Editor's Choice

In Fahrenheit 451, where does Guy first meet Faber and what was Faber's profession before retirement?

Quick answer:

Guy Montag first meets Faber in a park a year before the events of the novel. During their conversation, Faber, who was an English professor at a liberal arts college before retiring, shares his thoughts with Montag, eventually giving him his contact information. This meeting foreshadows Montag's growing dissatisfaction with societal constraints and his eventual quest for knowledge, as he later contacts Faber when he becomes curious about the books he has started to collect.

Expert Answers

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Guy meets Faber in a park a year before the events in the novel take place. This flashback foreshadows Montag's eventual desire to leave the social constrictions imposed on all citizens. Montag initiates the conversation by starting with a banal discussion of the weather. Eventually, while sitting beneath the trees in the park, Faber "lost his fear of Montag" and "talked in a cadenced voice, looking at the sky and the trees and the green park, and when an hour had passed he said something to Montag and Montag sensed it was a rhymeless poem." 

This conversation, in which Montag learns that Faber worked as an English professor at a liberal arts college, ends with Faber handing Montag his contact information "in case you decide to be angry with me."

When Montag gains curiosity about the book he's stolen, Faber is the only person he can think to approach. The fact that Montag had filed Faber's contact information under "FUTURE INVESTIGATIONS (?)" and had never turned him in indicates that Montag's decision to become a lawbreaker wasn't a random event. While Clarisse helped prod Montag along his course, Montag himself had seeked out information a year before. 

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