Riassunto esame letteratura inglese, Prof. Casella, libro consigliato Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury

Montag burns the book, but the two women go away crossed. Mildred takes

sleeping pills.

Montag decides to hide the other books, then goes to work. His colleagues are

playing cards. Montag gives his boss, Beatty a book, and the latter burns it. Beatty

then narrates a dream he had, about books and Montag (a challenge quoting from

books), and confesses he had been an eager reader in the past. There is a “fire

alarm”: the team leaves in a hurry and Montag discovers that their destination is his

own house. Pagina 2 di 12

"Burning Bright”

Montag is aware that Mildred and her two friends have “betrayed” him; Beatty

orders him to burn his own house; Mildred, shocked, abandons their house (and

her husband) as a sleep-walker.

Montag begins burning his own house, but suddenly Beatty discovers Faber’s

microphone in Montag’s ears, which allows him to trace Faber himself. Montag

revolts, addressing the flame-thrower against his boss and burns him. Then he flies

away, chased by The Hound, which wounds him; but he succeeds in burning also

this mechanical enemy. Montag is now considered a criminal, an outlaw.

After a dramatic flight, Montag reaches Faber’s house. The old man, who is leaving

for St. Louis, advises Montag to join a group of “out-laws” (interested in books) who

live in the country.

Meanwhile, the TV is broadcasting in real time the hunt of a rebel, Montag himself.

Close ups of the police, helicopters, mechanical Hounds, and involvement of the

citizens (a kind of public event/spectacle).

Faber and Montag try to cancel the latter’s smell/odor from the house, not to attract

the Hound. Eventually a lonely man walking in the street is killed by the Hound, and

the authorities make people believe that Montag has been killed.

The two abandon the house for their different destinations.

Montag, hunted by the police, escapes along & into the river, and reaches the

countryside. He has to cross the river, which is a sort of symbolical act because it

purifies his life and abandons his past to join the group of people an really be

accepted among them. There he meets the out-laws and their leader, Granger.

Their stories and their tasks: each of them has learnt by heart various books for the

future events (war, destruction of present society and renewal after the

catastrophe). Dramatic climax of the war: waves of bombers destroy the city with

atomic bombs. Faber perhaps escaped by bus, but the majority of people (Mildred

too) were killed at once. Montag and the out-laws manage to survive. Granger

instructs the group about the myth of the phoenix: her life, death in a fire, and

rebirth: this is a metaphor of mankind’s cyclical existence. He also insists on the

possibility of learning from the past and from mistakes, to avoid repeating them.

Second metaphor, focused on the mirror image (people looking at themselves

reflect/meditate). After a common meal, the out-laws head to the city to begin their

mission/task: create a new society, educated and cultured (literary moment of the

novel).

The first elements that makes this book a dystopic novel is the firefighters that

actually light up fires to books, building that house books, and sometimes even the

people who have the books.

The first part is divided in 3 sections, but the most important part is this: the

protagonist, Guy Montag, has 3 fundamental meetings.

1) The most important one, is to an unknown woman called Clarisse McClellan.

She’s expected to go to school, but she prefers not to; she begins talking freely

with him and offers him a new and completely different perspective on life. The

meetings between them become customary, habitual, but they last only one

Pagina 3 di 12

week. After the 7th meeting the girl disappears. After the first part, he will find

out that Clarisse has died in a car crash.

2) The second meeting is more customary, it’s with his wife Milly. When Guy

returns home from his fire station he tries to establish a conversation with his

wife, but it’s almost impossible and powerless. There is an in-communication

which is typical of our age. Milly always want to listen to music through her air-

shells. The Walkman didn’t exist yet, so air-shells were a very futuristic

invention. In Montag’s house he has a Parlor wall, a sort of HD tv, the 3 walls

of his living room are furnished with parlor walls, they are very expensive. His

wife wants the fourth wall as well with a parlor wall. The TVs are a form of

alienation, you can never turn them off. He tries to convince her that its all a

waste of time, but she never listens to him.

3) The third meeting is with his fellow fireman and above all with Beaty, the

captain of his group. Beatty reveals him the real story of the firman corpse,

after being consistently asked by Guy about the story of this social institution.

In the past, fireman used to extinguish fires and not to provoke them.

In the final section of this first part of the book, Beatty literally lessons Montag

about society, about the use and uselessness of books as instruments of culture,

education, human amelioration. People are being continuously kept interested in

other forms of entertainment, other forms of culture, tradition ecc. they are

expected to have fun, to have entertainment and not to think and not feel the

desire of meditation.

The philosophy of the Ruling Class is quite similar in both novels: work and have

fun, this is the conclusion of the first part. Beatty explains the various steps that

brought to the elimination of books in their state. At first they created abridgments

and then they eliminated them.

We are going to analyze a few important passages in this first part of the book.

Analysis of Part I

The Hearth and the Salamander (title) — Hearth means the core, the art of house,

“focolare”. The Salamander is a very simple little animal, but during the Middle

Ages it was considered an animal that may live in the fire, among the flames. It is

also the name of the lorry of the fireman; so something that leads the fire.

Another symbol that appears on the uniform of the fireman is a phoenix, the

mythical bird which takes fire and is reborn from its ashes.

P. 1 — “It was a pleasure to burn...” - The first paragraph is extremely eloquent in

regards to Montag’s job but also towards the philosophy of the State he lives in.

Books. Once he has finished his job he is returning home.

P. 2 — “But now, tonight,...” - He sees Clarisse kind of like an apparition, a positive

ghost. “The girl...” - She directly addresses Montag. Their meeting seems magical,

contradiction of smells: kerosene and apricots and strawberries.

P. 3 — “I like to smell...” - We have a young girl, curious, she wants to feel and

perceive life in every detail, smell, look and watch. “her eyes...” - the first

characteristics of this girl are a white dress, a white face and bright and light eyes.

Meeting this girl evokes childhood memories. “How long...” - Reading books is

against the law! They talk about how in the past firefighters were supposed to

extinguish fires, not the other way around. “I sometimes think drivers...” - It’s a

Pagina 4 di 12

habit of people to drive too past and to kill animals, people here are jailed for

driving too slowly. “You think too many things” says Montag.

P. 4 — “I rarely watch...” - Clarisse is so strange and different. Montag is unaware

that there is dew on the grass in the morning or that there’s a man on the moos

(joke). “What’s going on?” - Montag is surprised that Clarisse’s family is just sitting

around and talking. Is Montag really happy? In this society nobody really talks with

each other. Leaves Montag having some serious reflexions.

P. 5 — “Yet how large...” - The meeting was so uncommon and so in lightening that

he forgot the passing of time. Her name is metaphorical, Clarisse, she who brings

light. “He opened the bedroom door...” - Different smell between the outside with

Clarisse and the bedroom. The only thing he hears is the music coming from his

wives air shells. He realizes he isn’t at all happy, and that Clarisse has taken away

his mask from him, now he cannot hide his unhappiness.

P. 6 — “The object..” - His wife had taken an enormous quantity of sleeping pills.

The emergency hospital arrives to help his wife. Description of the machines that

help his wife. They ask for 50 bucks for the service, Montag wants to know if she

will be ok. This cases happens quite often.

P. 7 — “There are too many...” - He thinks about the fact that people don’t have

any relationships anymore. He opens the window and he hears the laughter

coming from Clarisse’s house.

P. 8 — Starts to rain. Montag falls asleep. “Toast popped...” - It’s morning and

Montag confronts Mildred about what happened the night before. They talk about

the TV walls and how she will take part of the play. She want to have a fourth wall

installed as soon as possible.

P. 9 — “What are you up to...” - Montag leaves for work and sees Clarisse again.

She is walking happily under the rain and invites Montag to do the same, doesn’t

work; rubs dandelion under her chin and does the same to Guy. Clarisse is obliged

to go to a psychiatrist.

P. 11 — “Sometimes...” - Even Montag is peculiar like Clarisse, she sees through

his soul that he may or might become a different person. “The Mechenical

Hound...” - This device is employed by the fireman to detect books and to chase

law breakers.

P. 12 — “The captain’s hat...” - description of the Captain and Montag’s fears

about the Hound.

P. 13 — Every time he left for work he saw Clarisse or some signs of her, flowers,

leaves, nuts etc. “Why is it..” - He feels like he has known Clarisse for years, not

possible, he makes her feel like a father but Mildred never wanted children. She

explains why she isn’t in school.

P. 14 — “Being with people is nice...” - Describes the classes in schools, she

doesn’t find them social at all because she cannot ask questions and she doesn’t

talk to her class mates. She doesn’t like children her own age, she says they kille

each other. She enjoys watching people, to ride the subway all day and try yo

understand the people.

P. 15 — Seven days go by and Clarisse has disappeared. Everything feels empty,

he looks for her, waits for her, but she doesn’t appear. He looks at “these men,

they all look exactly like him.

P. 16 — People who read books where sent to the asylum. Talks about the old

days, Beatty doesn’t understand. Pagina 5 di 12

P. 17 — Woman who had books. “Play the man, Master Ridley...” - phrase from an