And the future is so clear now...

Despite having a huge exam tomorrow morning, that I am not ready for--I just could not put Fahrenheit 451 down. Sure I've read it before, but it's just a great story. So here's my plan, I am going to spread this out into two blogs, sense I keep promising blogs and never posting.

The first blog will be dedicated to the literal details, and the characters. I will admit that these two blogs (along with all of my blogs) are spoilers...but I suppose that it's a given) so, if you don't want the endings spoiled, or the characters spoiled...don't read?
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Guy Montag: Literally, Montag means "Monday," in German. I'm not sure what use that will be, but there it is. According to Bradbury, Montag is also the name of a paper company, something that he did not realize until after the publication of 451. Montag is a trained fireman, who semi-happily, at least blissfully, goes about burning down houses that contain books. When Montag meets Clarisse, his world changes and he sees things differently, and more openly. Montag also realizes that he is not happy, and is realizing this for the first time in many many many years.

Mildred Montag: Montag’s bland, boring wife. Mildred is controlled and consumed by the technology and programs offered by society. Because of how rapid the society is, she has poor sentence structure, can never remember everything, and gets over her emotions, or lack of, very quickly. Later, Mildred and her friends turn Montag in for owning and reading, or quoting, books.

[For those who have only seen the movie, she is known as Linda in the movies]

Clarisse McClellan: Mildred’s exact opposite, in every way shape or form. She speaks to Montag, and truly speaks to him, asks him questions, gives him answers (sometimes, without even being asked). She is only in the novel for a short amount of time, but changes everything Montag knows and stands for. She is killed, according to Mildred (not a reliable source) Clarisse is hit by a car, and her family moved away right afterward.

Captain Beatty: Montag’s fire captain, surprisingly knows a lot of literature, and can quote many books on demand…yet still views them as a threat, and thinks it’s best to burn them. He believes that books contradict themselves too much and will only lead to angst and hatred. Montag later burns Beatty alive, and Montag later rationalizes Beatty’s death by assuming and feeling that he really and truly wanted to die.

Professor Faber: Faber is the Latin word for “maker.” According to various interviews, Faber is named after a brand of pencils, “Eberhard Faber.” Faber taught English many years before the book takes place, also before the book takes place, Faber encounters Montag at a park. At the park, Faber is reading, and Montag is of course, still a fireman. Montag got Faber’s name, phone number, and address; however, Montag never turned him in. When Montag decides that it’s time for a revolution; he calls upon Faber for help. In the end, Faber has to be convinced to help Montag, but once convinced…Faber is more than willing to go the extra mile to help the mission and probably gives Montag the most help anyone could possibly give; figuratively and literally.

The Mechanical Hound: The Hound is sent out around town to scope down and track down the books and people on the run. It can store up to 10,000 different scents, without getting them confused. The Hound has needles in him which he uses to help tranquilize the book lovers. Bradbury used the Hound as a form of foreshadowing—early in the book the Hound changes in his demeanor and behavior toward Montag. Of course, shortly after, Montag “loses control” and the war is begun.

[For those who have only seen the movie; the Hound is sadly missing.]

Granger: He is also an ex-professor, and on the run from society and firemen alike. Granger and many of the other professors traveling the broken-down/unloved railroad tracks have memorized many books. Granger believes that by carrying the books, he and the professors are asking for trouble. Instead, they carefully read and memorized the books, and are saving the material for a time when it can be written down. They are aware that some information will be lost in transient, but decided that the parts they save will be worth what’s lost.

Mildred’s Friends: Mildred’s friends are used to represent their society as a whole. They are dumb, numb and think that they are happy. When Montag read the poem, it showed that none of the women had been exposed to true beautiful emotions—therefore their actions were justified when they didn’t know how to act and ran out in anger instead.

The parlor “family”: Instead of watching TV, they surround themselves with TV. In the parlor walls, are four (if you’re rich enough) floor to ceiling screens. The Montag’s only have three screens, which is the debate of some fights between Montag and Mildred. Mildred wants a fourth screen, but they cannot afford and it. Also, according to Montag, the third screen was only installed 2-3 months ago, and they are still paying it off. Mildred, who is consumed by the “family” and considers them her friends, doesn’t remember back that far. When Montag is ordered to burn down the house, Mildred goes into a panic about losing her parlor “family” and friends. Also, there is a device that can be hooked up to the parlor room, and it will say the person’s name. Of course Mildred had this installed and it says “Mrs. Montag.” There are some disgusting scenes depicting Mildred and the parlor “family” talking to one another…and showing that Mildred really did treat them like a true, blood family.

A special treat: In the Del Rey copy, they have an Afterword, which might be in other copies too…I wouldn’t know, not owning them and such. That is not to say that I wouldn’t mind owning them, I happen to enjoy different covers, I think a lot can be told about the society at the time the novel is printed and the cover is chosen.

Now, after that tangent, in the Afterword, Montag is taken to Beatty’s apartment where he finds books, and lots and lots of books. At one point, Beatty loved to read books, but 30 years prior to the novel, the final library burnings happened, he stopped reading and become a fireman. However, Beatty kept the books because it was not against the law to own the books, merely against the law to read the books. This helps explain how Montag was allowed to keep the books for over a year before the Hound started acting crazy and Montag got in trouble with the other firemen. The Afterword helps explain how Montag knew that Beatty wanted to die. Montag probably sense that after their meeting in Beatty's apartment, and all the random quotes he threw out--that Beatty wasn't truly happy not reading and was in psychological pain because of it.

The Afterword also kills of Faber [I believe this is in the play version of the book, along with that is the above information on Beatty]. Faber is killed because Beatty takes the gadget from Montag’s ear and screams into it that they are coming to get him, and Faber’s heart kills him.

Also, In the movie release, Clarisse doesn’t die, she runs off to join the ex-professors on the run by the river and Montag accidently runs into her there, I have to admit that I hate this idea. Clarisse’s death was sad, and tragic. But it’s what propelled Montag so much, his pain and anger for her death controlled him more than anything. It’s what brought him alive and made him feel things again, and made him understand why this war had to happen.

I have to agree with Bradbury, he says that a young author’s work should not be changed [much like Fahrenheit 451], but instead should remain truthful to its beginning.

Also, in the book there was a Coda where Bradbury discussed the many ways we are burning books today. By allowing censorship, we are burning books, thoughts and concepts. Bradbury discussed high school anthologies where they take bits and pieces of famous works and throw them all together into this one huge annoyingly in descriptive bound of “short stories.”

He’s right, by allowing stories to be cut down and fit to please our society, we are burning books. Just remember, that the burning of books started by people merely ripping out pages and paragraphs that they didn’t like or didn’t want to deal with.

More to come…