Fahrenheit 451 Study Guide

 

Pages 32-48

  1. Pages 32-35 tells the exact date, providing a good way for the reader to keep track of the time elapsed in the story.  What is the date given?

 

  1. When Beatty asks Montag, “You got some?” (meaning books), what two scenes does Montag picture in his imagination.

 

  1. Whose influence is causing Montag to ask the dangerous questions he brings up at work?

 

  1. Name two new characters identified in pages 32-35.

 

  1. According to the rule book used by these firemen, who established the Firemen of America, when, and why?

 

 

  1. When the woman quotes a famous line, what does captain Beatty do?

 

  1. What was the “inconvenient” feature of this particular fire alarm, caused by the unusual fact that the police had not come first?

 

  1. In the middle of all the uproar, what does Montag’s “hand” suddenly do?

 

  1. What is Beatty’s explanation for knowing the old woman’s quote?

 

  1. What are the “small sounds” Montag makes as he lies in bed, and why is he making them?

 

Pages 48-63

  1. What question does Montag ask his wife that she cannot answer?

 

  1. When Millie can’t answer the question, what does she get up to do?

 

  1. As Montag lies alone in bed, he has a long meditation on Millie’s life with her television walls.  What does he call the characters on the shows?

 

  1. What is the minimum speed limit on the highways where Millie goes driving with Montag?

 

  1. What does Mildred say has happened to Clarisse?

 

  1. As his wife goes to sleep, what does Montag hear outside the house?

 

  1. Why does Montag think “living room” is such an apt title for that room in his house?

 

  1. Why is the death of Clarisse so different for Montag than it is for Mildred?

 

  1. When Montag’s feverish mind pictures his wife the next morning, how is she described?

 

  1. When he asks Millie to turn off the TV because he is sick, what response does she give for not wanting to do it?

 

  1. What sudden reaction does Montag have to the odor of Kerosene?

 

  1. What did he once tell Clarisse about the odor of kerosene?

 

  1. How does Millie react to Montag’s question about quitting his job?

 

  1. In spite of the rule book’s claim, when does Beatty say the firemen’s job really got started?

 

  1. Beatty says: “Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.”  He also says that this “pattern” began about the time of “a thing called the Civil War.”  According to this passage, then, in what century does the story take place?

 

  1. What does Mildred find under Monta’s pillow while Beatty gives his lecture?

 

  1. As Beatty talks on, why does he become more and more invisible?

 

  1. When Mildred comes out of the parlor, she stands looking at Beatty and Montag, and then “her mouth moved and she was saying something but the sound covered it.” What was she probably saying?

 

  1. As Beatty drives away, and Montag looks at the flat-fronted houses on his street, what pops into his mind?