"'We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in
filling a vessel drop by drop there is at last a drop which makes it run
over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the
heart run over.'" This is the page Montag reads on a cold, rainy
November day after he learns of Clarisse's death. It is ironic and
painful. This is the point in the book where things begin to go horribly
awry. Montag's first mistake is allowing Mildred to know about his
reading habits, because she is the same as the firefighters, the
policemen, the neighbors who would pull the alarm in two seconds if they
knew Montag had even considered reading a scrap of literature. Mildred
is incapable of feeling remorse for wrongdoings so her fear of the books
being found is derived strictly from her fear that her way of life will
be skewed if someone does happen to find out. I'm not even sure if
Mildred herself is sure of exactly what she's afraid of. But she knows
that books are evil, they possess dark knowledge of an old world that
she wants nothing to do with because the unknown frightens her. She
wants to be kept wound tightly in her little bubble of a reality society
has blown for her. When Montag tries to confide in his wife about the
woman he and the other firemen had burned the night before, Mildred is
completely disinterested. Once again, a prime example of a dysfunctional
'husband-wife' relationship.
I was very excited when Montag
reunited with Faber because I as the reader no longer felt alone. I felt
that I had a vessel in this story from the world I know that could
communicate to Montag what I wanted to speak aloud and tell him myself
about books and knowledge, the truths and the beautiful enlightening
wisdom they bring. Faber was that proxy, and I was very thankful. The
earpiece and microphone was ingenious, until Montag decided it would be a
good idea to flaunt his books about in front of Mildred's friends like a
mad man. However, that was also like a scene from a movie (as most of
this book was for me, I could almost put a song to every event) and I
could feel Montag's desperation to 'snap everyone out of it' for lack of
a better term. He was one of the few lucky people in the world that
hadn't been so tainted with technologies who could actually grasp that
he was living in a highly distorted reality. I could see the sweat beads
on his forehead, the scramble for words and justifications, the frantic
motions of his hands, the desperate pleas of his tongue. For a moment I
was living vicariously through Montag.
I've always known
Beatty sucks. He's a worm-like, manipulative sloth with a deteriorated
mind and a psychologically stifling disposition. When Montag cannot go
into work because he has become ill with despair, Beatty's visit had me
squirming. The whole rant he gave Montag about what books are and a
fireman's curiosity about what it is he is actually destroying was a
tantalizing game that was seemingly neverending. I hated every moment,
and at the end when Montag refuses to come clean about the books and
Beatty takes him to his own house to burn the possessions, my heart
skipped a beat. "Why, we've stopped in front of my house." Chills!
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