My F451

Summary:

     This novel is set in the future, in an un-named American city. In that time, firemen start fires instead of starting them. They burn books and the houses containing them. The protagonist of the story, Guy Montag, starts off as a fireman. He was happily burning books, until he met Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse's philosophy on books cause Montag to question his work.
     After meeting Clarisse, Montag goes through a few unsettling events. His wife attempted to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills. Then, while burning a house that contained books, the woman who owned the house and books decided to burn with them. To make matters worse, Clarisse goes missing and Montag heard that she was ran over and killed by a speeding car. Clarisse dies early in the story, she wasn't there to change the world but to spark the mind that would.


     Montag quit his job and eventually began to read books, particularly a stash that he kept in an air vent. After missing work, the fire chief, Beatty, visited Montag and explained why books were banned. After Beatty's visit, Montag read that entire night and asked his wife, Mildred, to join him but she was reluctant. Luckily, Montag remembered meeting a former English professer named Faber and contacts him for help.
     They come up with a plan to reproduce books and discredit the fireman profession. Faber gives Montag a two-way radio called the green bullet. Montag then returns home to find two of his wife's friends in the parlor watching television. Montag reads them a poem and they become disturbed, meanwhile Faber was telling him to be quiet and Mildred was explaining that this was a simple fireman procedure.
     Montag returns a book to Beatty at the fire station but while doing so, Beatty was quoting literature as they spoke. Then the alarm went off and as they head to their next house, Montag is surprised to see that the the firetruck he was on arrived at his house. Montag saw Mildred enter a cab with a suitcase and finds out that she turned him in.
     Beatty forced Montag to burn his own house. After that, Montag burned Beatty to ashes. Montag left the scene but was chased down by the mechanical hound, who injected Montag's leg with anesthitic. Montag managed to destroy the hound with the flamethrower that he used to burn his house and Beatty. Montag then hid his remaining books in the home of another fireman and set the alarm.
     Montag is now a wanted fugitive. He went to Faber's house and is told by Faber that he knows a retired printer who can help them. They drank whiskey together and seperated. Montag's chase was being aired on live television but manages to escape in a river and then followed some old railroad tracks. He followed the tracks and met a group of people who were pro-books. One of the people, Granger, welcomed Montag. After becoming aquanted, they head to the city, which was just destroyed by enemy bombs, in hopes to rebuild civilization. To revive the phoenix.