differences of opinion.
Fahrenheit 451
Study guide Part 2, sections 5- 6
Name _____________________________
Period __________ Date ______________
Section 5
1. How many men have been called up for the war by the government according to the radio?
According to Faber?
2. As Montag walks home from Faber’s house, what does he have in his ears? Why?
3. What does Faber read to Montag as he walks?
4. When Montag complains to Faber that he is still doing what he’s told, and not really
thinking, Faber says, “You’re wise already!” Is that just double-talk, or do you think there’s
something to what Faber says?
Section 6a
1. What two new named characters come to visit Mildred after supper?
2. After he turns off the TV walls and argues with the women, what does Montag force them to
do? What do you think of his actions?
3. What reasons do the women give as evidence that Winston Noble was such a good candidate
for president?
4. Why do you think Mrs. Phelps was crying?
5. What do you think is Bradbury’s opinion of the three women? Give some evidence.
6. “Dover Beach” is a poem by British writer Matthew Arnold (written in 1867) about the
decay of the modern world. Montag reads the last two of four stanzas in the poem. Why do
you think Bradbury might have chosen that particular poem for this scene?
Section 6b
1. Montag says, “Now, he knew that he was two people, that he was, about all, Montag who
knew nothing . . . he knew that he was also the old man who talked to him….” Who else has
had this kind of relationship with Montag? How so?
2. Why does Montag keep washing his hands when he gets to work?
3. How does Beatty cleverly “punish” Montag at work? Why do you think he does what he
does?
4. Montag thinks to himself, “He would be Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water, and then, one
day, after everything had mixed and simmered and worked away in silence, there would be
neither fire nor water, but wine.” Clarisse said something slightly different from this to
Montag when she complained about her school (part 1, section 10). Find the passage and
compare it to the quote above. Next, and more difficult, try to connect both passages to the
title of part 2.
5. Obviously, Beatty is needling Montag, though he says he isn’t, when Montag gets to work –
but why does he use so many quotes? What do you think about Beatty knowing all these
quotes?
6. If you had to guess, who would you say turned in the alarm on Montag’s house?