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Guy Montag meets Clarisse Mclellan
Montag coincidently runs into Clarisse outside of her house, who introduces herself in a peculiar and intriguing way to Montag. Guy is bothered when she asks whether or not he is happy; Clarisse leaves before he can decide. This is the event that triggers Montag's questioning of himself. -
Montag returns home to find his wife unconcious
Montag returns to find that Clarisse has overdosed on sleeping pills, and immeidately calls in the emergency. Shortly after, two jaundiced hospital workers arrive at his house and proceed to pump the drugs out of Mildred's stomach with the machine that Montag describes as a "snake". Montag is very overwhelmed by all of the occurences that evening, and goes to bed feeling very anxious. The next morning, Montag is shocked that Mildred has no rememberance of the night before. -
The Mechanical Hound is unfriendly to Montag
At the fire station, Montag reaches down to the Mechanical Hound, and it threatens him with growling. Montag reports the unusual behavior to Captain Beatty who dismisses it by saying someone may have set the hound to act that way to Montag, though no one would ever set the hound to kill or attack him. -
Montag and Clarisse continue to meet and talk
Montag and Clarisse continue to talk outside of their houses everyday about various subjects that continually make Montag uncomfortablly question himself and their society. He sees Clarisse as someone much more mature than his wife, and is very intrigued by her philosphy. Montag is at complete loss when 8 days later, he finds out that Clarisse has been hit by a speeding car and died. -
Woman refuses to leave burning house, Montag steals book
Montag and his crew depart the fire station to burn a house that is contaminated with books. The owner of the house is an old woman, and she stands inside while the fireman spray the books with kerosene. A book falls into Montag's hand, and he conceals it beneath his jacket. Beatty tries to light the fire, but the woman refuses to leave the house. Montag begs her to exit. Still refusing, Montag runs away from the house, looking back to see the woman strike a match and engulf herself in flames. -
Beatty addresses Montag (continued)
Montag tells Clarisse that he is not going to work at the fire station anymore. He then reveals a collection of books he has kept hidden for a long time. In a panic, Mildred tries to burn them. Montag pleads for 48 hours to keep and read the books, and Mildred anxiously agrees. A second visitor comes to the door, but they do not know until later that it was the Mechanical Hound. -
Beatty addresses Montag
The day after Montag watches the woman burn herself in her house, he feels very ill and stays home, asking if Mildred would let him leave his job for a while becuase he feels so guilty. When she doesn't understand, Beatty shows up at their house. Beatty proceeds to give Montag a long lecture about the vileness of books, and ends up stating that Clarisse is better off dead. Montag secretly plots never to return to work again, though he tells Beatty he may come in later. Once Beatty leaves, Montag -
Montag seeks a teacher to deliver him from his ignorance
After a suddent spurt of book reading, Montag decides that he wants a teacher to help him understand the true and intended meaning of the literature. He calls Faber, a man hemet once who was reading in the park. Faber is reluctant to talk on the phone, as he thinks Montag is trying to get him in trouble. Montag decides to go to Faber to show him the book, which alleviates his fear. Faber explains to Montag that his unhappiness isn't coming from the lack of books in life, but the meaning in them. -
Montag and Faber plot against the system
When Faber and Montag meet, they discuss a plan of how to bring down the fireman structure by placing books inside each of their houses. Faber contacts an old friend who prints books to help them, and gives Montag a two-way radio for them to communicate secretly through. Later that night, Montag returns home to Mildred having superficial friends over to watch TV. Through frustration of their ignorance, he reads them poetry out loud, leading to them crying and running away. -
Mildred calls the alarm and Montag burns Beatty (continued)
Beatty rambles on with more literary quotations, Montag turns to Beatty with his flamethower and kills him by burning him. The fireman around are shocked and do not move, while the mechanical hound attacks and injects Montag's leg. Montag gets up and runs away on his numb leg, to where he hid the books in his yard. He retreats to Faber's house, where he watches his own chase on TV and learns that war has been declared. -
Mildred calls the alarm and Montag burns Beatty
The day after plotting with Faber, Montag and Beatty are walking outside his house when Mildred rushes out with her suitcases. Beatty is quick to realize that Mildred must have called the alarm on Montag for the house to be burned. Beatty forces Montag to burn the house himself, though Montag does not put up much of a fight. When the house is in ashes, Beatty places Montag under arrest. He sees that there is a radio in his ear, and tells him they are going to find who is on the other end. While -
Montag's escape
Montag leaves Faber's house with a diguised scent, and heads into the woods. Helicopters and poilce are everywhere searching for him, but he manages to evade all of them by floating the river heading out of the city. It leads him to a group of men sitting around a fire, all whom were previous inetllectuals. They give him a drink that will hide his scent from the Mechanical Hound, and watch the chase unfold on their TV. An innocent man is identified as Montag and killed, ending the chase. -
The city is bombed
While the men sit around the friendly fire, a bomb is suddenly dropped in the city. The men are knocked off their feet by the shock wave. In these seconds, Montag finally remembers where he met Mildred, and thinks of her dying. He recalls the Book of Ecclesiastes and recites it to himself. Once the wave is over, the men get up and eat breakfast, before heading into the city to find surviors and help rebuild it from its ashes. (Representing the Phoenix rising again from the ashes)
