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Montag is first approached by Clarisse, the inquisitive seventeen-year old and although he thinks she is strange he continues to talk with her until the end of the block.
She right off the bat explains to him that she is crazy. She also goes against his beliefs in saying that firemen used to extinguish fires not start them. He is attracted to her because of how different she is from everyone around him. -
He realizes that his life in unfulfilling.
After Clarisse askes him if he is happy in his life he spends alot of time pondering it. This notion is solidified when he found Mildred laying in bed with an empty bottle of medicine next to her just as she had been everyday for two years. While hospital workers pump his wife's stomach, he looks over and sees laughter coming from the McClellan house. -
Mildred's denial and Montag's desperation
The next morning he tries to bring up her attempted suicide the noght before and she simply denies it. She then tries to talk about her empty entertainment. He simply leaves for work -
Clarisse further confuses his life.
He walks outside only to find Clarisse dancing in the rain and playing with dandelions. She asks him why he chose to be a fireman and tells him that he is much different from the others. She then goes to her psychiatrist appointment. When she leaves he stands and catches a few rain drops before moving on. -
He begins to feel out of place at the firestation.
When he enters the fire station and the mechanical hound growls at him he gats bad vibes. All the firemen then tease him and one tells the story of a fireman who commited suicide by setting the hound on himself. -
He becomes accustomed to Clarisse.
He walks with her everyday and she tells him of how she dropped out of school. -
Clarisse's absence.
On the eight day Clarisse does not show for their usual stroll. He was going to look for her but his train arrived before he got the chance. -
He questions firemen's role at work.
After he basically told them that he peered at the first couple of lines of a book the past day, he told his co-workers that he wondered how the owner of the library must have felt. He asks his captain if firemen ever put out fires. They are then called out on a house. -
The woman who found something worth dying for.
They arrived to the house and a book fell into his hands. He then hid the book within his cloak. They filled the house with kerosene but the woman would not move. She wanted to die for her books. She lit her own house on fire and the firemen rode home quietly. -
He realizes Clarisse's death.
He got home and hid his bookas and began to feel very alone. He asked his wife if she had seen Clarisse because he had not in four days. She told him that she had gotten hit by a car and that her family moved away. He was angry she had not told him earlier. -
Montag becomes guilty of his work.
He woke up sick and asks his wife if she would mind if he left his job. He tries to impart the inner turmoil he had about burning a woman alive the day before but she is un-empathetic. -
Captain Beatty's visit.
He comes in and checks up on Montag. He explained the history of their line of work. He said that people opted for the faster form of entertainment and began burning books because minorities found them offensive. Mildred begins cleaning and draws attention to his hidden book. Beatty simply shrugs it off and continues. He states that Clarisse is better off dead and that every fireman steals a book eventually. He, however, must burn it within tweanty-four hours. -
Mildred is let in on his secret.
When Captain Beatty leaves, he shows Mildred his stash of twenty or so books. She tries to burn them but he stops her. She is scared but he asks for fourty-eight hours of her support to find out why those books are so important. -
Afternoon spent reading books.
As Mildred and Montag read books they are checked on by the mechanical hound. Montag spends the time sppeculating on Clarisse while Mildred simply complains about how boring bookas are compared to the parlor walls. Montag accepts his lack of knowledge and begins his search for a teacher. -
Phone call with Faber
Montag calls Faber trying to ask him questions about literature. Faber answers none of them and hangs up abruptly. -
Montag's realization of the importance of the Bible.
He realizes that he may well have the last Bible in existence and tries to memorize it because he knows that if he turns in a different book to Beatty, he will know that he has a whole library. -
Montag has books explained to him.
Faber tells him that one has to try to understand the meaning behind books. Fabe says that one needs quality literature, leisure to digest, and freedom to express what they learn in order to truly understand literature. Montag wants to plant books in firemens' houses but Faber is against because it isn't their fault the public chose to stop. -
Fabe finally pushed to action.
Montag forces Faber to help him by tearing pages out of the Bible until Faber finally tells him that he will contact a press owner. -
Montag rants at his guests.
Montag heads home with the two-way radio in his ear. He turns off the TV and tries to engage them in conversation. He then becomes very flustered when they tell him they voted based on appearences. Montag pulls out a poetry book and begins reading it to them. He then drops the book in the incinerator on Fabers request, and proceeds to tell both women to leave. -
Beatty tries to confuse Montag.
Montag arrives after his absence and hand over the books. Beatty throws them away and begins to barage Montag with literary quotations meant to skew his stance on books and literature. They then leave for a call and arrive at Montag's house. -
The burning of Montag's house.
They arrive and they see Mildred leaving the house with her things. She speeds away in a Taxi and Montag realizes that she must have called in the alarm. He is then ordered to burn down his own house. Afterward he is placed under arrest. He then strikes him on the head and the radio falls out. Montag, after being challenged burns Beatty and some firefighters with his flame thrower. -
Montag plants a book.
While on the run he slinked into a fireman's house and plants some books. He then phones in an alarm and then calls Faber. They meet at his house and as Montag fills a suitcase with clothes he is instructed on where to go in order to meet up with a band of homeless intellectuals. -
The Great Escape
Montag then begins the race towards the river. He can see the chase on TV screens and sees the Hound press on at Faber's house. He wades into the river letting it mask his scent and eventually washes up in the countryside. He finds the train track and begins walking down it. -
The group of men.
The tracks lead him to a group of men. They are all intellectual homeless and provide him with a beverage that will mask his scent. They tell him that the hunt has gone the opposite way. Because of this they conclude that the government will be looking for a scapegoat. They then watch a man identify himself as Montag and he is killed. -
Montag's new life.
After watching the scapegoat's death Montag was reborn because the government had found it's victim. The men explain to him that they found a way to recall anything ever read and that Montag is part of a large group of people keeping books hidden in their minds. They are waiting until society is ready to accept them again. He expresses a lack of feelings towards Mildred and Granger says that to be mourned people need to leave behind something in the world they changed. -
The final explosion.
They see jets soar over the city and see the city implode on itself. The men are hit by the shock wave and Montag thinks back on his relationship with Mildred. Granger then compares mankind to a pheonix rising from the ashes.