Fahrenheit 451: Part 1 (:

The Hearth and the Salamander

               The first section of Fahrenheit 451 is an insight into the heart of a man whose conscious becomes evident. The description Montag provides at the beginning of the book about the “fiery smile” and details of book burnings expresses just how much he loves the job of being a fireman. The love slowly turns to questions when seventeen year old Clarisse steps into the picture and begins questioning the actions of everything. She dives into detail of the past where people could read what they wanted, do as they pleased, and when things were simpler. She leads Montag to begin to question things himself, and try new things such as tasting the rain and the self-discovery of unhappiness. However, as he becomes accustomed to talking to Clarisse, she turns up missing and thought dead. He questions the actions of society more when his crew goes to burn a house and the woman inside will not leave her books. He even goes as far as to steal one and hide it under his pillow, pretending sick the next day and having the boss explain how and why things are as they are. Montag still seems to disagree, not wanting to ever go back to the book burning job. He resents it more as he meets a college professor who discusses how things used to be when books were acceptable. As the section ends, Montag is questioning all the actions he is forced to do, and is actually performing the illegal action he was raised to oppose and do the job of removing – reading books.