Fahrenheit 451

FAHRENHEIT 451 Questions

Part 1: The Hearth and the Salamander

1. What is the significance of Montag seeing his reflection in Clarisse's eyes? Seeing himself in Clarisse's eyes, Montag sees himself as the true him, dark and little.

2. Clarisse causes Montag to recall a childhood memory in which a wish was embedded. What was the significance of the memory and the wish? The significance of the memory was that when Montag saw himself in Clarisse's eyes he wanted that moment just like the one with his mom to last for forever.

3. What two observations does Clarisse make about Montag's conversational mannerisms? Clarisse's observations included that Montag laughs at things that are not funny and that he never thought before answering questions.

4. What things do the McClellans do which cause them to be classified as peculiar? The uncle has been arrested for being a pedestrian and the whole family always stays up late and talk about things that the rest of the world don't even think about.

5. What final question does Clarisse ask Montag on the night of their first encounter? Why is the question important to the plot? Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy. This question is what caused Montag to realize that life was not the way it was supposed to be and caused the rest of the story to happen.

6. When Montag enters his home, he stares at the blank wall, but in memory sees Clarisse. What extended simile describes how he sees her? She had a very thin face like the dial of a small clock seen faintly in a dark room in the middle of a night when you waken to see the time and see the clock telling you the hour and the minute and the second, with a white silence and a glowing, all certainty and knowing what it has to tell of the night passing swiftly on toward further darknesses but moving also toward a new sun.

7. Find two further similes Montag uses to describe Clarisse. Do the similes serve any purpose other than to characterize Clarisse? The two similes are "what incredible power of identification the girl had; she was like the eager watcher of a marionette show, anticipating each flicker of an eyelid, each gesture of his hand, each flick of a finger, the moment before it began, and How like a mirror, too, her face." Yes, I think these similes have another purpose such as to foreshadow what might happen in the story.

8. Describe the bedroom which Montag enters. Whom does the setting characterize? The room was cold and dark, like a mausoleum after the moon had set. The room characterizes Montag.

9. At this point of realization, what happens to the smile on Montag's face, and what is his answer to Clarisse's question? His smile vanishes as he realizes that the answer to Clarisse's question, that he is not happy.

10. What event occurs that night which provides Montag with an impression of the state of society? The event was that Montag's wife, Mildred, got her stomach sucked out because of an over dosage. What is that impression? The impression given was that the society of then was a heartless, thoughtless society that did not care what happened to them.

11. In contrast, what does Montag next hear and long for? Montag opened the windows and he heard Clarisse's family talking and laughing about random things in their lives.

12. What test of love does Clarisse give Montag, and how does he respond to it? She rubbed a dandelion underneath his chin and if it rubbed of then you are in love, but it didn't work for Montag.

13. Describe Clarisse's personality. A strange and peculiar girl that doesn't get along with the people at her school only because she asks, "Why?"

14. What observations does Clarisse make about how Montag differs from other firemen? She thinks that he is different by that he talked to her and enjoyed her conversation when other fireman would just leace her talking to herself.

15. Describe the mechanical hound. The hound was a electronic version of a the perfect hit man. The hound had electronic data base of amino acids that could be set for the victim to ensure that it never missed.

16. What does "antisocial" mean? What does it mean in the society of Fahrenheit 451? To who is the term applied? Antisocial means not to spend time with other people. In the society of Fahrenheit 451 Antisocial means that the people don't talk about different things or ask why something is the way it is. They must all always be the same. The term was applied to Clarisse.

17. What does Clarisse say people talk about? Find some examples of representative conversations throughout the book. She says that they all talk about the same things all the time. Some examples are, "They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming-pools mostly and say how swell!" or "And most of the time in the cafes they have the jokeboxes on and the same jokes most of the time, or the musical wall lit and all the colored patterns running up and down, but it's only color and all abstract."

18. During the card game at the fire station, what question does Montag ask? What does it contribute to the plot? Montag asked what happened to a man whose library they fixed. It contributed to the plot because after the question as Montag went into detail as to why he was thinking of the man, he accidently let in on the fact that he possessed some books. This is what got Beaty to come to his house and started everything after that.

19. What is the significance of the refrain repeated by the woman whose house was burned? What did it mean? What is its effect on Montag? The significance is that the women said the phrase as she was about to get her house burned. She had already then decided that she was going to go up with it because the phrase was said by a man in 1555as he was about to be burned. It was like a warning to the firemen. Montag was effected by this so severely that he did sleep easily and felt absolutely afoul about himself.

20. What does Montag think his feelings would be if his wife were to die? He did not think that he care if his wife died because he did not love her.

21. What are Montag's comments about the people in the walls? He thought that they are all stupid in the fact that they are arguing about something that did not make any sense. They did not know much about each other and were mostly in no way related, so the whole Relatives thing didn't making any sense.

22. What does Montag think about the old woman and all the books he has destroyed? He thought that burning those books was like destroying years of history. The authors would spend all their live writing books and putting down their thoughts and hear