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

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) - Raymond Bradbury

The temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns

The action takes place in a city (probably the American Midwest). The time is somewhere in the future (post-publication date: 1953) after the Sixties (so XX century approximately). The novel is divided into three parts: "The Hearth and the Salamander", "The Sieve and the Sand", and "Burning Bright".

The hearth and the salamander

In the Middle Ages, the salamander was believed able to survive fire, so it’s a metaphorical title. Guy Montag: "fireman" who is an expert in burning houses of the people discovered hiding/keeping/reading forbidden books (and often people themselves). Burning the houses is seen as a positive act of purification. He’s married to Mildred, childless, and he almost never talks to his wife. One night, he meets by chance a young girl, Clarisse McClellan, unconventional, spontaneous, and free. She asks him unexpected questions about his life and happiness (Guy is almost unable to answer). At home, he finds his wife unconscious from an overdose of sedatives. Emergency intervention of two Emergency Medical Technicians: cold, mechanical, detached detoxification protocol applied (a routine for such people). Montag is astonished at his wife’s behavior. Outside, he hears the McClellans talking aloud about the empty society in which they live. Montag’s meditations.

Next day: Mildred has no memory of her intoxication, she believes it was merely an after-party hangover. In the following days, Montag meets Clarisse almost regularly: she tells him about her life (she does not attend school/classes and has to undergo psychological therapy for her unconventional behavior and ideas). The meetings become an expected appointment for Montag, but suddenly Clarisse disappears and Montag feels the emptiness of her disappearance.

While on service, burning an old woman’s house (and the woman herself, who refuses to leave her house and her books, and prefers to burn herself), Montag hides a book, shocked by her courage. At home, he hides the book in his bedroom, and tries to talk to his wife: she is absent-minded and careless about their common/shared past. She is addicted to sleeping pills, TV interactive watching, fast driving, and their marriage is spoiled. During the night, Montag tries to talk again with Mildred, asks her about their neighbor Clarisse McClellan, and is told that her family has left the house because the young girl was killed in a car accident. Montag is desolate at the piece of news (beginning of Montag’s transformation), and is afraid that the firemen’s "Hound" is sniffing the book he has hidden under the pillow ("The Hound" = an eight-legged robot programmed to sniff books).

The next morning Montag talks to his wife about taking a leave from work, still shocked by the last episode (the old woman). His wife is absent-minded as usual, attracted by the “parlor wall” in the living room, but is however worried about her husband’s project. Meanwhile Montag’s boss, Captain Beatty, comes to check about the former’s health. Capt. Beatty gives Montag lessons about books, their uselessness, and the story and mission of the Firemen Corp. Citizens are interested in new forms of entertainment and media, TV, and movies. The only books that are permitted are abridged books, comics, papers, and pornography (to keep people unmindful and enslaved). The Firemen Corp had the task of keeping people tranquil and subjugated.

Montag reveals to his wife about the hidden book, and his boss Beatty becomes suspicious of the fireman. He warns Montag that whoever has a book is expected to burn it at once (within 24 hours). Otherwise, the Firemen team would intervene and burn his house. Montag is worried and decides to act accordingly. He reveals his wife about several books he has hidden in their house. Mildred is terrified and begins burning the books in the kitchen-incinerator. Montag tries to persuade her to read the books together, to discover their content and value. Otherwise, he will burn the books and return to normality.

The sieve and the sand

Montag and Mildred decide to explore the books. Little did they know that outside their house, The Hound has discovered (sniffed) them (Guy, Mildred, and the books). Mildred, however, refuses Guy’s argumentation in favor of books so she decides to stop reading them, but Montag continues. Montag is exasperated at his wife’s behavior, as well as at the death of Clarisse and of the old woman, and for the constant threat of a world war (bombers are always flying over their heads). He thinks books could teach something useful to the empty society.

Mildred arranges an evening meeting with two friends to watch TV on the "parlor walls". Montag is attracted by books, he recognizes his ignorance and his need for help from Faber, an old man he happened to meet some years before when reading books were still permitted. He calls Faber and arranges a meeting with him. He brings a copy of the Bible and establishes contact with Faber. The old man gives him a micro ear-piece to communicate and guide him from his home.

Evening meeting at Montag’s: Mildred and Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps watching the "parlor walls". Montag interrupts the three women and challenges them on serious topics: the war, death of their beloved ones, rebel sons, politics. Then he shows them a book of poetry (M. Arnold, “Dover Beach”). Mildred tries to justify her husband’s behavior, her friends are puzzled and confused (Mrs. Phelps cries). Then 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.

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 and into the river and reaches the countryside. He has to cross the river, which is a sort of symbolic act because it purifies his life and abandons his past to join the group of people and 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).

Dystopic elements

The first element that makes this book a dystopic novel is the firefighters that actually light up fires to books, buildings that house books, and sometimes even the people who have the books. The first part is divided into three sections, but the most important part is this: the protagonist, Guy Montag, has three fundamental meetings.

• 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 week. After the 7th meeting, the girl disappears. After the first part, he will find out that Clarisse has died in a car crash.
• 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 wants 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 three walls of his living