Censorship in Fahrenheit 451

Censorship in Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 begins on the East Coast, IN LARGE AMERICAN CITY OF THE FUTURE. The futuristic world described here is chilling, a future where every type of book, save inexpensive comics, are burned by "firemen." One such fireman is Guy Montag, who is tall and dark-haired like most firemen. One thing sets him apart from his colleagues, though he secretly loves books.

One night while Montag is walking home from a day's work, he meets a young, bright girl named Clarisse McClellan. She is idealistic and hates the social structure of the times. She says that firemen once put out fires started accidentally instead of starting them. Montag thinks this to be nonsense, for the Chief told him firemen have always been fire-starters. Clarisse goes on to tell him about her uncle, who remembers the past and has a sharp intellect. She tells Montag that her family stays up all night talking about a variety of different subjects. He finds this to be extremely odd. Why would anyone want to stay up and talk?

Montag decides that Clarisse is eccentric because hardly anyone except for firemen walk down the street at any time. He goes home to his wife Mildred, a woman who has very little to do except to take part in interactive TV shows. She has three walls of the living room equipped with such walls. She thinks that a fourth wall would be great, while Montag refuses because he thinks it is useless and expensive.

The next day, Montag finds Clarisse waiting at the bus stop. He asks her if she goes to school. She says she does NOT, because she HAS been labeled anti-social by her teachers. They SPOKE for a while, and he eventually goes to work. When he gets to work, an alarm is sounded, so the two firemen go to destroy the house of books. Before they burn the house down, Montag takes two books. When the owner of the house refuses to leave, a fireman burns her along with the house and its books. Montag feels sorry for the old lady, and he becomes depressed. The next day he calls in sick.

Captain Beatty, comes by and talks to him. Montag is lying in bed with a book behind his pillow.