Fahrenheit 451: Chapter Analysis

Beatty is the fire chief and everyone is feared by him. Beatty tries to stop Montag on going down the road of believing books are not a bad thing, he himself has gone down that road and does not believe it is one worth traveling. Shortly after Montag kills Beatty he realizes that he wanted to die, all this time he wanted to be a character of his own book and after he died he finally was. Beatty had wished he could forget his past life and be happy like everyone else. Captain Beatty did not feel that books provided him with enough information about life he felt as if all the pages in the book were blank. He believes that books only lead to confusion and thought, which should be avoided at all

Fire is often associated with devastation and chaos within history and mythology. Beatty is closely associated with fire after the books he reads do not satisfy his dark side; meaning he consciously chooses to "cleanse" the books in fire, knowing the repercussions of his actions. Fire, in this book symbolizes the sinister side of human nature within this novel. When fire burns, all that is left is ashes. Much like the people's mentality, those who lived within this society after years of government conditioning were left with a vacant mind. When Montag chooses to quit his profession as a fireman, it reflects that his mind has transformed himself into an intellectual thinking person. Fire is no longer the nucleus of his existence.

The author uses imagery to develop the characters Montag and Beatty. At first Montag was able to do his job (burning books) without giving a second thought. Throughout the story Montag grows an appreciation for books. This dramatic change is shown in the first paragraph of the passage as Montag’s burning of books is described. The

Beatty uses his knowledge to attack Montag after the fireman has made the decision to join the radicals and to oppose the burning of books. Montag returns to the fire station in order to surrender a book, creating the illusion of conforming to Beatty’s expectations. Before Montag has an opportunity to speak Beatty begins to confound him with contradictory statements from

Beatty is essentially an anti-Clarisse. Beatty represents the unseen force that drags people into conformity, giving Montag a sugarcoated explanation of how books came to be banned. Throughout most of the book, Beatty is trying to undo the effect of Clarisse. However, all this does is lead Montag to antagonize Beatty, so Beatty confronts Montag about the books. After going home, Montag’s wife has friends come over and Montag gets frustrated and forces the women to read with him. The next day, Mildred’s (Montag’s wife) friends report Montag’s books to the firemen, which Beatty “let ride.”Later, Mildred reports it and Beatty decides to take action, realizing that re-corrupting Montag is futile. Beatty forces Montag to burn his own house down. After this, Montag burns Beatty alive with the flamethrower he used to burn the house, knocking the other two firemen unconscious

Montag had possibly the last copy of the Old and New Testament in his hands, and knew he had to turn it into Beatty. Montag wanted to keep the book, so he decided he needed to make a copy of it. He thought Faber would help him do this. Faber was a man who he had met a while ago that he had in his future investigations file. Montag went to find Faber to ask him for his help. Montag knew Faber would help him because they shared a love for books, and wanted to preserve them. Though, Montag and Faber had not been previously friends Montag knew that Faber would help them because of this shared passion. Montag was correct. Faber put Montag before himself, and went to great lengths throughout the rest of the book to help Montag. This showed he was a true friend to

When Montag failed to show up for work, his fire chief, Beatty, paid a visit to him. Beatty explained that "it's normal for a fireman to go through a phase of wondering what books have to offer," he also explained how books came to be banned in the first place. Beatty told Montag to take about twenty-four hours to see if his stolen books contained anything meaningful and then to turn them in for incineration. Montag began a lengthy and frantic night of reading.

Montag soon becomes curious as to what is actually inside the books he is burning. He decides to hide them and eventually decides to read one. *****By making the decision to read the book, Montag is introduced to thought and a new view on life. He has finally come to realization of what is important and what truly gives life. Although Montag has this sudden realization of the importance of literature, another character, Captain Beatty, believes in the exact opposite. *******Through the characterization of Beatty, readers believe that he has no actual thought and is full of just random facts. However, when Captain Beatty becomes face to face with death, surprisingly, he quotes Shakespeare, indicating Captain Beatty does have thought, just does not want others to know. "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm'd so strong in honesty that they pass by me as an idle wind, which I respect not!" (Bradbury 113). This quote referenced from Beatty is an allusion to the death of Caesar which symbolizes an honorable death used to maintain honor. Beatty wanted to die and felt as if he had nothing to live for without being able to openly share thought and gain thought without being

“Oh, what in the world is this?” Mildred asked with curious delight. Montag threw himself back against her, almost as if he was trying to get her to drop whatever he was hiding. Beatty was acting as if he did not understand, did not care, but he knew exactly what Montag was hiding. “Montag, I just asked you a question. What is this that you’re hiding?”

“Then, moaning, she ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator. He caught her, shrieking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him scratching,” (63). In the novel Fahrenheit 451 follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his interactions with society discouraging and encouraging his discovery of the illegal books. Along the way he understands who are the poisonous people in his dystopian world and who are not; changing his perspective to lose trust in his wife Mildred, from previous quote, and finding safety with Faber, a retired professor he came by one day in a park. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the author demonstrates the idea that when there is censorship in the world, ignorance will follow because when a subject is hidden from one anything they do regarding it is under the impression of their lack of knowledge surrounding the topic, this becomes more relevant when Ray Bradbury acknowledges the emotions of people who have read books and whom haven't and their general opinions of them.

To illustrate, Beatty begins taunting Montag about how silly he is and how ignorant it was for him to enjoy books. Beatty boasts “It was a pretty silly, quoting poetry around free and early like that. It was the act of a silly damn snob. Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he’s the Lord of all creation… the world can get by just fine without them. Look where they got you” (Bradbury 112). Again, Beatty calls Montag silly for freely speaking about books. While Beatty is lecturing to Montag about these books, Beatty knows that some people think they’re invincible if they have read books before or if they own books. When Beatty says “look where they got you” he is trying to show Montag that the books are the reason why his life is falling apart. Montag is pushed to the limit by Beatty degrading him, he kills

1. Montag gives the books to beatty, while beatty tells him qoutes from the books to confuse him.

Books are the portal to other worlds. People use books to express themselves, so if books are taken away then that form of expression is gone. Montag slowly begins to realize how much people miss out on without books. Through Fahrenheit 451, the author reveals that people should not be given too much power or things will get out of hand. Government is taken too far when important items like books are taken away.

He noticed Montag tilt his head to the side, as if he was listening to someone else talk. Beatty swung his hand into the side of Montag’s face, the force of the hit causing them both to stumble backwards. A small green object flew out his ear, and Beatty gently picked it up of the ground and held it up to his ear. He smirked as Montag shouted in protest. A quick glance at Montag’s fingers revealed that he had unlocked the safety on the flamethrower.

The next day. Montag had to go burn some books. So he went with his friends who were firemen too. They went to an old woman’s house to burn her books. The old woman tries to prevent them burn her books. Montag stole a book ,when his friends and the old woman were arguing about the books. He put the under his armpit. They were a lot of books. So they had to burn the house too. The firemen tried to get the old woman out. She refused to go out the house. She wanted to stay. Montag tried to get her out. The old woman said go on I want to stay with my books. So Montag and the firemen lit the house on fire. The burned the old woman with her house. After that Montag told Beatty his boss that they burned an old woman. Beatty could care less. Right