Montag’s Brain What he is really thinking!

Montag’s BrainWhat he is really thinking! 3. The Books That Separate Society 2. His Spouse, Mildred 1.Work As A Fireman 30% 30% 10% 30% 4. Clarisse and Challenging the System

Montag’s Brain Section 1 Work as a Fireman! “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.” (Bradbury 4). 1. In the beginning of the book, Montag’s brain is captivated by work. Burning books thrills him and makes him wear a grin that stays with him for long periods of time. Having control over the books and their fate makes him feel powerful and strong, but after meeting Clarisse, Montag is shown a new way to look at life. The amount of his brain dedicated to being a fireman dwindles and becomes dedicated to other things in his life, like Clarisse and challenging the system. No matter what, though, work still remains a part of his life.

Montag’s Brain Section 3 The Books That Separate A Society “He stood looking up at the ventilator grill in the hall and suddenly remembered that something lay hidden behind the grill, something that seemed to peer down at him now. He moved his eyes quickly away.” (Bradbury 10). 3. Along with Mildred and Clarisse, the books that Montag is storing and burning through work are haunting him so much that he can never really forget about them. The books are such a huge part of his life, for they seem to always surround him, whether he is at work burning them or at home hiding them. Just knowing that they are in his house makes him very anxious, for he is afraid that at any given time, someone could come and find them, leading to a whole world of problems. Montag is supposed to be burning these books, but as he does this, he stores them. Knowing that he is doing something that is not only illegal, but defying the whole purpose of his job and career weighs him down and is constantly on his mind. The added stresses from Mildred and other things pestering him doesn’t help this situation, but his brain is really devoted to thinking and worrying about the books that keep society so split up and segregated. No one wants to get caught with books, yet they are all still tempted to have them, hence the purpose of the firefighters. Consequently, everyone puts on masks and hide themselves and the books behind them.

Montag’s Brain Section 2 His Spouse, Mildred ‘“First, why don’t you tell me if she’ll be all right?”’ (Bradbury 15). 2. Montag constantly finds himself worrying about Mildred, what she is up to, and if she is keeping herself safe. After she took 30 sleeping capsules and Montag had to get two men to suck them out of her stomach and put new blood into her, he is constantly worrying about her, for she has hurt herself so many times and really can’t be trusted. Although Montag has admitted to himself that he is not happy, he still feels devoted to Mildred and responsible for her none the less. The close call with the sleeping capsules has made Montag consider how big a part of his life Mildred really is, and although they seem to stay together because they have to, she still has a pretty big impact on his decisions and choices related to work and his whole life in general.

Montag’s Brain Section 4 Clarisse and Challenging the System “He stopped walking. ‘You are an odd one,’ he said, looking at her…’I don’t mean to be insulting. It’s just I love to watch people too much, I guess.’” (Bradbury 8). 4. After Montag met Clarisse, he really started to think for himself, look at things logically, and challenging the way of life that the society he was apart of lived. As he did this, he started to become more clever and smart, realizing flaws and things that didn’t exactly make sense in the society they were a part of. For example, he started to question the whole purpose of burning books, which before he started to challenge the system, had been practically his whole life! Clarisse also becomes important to him as she opens his eyes to what is really happening around him. She showed him that it was okay to observe things and ponder over them, for this was how people truly learned. He really got things out of their discussions, and when she suddenly disappeared from his life, he seemed shocked and dumb-founded. This goes to show how big a part of his life she really was.

Mildred’s BrainWhat she’s really thinking! 2. The Relatives, Her Real Family 3. The Pills Keeping Her and Montag Apart 1. Her Spouse, Montag 70% 15% 5% 10% 4. Forgetting Things And Herself

Mildred’s Brain Section 1 Her Spouse, Montag ‘“When did we meet for what?” she asked.”’ ‘“I mean-originally.”’ ‘“I don’t know,” she said.”’ (Bradbury 43). 1. Mildred has a few things on her mind, and Montag is definitely the last one of them! Mildred and Montag have a relationship that is difficult to describe, for they seem to put up with one another because they have to. They can’t remember when they met each other or how, and it doesn’t really seem to bother Mildred at all. She is more concerned about “The Relatives” than she is her actual family, Montag, whether she likes having him as family or not. Because of this, it is obvious that Montag isn’t that important an aspect of her life, for material things keep her going over her relationship with him. If Mildred can’t even remember something as monumental as meeting Montag, she obviously doesn’t take that much interest and notice in other things concerning him.

Mildred’s Brain Section 2 The Relatives, Her Real Family ‘“Will you turn the parlor off?” he asked.”’ ‘“That’s my family.”’ ‘“Will you turn it off for a sick man?”’ ‘“I’ll turn it down.”’ “She went out of the room and did nothing to the parlor and came back…” (Bradbury 49). 2. Mildred’s life revolves around “The Relatives” because the T.V. walls are the only things that can really preoccupy her during the day. The T.V. walls and “Relatives” allow Mildred to interact with something that tells her what to think, act upon, and do, which is what their society and the people living in it are based around. With the T.V. walls and “Relatives”, Mildred doesn’t have to think for herself or make her own decisions, for she is acting a script with the walls and they tell her exactly what to say. When Montag is around, he forces her to have to think as an individual, which is against the society’s way of life. Because Mildred doesn’t have to do anything as an individual when she is with the “Relatives” and she does when she is with Montag, she is much happier with the “Relatives” and thinks about them more. She would rather have the “Relatives” blaring and Montag ill then the “Relatives” quiet and Montag healthy. She also spends more time with the “Relatives” than she does with Montag, which also contributes to her lack of thought for him and great amount of thought for the T.V. walls.

Mildred’s Brain Section 3 The Pills Keeping Her and Montag Apart “…he wanted to call out to her, how many have you taken tonight! the capsules! how many will you take later and not know? and so on, every hour! or maybe not tonight, tomorrow night!” (Bradbury 43). 3. Mildred bases a smaller part of her mind around her sleeping capsules, but they still have a huge impact on her life. She overdoses herself on them, forgets all about it because she is drugged, and denies that it ever happened afterwards. No matter what she says about them however, she does turn to them for sleep and relief from her life, and this can often get her into trouble. Montag finds her drugged, gets two men to suck out what is in her stomach and put new blood into her, and when she wakes up she is somewhat different from the new blood, although her thoughts are the same. Her capsules put Montag under a lot of stress when he finds her drugged, and this stress continues to separate them in their already sad attempt at a relationship. Montag doesn’t have the courage to stand up to her about the capsules because she has such a big impact on him and his decisions. This lack of communication hurts their “relationship” even more, adding stress to both their lives. Thinking about the capsules relieves her from having to think about the other things in her life.

Mildred’s Brain Section 4 Forgetting Things and Herself ‘“I meant to tell you. Forgot. Forgot”’ ‘“Tell me now. What is it?”’ (Bradbury 47). 4. Mildred seems to have a side to her that is just forgetful, whether she has control over it or not. There is a part of her brain that is obviously dedicated to forgetting things that happen in her life. Whether forgetting these things is a conscious effort or not, she is good at randomly remembering things that happened a while back. An example of this was when she suddenly remembered to tell Montag that Clarisse was dead, four days after she supposedly died. By forgetting things that happen in her life, Mildred is forgetting certain things about herself as well, which may be a mask for who she really is. No matter what she is forgetting, Mildred’s brain is definitely dedicated to hiding certain things about herself from others and quite possibly herself.

Clarisse’s Classmates’ BrainsWhat they are really thinking! 4. Extra Time 1. School Life 25% 25% 3. Friends 25% 25% 2. Being Told What To Do

Classmates Brains Section 1 School Life ““An hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports, but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don’t; they just run the answers at you…”’ (Bradbury 29). 1. The children in Clarisse’s class are all the same, for they think the same things, are told the same things and how to do them, and are used to the same schedule day after day. This is further proved by the fact that no one in this society thinks for themselves, and things are just fed to them. Everyone is told how to do things, so they are not independent individuals. They act and think in the exact same ways. Everyone’s lives are the same, so everything and everyone is the same.

Classmates Brains Section 2 Being Told What To Do “…but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don’t; they just run the answers at you…”’ (Bradbury 29). 2. In the society of Fahrenheit 451, everything and everyone are the same. Much of this can be blamed on the fact that everyone is told what to do and how to do it, so no one can explore and think for themselves. An example of this is Clarisse’s classmates. They don’t even bother to explore and ask questions in school, for the answers are just thrown at them anyway. As a result, they don’t learn anything. The things being taught to them will never stick in their brains because they never explored and found the answers for themselves.

Classmates Brains Section 3 Friends, Similar to Identical Twins ‘“I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other…Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks.”’ (Bradbury 30). and ‘“People don’t talk about anything.”’ (Bradbury 31). 3. The kids in Clarisse’s class can all be considered twins, for no one acts as an individual. Because they are all told the exact same things and the ways to do them, no one thinks for themselves or considers or ponders things, except for Clarisse. Due to this, they all seem to think and act in the same ways, making them almost exact replicas of one another. They don’t know right from wrong, and can act out in violent ways towards one another. Lots of deaths result from this, and everyone fears one another for no one can be trusted.

Classmates Brains Section 4 Extra Time, Not Spent Wisely ‘“They run us so ragged by the end of the day we can’t do anything but go to bed or head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break windowpanes in the Window Smasher place or wreck cars in the Car Wrecker place with the big steel ball. Or go out in the cars and race on the streets, trying to see how close you can get to lampposts…”’ (Bradbury 30). 4. The kids seem to act out in inappropriate ways when they are given free time, for they don’t really know what to do with it. They are always told what to do and how to do it, so when they aren’t instructed to do certain things, they act out in strange ways. Examples of this are street racing, breaking things, and creating chaos and destruction. The community and society almost benefit from doing things in the same way because someone has told them how. When they are left hanging, whether it is intentional or not, bad things happen.

Beatty’s BrainWhat he’s really thinking! 3. The Hound 2. Lecturing Firefighters 4. Reading Books 10% 10% 10% 70% 1. Working as Chief of the Firefighters

Beatty’s Brain Section 1 Chief of the Firefighters ‘“Who would do a thing like that?” asked the Captain. “You haven’t any enemies here, Guy.”’ (Bradbury 27). 1. All the firefighters go to Captain Beatty when they have problems and concerns. He is almost like a father figure to them all, since he is the head firefighter and has control over changing things. Montag goes to Beatty when he has trouble with the Hound. He accuses someone of fiddling with the Hound’s amino acid concentrations so that it lashes out at him, and Beatty responds that no one would have any point to do this because Montag doesn’t have any enemies. This is just one example of what Captain Beatty has to put up with, so his brain is most definitely preoccupied with being captain of the firefighters and helping to take care of them and their needs.

Beatty’s Brain Section 2 Lecturing the Firefighters ‘“I must be going. Lecture’s over. I hope it clarified things. The important thing for you to remember, Montag, is we’re the Happiness Boys, the Dixie Duo, you and I and the others. We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.”’ (Bradbury 61, 62). 2. When Montag gets sick after the bad experience with the woman burning up with her books, Beatty comes and visits him and gives him a lecture that all firemen apparently get at some point in their careers. Beatty lectures Montag about firefighters, their purpose in the community, and their history. It seems that when the firefighters are at a “low” with their job and life, Beatty comes and attempts to reassure them that everything is alright, and that all firefighters go through that “low”. He explains that they are the Happiness Boys because they stop any possible conflicts in the society before they even happen. Once again, Beatty is coming through as a father figure for the firefighters, for he reassures them and explains things to them just as a father would do for his children.

Beatty’s Brain Section 3 The Hound “Nights when things got dull, which was every night, the men slid down the brass poles and set the ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the Hound and let loose rats in the firehouse areaway…and their would be betting to see which of the cats or chickens or rats the Hound would seize first.” (Bradbury 25). and ‘“We’ll have the Hound checked by our technicians tomorrow.”’ (Bradbury 27). 3. Similar to Clarisse’s classmates, Beatty and the other firemen do stupid things when they don’t have anything better to do with themselves. An example of this is using the Hound and its killing techniques as a form of entertainment and betting. They constantly bet on which creature the Hound will kill first. This is a reflection of Beatty’s adventurous side, for he is a big fan of poker and betting. When there is nothing better to do in the firehouse, Beatty and the others simply play cards, or watch the Hound hunt down innocent animals. Beatty’s mind is also partially dedicated to the Hound because its behaviors and actions are controlled by technicians. The Hound isn’t an actual living thing, but a machine, and is constantly being watched by Beatty and the others.

Beatty’s Brain Section 4 The Temptation of Reading the Books ‘“A natural error. Curiosity alone,” said Beatty. “We don’t get overanxious or mad. We let the fireman keep the book twenty-four hours. If he hasn’t burned it by then, we simply come burn it for him.”’ (Bradbury 62). 4. Beatty constantly has to think about the books that they are burning and the fact that all the firefighters will be tempted to take them home to read from time to time. He is responsible for enforcing the policy that the firefighters can take them home and read them for a twenty-four hour period before they have to burn them. If they fail to burn them, Beatty and the other firefighters will come and burn them to ensure that they do not last. This is a huge responsibility for Beatty, therefore it is constantly on his mind with the other responsibilities of being the captain of the firefighters.

Phew!!!!! THE END!!!!!!!!!!

Montag’s Brain What he is really thinking!