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THE HEARTH AND THE SALAMANDER
Part I begins now -
Clarisse
Clarisse is introduced. Montag asks if she is her neighbor, and she questions that he is the fireman. Clarisse McClellan tries to answer and work her way through his questions, telling him about the many little things in life. She questions many details, like why he laughs when she tells him that firemen used to STOP the flames. She is interesting and asks him many things he never used to think about. Right before she leaves, she asks "Are you happy?", and that leaves him questioning with wonder -
introducing Montag
In the first part of The Hearth and the Salamander, Montag is introduced. The story starts off with "It was a pleasure to burn", meaning books, and the way Bradbury describes this is that this may be the future of society. He always smiled and the smile never went away. -
Montag at night, walking home
Montag is walking home after leaving the fire station into the still night air. He is thinking in the peaceful night, then meets a girl. "Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger..." (9). She is described as beautiful and almost in a way challenges Montag. -
Last sight of Clarisse
She asks him why he never had any children and tells him that she has stopped going to school because it was mindless and routine. On the eighth day, he does not see Clarisse. He starts to turn back to look for her, but his train arrives and he heads for work. -
The Woman and her books
Even after they spray the books with kerosene, the woman refuses to go. Beatty starts to light the fire anyway, but Montag protests and tries to persuade her to leave. She still refuses, and as soon as Montag exits, she strikes a match herself and the house goes up in flames with her in it. The firemen are strangely quiet as they ride back to the station afterward. -
Montag questioning his life and Clarisse
"'Happy! Of all the nonsense.' He stopped laughing." This part shows the change between doing what he does regularly without thought to questioning whether his life is what he wants it to be. He then goes into his and his wife, Mildred's, room and discovers that she had taken 30 sleeping pills. She may have wanted to do it purposely but Montag ended up calling Emergency Hospital because he was freaked out about what would happen to her. -
Montag and Mildred in the morning
Montag tries to tell Mildred about what happened the night before but Mildred stubbornly argues that she would never do such a thing....., -
In the hospital
Mildred is in the hospirtal for taking 30 sleeping pills. There are two machines. One pumps her body and the other pumped out all of the blood from her body and replaced it with fresh blood. These two machines freaked Montag out, but the doctors assured him she would be okay. Half an hour later, she looked completely new. -
Walking in the rain
Montag leaves for work and finds Clarisse outside walking in the rain, catching raindrops in her mouth—she compares the taste to wine. She rubs a dandelion under her chin and claims that if the pollen rubs off on her, it means she is in love. She rubs it under Montag’s chin, but no pollen rubs off. She asks him why he chose to be a fireman and says he is unlike the others she has met. Once she is gone, he leans back and catches a few raindrops in his mouth. -
The Hound
Montag reaches down to touch the Mechanical Hound in the fire station, and it growls at him. Montag tells Captain Beatty what happened and suggests that someone may have set the Hound to react to him like that, since it has threatened him twice before. The other firemen tease Montag about the Hound. Beatty assures him no one would have done that to Montag and promises to have the Hound checked out. -
The Beginning of Fires
He asks if firemen ever prevented fires, and two other firemen take out their rule books and show him where it says the Firemen of America were established in 1790 by Benjamin Franklin to burn English-influenced books. Then the alarm sounds, and they head off to a decayed, old house with books hidden in its attic. They push aside an old woman to get to them, and a book falls into Montag’s hand, and without thinking he hides it beneath his coat. -
Montag's arrival back at home
Montag goes home and hides the book he has stolen under his pillow. In bed, Mildred suddenly seems unfamiliar to him as she babbles on about the TV and her TV “family.” He gets into his own bed, which is separate from his wife’s. He asks her where they first met ten years ago, but neither of them can remember. Mildred gets out of bed and goes to the bathroom to take some sleeping pills. Mildred tells him the family moved away and that she thinks Clarisse was hit by a car and killed. -
Montag asks about Clarisse
Montag asks how someone like Clarisse could exist, and Montag asks Beatty how a grl like Clarisse could exist in the world. Beatty says the firemen have been keeping an eye on her family because they worked against the schools’ system of homogenization. Beatty reveals that he has had a file on the McClellans’ odd behaviors for years and says that Clarisse is better off dead. -
Beatty and useless books
Beatty urges Montag not to overlook how important he and his fellow firemen are to the happiness of the world. He tells him that every fireman sooner or later becomes curious about books; because he has read some himself, he can assert that they are useless and contradictory. If Montag doesn't get rid of it after 24 or 48 hours, the firemen would come and burn his book for him. Beatty gets up to leave and asks Montag whether he will go to his duty, and he answers maybe. -
Montag and his hidden books
After Beatty leaves, Montag tells Mildred that he no longer wants to work at the fire station and shows her a secret stock of about twenty books he has been hiding in the ventilator. In a panic, she tries to burn them, but he stops her. He wants to search for something valuable that may be of help to others. Someone comes to the door, but they do not answer and he goes away. He then picks up a book and begins reading. -
Montag is "sick"
Montag is sick the next morning, and the omnipresent stink of kerosene makes him vomit. He tells Mildred about burning the old woman and asks her if she would mind if he gave up his job for a while. He tries to make her understand his feelings of guilt at burning the woman and at burning the books, which represent so many people’s lives and work, but she will not listen. Captain Beatty is then seen coming up the front sidewalk. -
Captain Beatty comes to check on Montag
Captain Beatty comes by to check on Montag, saying that he guessed Montag would be calling in sick that day. He tells Montag that every fireman runs into the “problem” he has been experiencing sooner or later. Mildred’s attention falters while Beatty is talking, so she gets up and begins to straighten the room. In doing so, she finds the book behind Montag’s pillow and tries to call attention to it, but Montag screams at her to sit down. Beatty pretends not to notice and continues to talk. -
THE SIEVE AND THE SAND
Part II begins here -
Thinking back to Faber
Montag and Mildred spend the afternoon reading. The Mechanical Hound comes and sniffs at the door. Montag speculates about what it was that made Clarisse so unique. He thinks back to an afternoon a year before when he met an old English professor named Faber in the park. The professor had tried to hide the book and run away, but after Montag reassured him that he was safe, they talked, and Faber gave him his address and phone number. -
Crazy Montag
Mildred tells him that some of her friends are coming over to watch TV with her. Montag, still trying to connect with her, asks her rhetorically if the “family” on TV loves her. She dismisses his question. He takes the subway to Faber’s, and on the way tries to memorize verses from the Bible. A jingle for Denham’s Dentifrice toothpaste distracts him, and finally he gets so annoyed he starts yelling and waving his book around. The astonished passengers start to call a guard but Montag gets off. -
The meaning of books
Faber says that people need quality information, the leisure to digest it, and the freedom to act on what they learn. He defines quality information as a textured and detailed knowledge of life, knowledge of the “pores” on the face of humanity. Faber agrees with Mildred that television seems more “real” than books, but he dislikes it because it is too invasive and controlling. Books at least allow the reader to put them down, giving one time to think and reason about the information they contain -
Continued meeting with Faber
Montag suggests planting books in the homes of firemen to discredit the profession and see the firehouses burn. Montag concludes that they could use that as a chance to bring books back. Montag gets Faber to help him by tearing out pages of the Bible, revealing that he knows someone with a printing press.Montag asks for help with Beatty that night, and Faber gives him a two-way radio that can be concealed in his ear to communitcate to him what to say. Montag gives him a substitute book. -
Montag and Mildred's friends
Montag withdraws money from his account to give to Faber and listens to reports over the radio that the country is mobilizing for war. He goes home, and two of Mildred’s friends, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, arrive and promptly disappear into the TV parlor. Montag turns off the TV walls and tries to engage the three women in conversation. He gets angered by their thoughts and ends up reading a book and upsetting the women. They leave, with Montag telling them to think about their empty lives -
Montag arrives at his own house
An alarm comes through, and Beatty glances at the address and takes the wheel of the fire engine. They arrive at their destination, and Montag sees that it is his own house. -
Last book in the world?
Now Montag calls the professor. He asks him how many copies of the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato are left in the country. Faber, who thinks Montag is trying to trap him, says none are left and hangs up the phone.Montag goes back to his pile of books and realizes that he took from the old woman what may be the last copy of the Bible in existence. He realizes that if Beatty knows which book he took, the chief would guess he would have a whole library. He decides to try to have a duplicate made. -
Montag and Beatty
Montag heads off to the fire station, and Faber both scolds and consoles him on the way. Montag hands his book over to Beatty, who throws it into the trashcan without even looking at the title and welcomes him back after his period of folly. Beatty browbeats Montag with a storm of literary quotations to confuse him and convince him that books are better burned than read. Montag is so afraid of making a mistake with Beatty that he cannot move his feet. Faber tells him not to be afraid of mistakes -
Montag talks to Faber
Montag goes to Faber and shows him the book. Faber says that Montag does not know the real reason for his unhappiness and is only guessing that it has something to do with books, since they are the only things he knows for sure are gone. Faber insists that it’s not the books themselves that Montag is looking for, but the meaning they contain. People are unwilling to accept the basic realities and unpleasant aspects of life. -
BURNING BRIGHT
Part III begins here -
Montag burns the firemen
Beatty sees that Montag is listening to something and strikes him on the head. The radio falls out of Montag’s ear, and Beatty picks it up, saying that he will have it traced to find the person on the other end. After Beatty throws Montag over the edge with his literary quotes, he burns him and the others around him. The Hound then appears and injects him with an anesthetic before he manages to destroy it with his flamethrower. He then stumbles away on his numb leg and finds four unburned books. -
Going to Faber's
Montag puts a regular Seashell radio in his ear and hears a police alert warning people to be on the lookout for him, that he is alone and on foot. He finds a gas station and washes the soot off his face so he will look less suspicious. He hears on the radio that war has been declared. He starts to cross a wide street and is nearly hit by a car speeding toward him. He then goes over to Faber's house and tells him what happened as well as money. -
No traces of Montag
Faber turns on the TV news, and they hear that a new Mechanical Hound, followed by a helicopter camera crew, has been sent out after Montag. Montag takes a suitcase full of Faber’s old clothes, tells the professor how to purge his house of Montag’s scent so the Hound will not be led there, and runs off into the night. Faber plans to take a bus out of the city to visit his printer friend as soon as possible. -
Running away and away
Montag is able to watch the Hound track him by glancing through people’s house windows into their TV parlors. Montag sees the Hound hesitate when it gets to Faber’s house, but it quickly runs on. As Montag continues to run toward the river, he hears an announcement on his Seashell radio telling everyone to get up and look out their doors and windows for him on the count of ten. He reaches the river just as the announcer counts to ten and the doors open. -
Covering Montag's scent
To keep the Hound from picking up his scent, he wades into the river and drifts away with the current. He avoids the searchlights of the police helicopters, and then sees them turn and fly away. He washes ashore in the countryside. Stepping out of the river, he is overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells of nature. He finds the railroad track and follows it. As he walks, he senses strongly that Clarisse once walked there, too. -
Meeting Granger and others
The track leads him to a fire with five men sitting around it. The leader of the men sees him in the shadows and invites him to join them, introducing himself as Granger. Granger reveals a portable TV set and tells him that they have been watching the chase and expecting him to come. The men at the fire, though homeless, are surprisingly neat and clean, and have considerable technology. Granger gives Montag a bottle of colorless fluid to drink and explains that it'll change the chemical index... -
Continued from previous...
of his perspiration so the Hound will not be able to find him. Granger tells him the search has continued in the opposite direction and that the police will be looking for a scapegoat to save themselves from the humiliation of losing their prey. They then see that an innocent man is 'identified' as Montag vaguely.The Hound appears and pounces on him, and the announcer declares that Montag is dead and a crime against society has been avenged. The police probably chose him because he was alone. -
What Granger believes cont...
He accepts the possibility that someday there will be another Dark Age and they will have to go through it all again, but he is confident about man’s determination to save what is worth saving. Montag searches the other men’s faces for some glow of resolve or glint of hidden knowledge, but he is disappointed. Seeing this, the men laugh and tell him not to judge a book by its cover. He then tells him that he doesn't miss Mildred and would not be sad if she were killed. -
Little things representing big ideas
Granger tells him a story about the death of his grandfather, stressing that his grandfather, a sculptor, was a man who “did things to the world.” Granger believes that when people change even a small part of the world thoughtfully and deliberately, they leave behind enough of their souls to enable other people to mourn them properly. -
the Phoenix
The aftershock dies down, and the men rise and eat breakfast. Granger compares mankind to a phoenix rising again and again from its own ashes, and comments that they will first need to build a mirror factory to take a long look at themselves. The men turn upriver toward the city to help the survivors rebuild from the ashes. They learn a lesson from the destruction of the city, similar to that of a phoenix. -
Montag burns his house
Montag gazes as Clarisse's house, inspired by the little she had done but had changed him. Mildred rushes out of the house with a suitcase and is driven away in a taxi, and Montag realizes she must have called in the alarm. Beatty orders Montag to burn the house by himself with his flamethrower and warns that the Hound is on the watch for him if he tries to escape. Montag burns everything, and when he is finished, Beatty places him under arrest. -
What Granger believes
Granger says that his group is waiting for humanity to become ready for books again so that they can be of some use to the world. He says that the most important thing they have to remember is that they are not important in themselves, but only as repositories of knowledge. Granger says they are prepared to wait for as long as it takes and will pass their books down through succeeding generations if need be. He accepts the possibility that someday there will be another Dark Age. -
City is destroyed
Suddenly, they see jets flash over the city and drop their bombs; the city is vaporized by the explosion. The men are knocked flat by the shock wave. As he clings to the earth, Montag mentally pictures Mildred just as she’s about to meet her death. He suddenly remembers that he met her in Chicago. Afterward, Montag thinks of the Book of Ecclesiastes and repeats it to himself. -
"Welcome Back to Life" Montag
He introduces Montag to the other men, who are all former professors and intellectuals. He tells Montag that they have perfected a method of recalling word-for-word anything that they have read once. Each one of them has a different classic stored in his memory. Granger explains that they are part of a network of thousands of people all over the country who have bits and pieces of different books stored within their memories. Granger tells Montag he is important for their "backup copy".