Editor's Choice
Can you explain this quote from Fahrenheit 451?
"She made the empty rooms roar with accusation and shake down a fine dust of guilt that was sucked in their nostrils as they plunged about."
Quick answer:
This quote highlights the impact of the old woman's silent defiance on Montag and the firemen. Her presence in the house, a rarity during such raids, forces the men to confront the moral implications of their actions. The "roar" of empty rooms symbolizes the silent accusation her presence represents, causing the men to feel guilt as pervasive as dust. This moment marks the beginning of Montag's internal conflict and doubt about his role in society.
The quoted passage appears about halfway into Part 1, The Hearth and the Salamander. "She" is the old woman who is still in a house where Montag, Beatty, and the other firemen go to burn.
The procedure is that the police arrive before the firemen and remove the occupant. In this case, however, "someone had slipped." The occupant is at home and, unbeknownst to them, the woman has already decided to die with her books.
The firemen are entirely unaccustomed to being around a person in the home and joke awkwardly out of their discomfort. Once they find her books in the attic, the woman stops speaking. The contrast between the men's forced jollity and her silent gravity is marked—it is a "terrible accusing silence." Montag is uncomfortable and initially irritated that she remains there. For the first time he starts to feel guilty about what they do, both what...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
they are about to do there specifically and his job more generally. The guilt is inescapable, coating everything like "a fine dust." As the books rain down, he experiences them as having been alive, like "slaughtered birds," and unthinkingly steals one. Her silent presence sets him on the path to resistance.
CONTEXT: This quote occurs when the firemen go to a house to burn in down that has a woman who refuses to leave. This is rare, usually the people are gone by the time the firemen arrive. What they do is usually an engaging and fun destructive time. But this time, the woman's presense "accuses" the men of their moral crime. This is the moment at which Montag's doubt about his position really begins. He sees the humanity in the woman being destroyed with the house and struggles with that concept.
LITERARY APPEAL: This quote uses figurative language that appeals to the reader. Empty rooms can't roar, so you have either personification or a metaphor that references an animal. The phrase "shake down" is a euphemism for getting a person or group to feel conviction for wrong-doing. Guilt is given the quailty of the object dust, again a metaphor, while that dust is vividly described as being sucked into their nostrils. This is an image at work.