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Montag meets Clarisse
Guy Montag meets his neighbor Clarisse on his walk home from work. They walk together to her house and talk. She introduces herself as "seventeen and crazy". She asks him if he ever reads the books he burns and if firemen used to put out fires insted of start them. Montag tells her absolutely not to both questions. Guy is at a loss when asked whether or not he’s happy; Clarisse leaves before he can decide. -
Mildred overdoses
Back at home, Guy can’t stop thinking about Clarisse. When he arrives home he discovers his wife, Mildred, has taken thirty or so sleeping pills. He calls the ambulance. He is dismayed that the men who arrive are more like plumbers than doctors. They pump her stomach out and replace her blood. They put her under a contrasedative and leave to attend to other callings. -
The following morning
The next morning, Montag is shocked to find that his wife remembers nothing from the night before. He walks outside and encounters Clarisse, who encourages him to taste the rain and informs him that, according to her dandelion, he is not in love. Montag feels as if he is cut in half. -
Mechanical Hound
At the firehouse, the Mechanical Hound seems to threaten Guy. Captain Beatty tells him this is impossible. Montag thinks maybe someone programmed the dog to show aggression to him as a joke. He begins to become paranoid. -
Montag begins to change
Montag begins to change his lifestyle, personality, and point of views. He isolates himself from his fellow firefighters more often, and begins to think more about life. -
Clarisse disappears
Montag continues to meet Clarisse and learn more about her philosophy. He is intrigued by her and thinks her older and wiser than those his own age, including his wife. Guy is left at a loss when Clarisse disappears. -
Montag questions firemen
While playing cards at the firehouse, Guy asks if firemen used to put out fires. He uses the phrase “once upon a time”. Chief Beatty shows Montag the rulebook that states that firemen go back to the earliest US colonies. They were used to burn English influenced literature. -
Burning of the house
The alarm goes off and the men rush to a big house with a woman out front quoting Hugh Latimer. The firemen are forced to leave the women inside with her books while the house burns. Inside, Montag grabs a book before the place is burned. When Montag asks about what the woman was quoting, Beatty tells them where it was from, and claims that he is "full of bits and pieces". -
Conversing with Mildred
That night, Montag hides the book under his pillow. He wakes up in the middle of the night and wonders how he and his wife met. He realizes that he would not cry if his wife happened to die the other night. He realizes that they are both awfully "empty", mostly because she is constantly absorbed with the walls and her Seashell. He does not understand the events to which she listens. He then asks about Clarisse. Mildred tells him that she died four days ago because she got run over by a car. -
Reading the books
Montag takes out twenty or so books that he has hidden in the ventilator grill. He shows them to Mildred, and says that he wants to figure them out for himself. Mildred freaks out and tries to burn them, but Montag tells her that he wants to try to read them first. Mildred says that they don't mean anything. -
Faber's plot
Together, Faber and Montag plot how to bring down the society's corrupt system. They talk about destroying the firemen structure from the inside by planting books in the firemen’s houses. Faber commits to contacting a friend of his who used to print books. He also gives Montag a two-way radio. That night, Montag returns home to his wife and her insipid friends. He reads them some poetry out loud, and they run away crying and angry. -
Calling in sick
The next morning, Montag claims that he is sick. He tells Mildred about the woman that they were forced to burn the other day. He starts to wonder about books, and thinks about whether or not he should take a break from being a fireman. Captain Beatty comes to visit. He explains that all firemen go through a crisis like Montag's. He admits that the rule book is lying and explains the true history of firemen. Montag decides he doesn't want to be a fireman because he is not happy. -
Montag meets Faber (again)
Montag decides he needs a teacher. He remembers meeting Faber in the park one day and decides the old man will be understand him. Guy calls Faber, but the man is reluctant to talk over the phone. Montag takes his copy of the Bible and heads over there in person. On the subway, he tries to memorize some of the text but is distracted by an advertisement. Once Montag is at Faber’s, the old man explains to him that books themselves aren’t important, but the information they contain is. -
An ironic alarm, an alarming irony
Beatty taunts Montag with contradictory quotes from literature. Montag becomes confused and panics internally while Beatty laughs at his reaction. While the men are playing poker, the alarm rings. The firemen climb onto the Salamander. This time, Beatty drives. Montag discovers that they have arrived in front of his own house. -
Montag escapes
Still refusing to give up his books, Montag kills beatty with a flamethrower. He then burns down his own house and a mechanical hound. Montag limps away and almost gets run over at a gas station. He runs to Faber's house where he watches his own pursuit on TV. Montag leaves for the river with Faber’s smelly clothes to mask his own scent from the Hound. After finding the river, Montag changes his clothing and floats downstream. He eventually comes across a friendly fire and "the book people". -
The Lost City
Very early in the morning, the city is destroyed by bombs. Montag, Faber, and "the book people" are the only apparent survivors and they set off for a new city to rebuild and restart. In the aftermath, Guy recalls a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes and readies himself to rebuild and create the tree of life.
