Fahrenheit 451

A metaphor is a figure of speech which compares two unlike things to one another. This is not to be confused with the similar but different simile, which also compares unlike things but does so via...

When Montag visits Professor Faber in part 2 to learn how to interpret and understand the information he is reading, Faber gives Montag valuable insight into literature and the essential elements...

In part 1, Montag arrives at a routine fire call only to witness a traumatic incident, where an old woman chooses to commit suicide rather than live without her book collection. After pouring...

As others have noted, a clear set of plot points drives the action in this novel. As the story opens, Montag believes himself contented with his life. He enjoys watching things burn, which makes...

This quote is found in the first section, titled "The Hearth and the Salamander." In my edition (60th Anniversary Edition by Simon & Schuster), it occurs on page 48. If you're using a different...

In Part Two of Fahrenheit 451, Mildred invites her two friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, over to her house. It is around nine in the evening when the ladies arrive and the purpose of their...

A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using the words like or as. This is not to be confused with a metaphor, which also compares two unlike things but does so...

One of the main messages in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is that people often trade a meaningful literary experience for the entertainment of television and that the trade often leaves them feeling...

Clarisse explains her typical school day to Montag, which doesn't involve any academics at all. First, she has an hour of a class about TV. She then has an hour-long sports class, after which she...

When Montag visits Faber, he begins discussing how they could possibly defeat the authoritarian regime and suggests that they get a printing press to make copies of books. Faber rejects Montag's...

In Montag's dystopian society, the totalitarian government censors literature and promotes mindless entertainment in order to create a passive, ignorant population that is easy to control. Instead...

The quotation is from Revelations and is a prophecy about the New Jerusalem. It's clearly meant to be a gloss on the state of Montag's society, which has been destroyed by war. Like Granger's...

In making these comments, the old lady is emphasizing her martyrdom. The original quotation—“Play the man, Master Ridley”—was made by Hugh Latimer, burned at the stake along with his fellow...

Beatty's explicit reason for destroying books is to maintain social order. Early in the story, shortly after stealing a book from a woman's house that the firemen burn, Montag becomes sick with...

The conversation between Mildred and her friends, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, depicts their superficial, callous personalities and highlights the debased values of their destructive dystopian...

Rather than quotes, you might want to think about what her suicide attempt reveals about her character. Remember, it is not just speech that reveals a character to us but also actions. Mildred's...

Mildred's family is the characters in the television shows she watches on her parlour walls. They give her joy and distract her from what is happening in the world. Montag is annoyed by his wife's...

As the novel opens, Montag is described as a "minstrel man," suggesting he is playing a part that is not really him, and is twice described as "whistling." But after his encounter with Clarisse, he...

In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the Mechanical Hound is a robotic dog with eight legs used to track down and kill fugitives in Bradbury's dystopian society. The Mechanical Hound lives in a kennel...

1. Beatty mentions that political correctness takes over: "The bigger the population, the more minorities...the people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual...

The last question Clarisse asks Montag the first time they meet in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is "Are you happy?". This question is extremely important to the plot because the idea that Montag...

Guy Montag is innately sensitive and imaginative, intelligent but blundering, and quite discontent with his life. As the narrative opens, Montag walks home from work, thinking that "it was a...

When Guy Montag reads the poem to the ladies, the two of them have kind of different responses. One of them, Clara Phelps, bursts into tears. She has no idea why she's crying, but she can't stop....

In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Montag takes the subway to Faber's house. He goes to find out if books have something in them that will fill the void in his life. While on the subway, though, Montag...

When Montag plans to call in sick, Beatty comes by to visit, telling him that eventually all firemen question the history of their profession. Beatty claims that everything started around the Civil...

In Part One of the novel, Montag meets his charismatic, sensitive teenage neighbor, Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse is depicted as a unique, inquisitive child, who has an affinity for nature and...

Montag has picked up Gulliver's Travels, written by Jonathan Swift, which remains one of literature's most-revered political satires. In this novel, Swift criticizes mankind's pride and its...

Please note: page numbers vary widely among editions so context is provided to aid your search. The eNotes Guide to Literary Terms includes a definition of allusion along with several examples. One...

Throughout the first chapter of this novel, Ray Bradbury employs some sort of imagery on nearly every page. However, most of this imagery is aimed at proving a contrast between Montag's world—the...

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury does not reveal where and when Montag stole his first book. Early in the book, he hints at Montag's stolen book collection at several points, like when the Mechanical...

Fahrenheit 451 is filled with conflict. Man vs. man: It seems that Captain Beatty is out to get Montag. He knows he has been taking books, and he seems to be setting him up for the day that he...

Clarisse tells Montag that schools are institutions that promote athletic activities and keep students engaged by making them watch television teachers. Learning and the pursuit of knowledge are...

Montag met Faber in a park a year before the story started. The first time Montag mentions Faber, it is very brief. He does not say who Faber is or what happened during the encounter that made it...

In part 3, Montag ends up killing Captain Beatty and the mechanical hound using a flamethrower. However, the mechanical hound is able to stab Montag with its long, poisonous needle, which...

In Bradbury's celebrated novel Fahrenheit 451, the parlor walls are massive television screens that take up entire living rooms and entertain shallow women like Mildred and her friends. These...

Montag reads the poem "Dover Beach" to his wife and her friends in the parlor of his house. The poem, "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold, symbolizes the cultural change taking place throughout the...

Personification attributes human characteristics to non-human objects or animals. Throughout the novel, Montag associates malevolent human characteristics with the Mechanical Hound. The Hound, as...

Assuming that "importance" refers to literary importance—or the importance of the scene to literary elements and development—rather than referring to social criticism importance, then the literary...

Mildred tells Montag that she thinks that a man called McClellan hit Clarisse in his a car and killed her. However, when Montag presses her, she says she is not entirely sure if Clarisse actually...

In the second part of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, many similes that can be found. Bradbury is a master at writing different types of figures of speech and "The Sieve and the Sand" has proof of that....

In Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag changes from an unthinking individual, an automaton of his depersonalized society who ignores his soul, into a man who realizes his spiritual needs as a human being. It...

At the end of Part One, Montag pulls down about twenty books from the ventilator of his home. Mildred is initially terrified to learn that her husband has been hiding contraband books in their...

In Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451, Montag lives in a dystopian society, where the government controls the population by censoring literature and arresting citizens who deviate from the...

In the opening scene of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Montag readies his fire hose to burn down a house. The following excerpt describes the hose and how Montag uses it as follows: "With the brass...

As Montag watches the television in Faber's home, the announcer says the following about the Mechanical Hound: "--Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has...

Montag goes from being a good citizen of their society wholoved his job. He states that "it was a pleasure to burn"; he wanted to "shove a marshmallow on a stick" in front of...

When the firemen arrive at her house, the woman recites the following quote: Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never...

Mrs. Phelps cries when Montag reads the poem because she hears emotion in his words. One of the points made by society in removing all literature is that literature is harmful. When Montag reads...

Montag kills Beatty at the beginning of part three of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. All through the book Beatty, Montag's fire chief, has been taunting Montag and propagandizing the book-burning...

Man vs. Man: Montag struggles against his nemesis, Captain Beatty, who is the fire chief throughout the novel. Captain Beatty represents the authoritarian government, which censors literature by...