Fahrenheit 451 Litblog Pages 113-136

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 5
3-6-13

 

Pages 113-136

 

Summary: Montag is called in by Mildred and Mrs. Bowles (one of her friends he read the poem to) and the first stop of the night is his own house. Montag burns down his entire house with only a flame-thrower and when Beatty moves to arrest him and he discovers his ear piece, Montag points the flame-thrower at him and kills Beatty. The Hound then attacks him and stabs its needle into Montag's leg but he kills it with the flame-thrower in time. Montag runs from the scene and almost gets run over by a car and makes it to Faber's house, and finds out another Hound is after him. On the way, Montag plants some books in a fireman's house (Mr. Black's). Faber tells him to run to the river and follow it to the train tracks and travel with the hobo camps.

Quotation: "In the middle of the crying Montag knew it for the truth. Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling... How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed..." (122).

Quotation Significance: Montag now knows that Beatty had wanted to die and that was why Beatty had still insulted him while he had the flame-thrower in his hand. Beatty was basically asking for Montag to kill him.

Reflection: In this chapter, Montag is exposed for having books and is totally on the run. He killes Beatty and the Hound and is on his way to escape the city and eventually meet up with Faber in St. Louis. On the way to meet Faber, Montag planted books in Mr. Black's house, Mr. Black is a fireman and Montag is trying to plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the people and hopefully encourage them to overturn the system once they realize the men running it are hypocrites. The other firemen arrive and burn down Mr. Black's house. Montag feels terrible for killing Beatty but he soon realizes that Beatty had been asking to die. Beatty was provoking him while Montag had the flame-thrower pointed at him and Montag snapped and pulled the trigger, killing Beatty. Montag cries about it and feels extremely guilty about this. He also kills the Hound, and he has to limp away from the scene because the Hound injected a little of it's venom into him. He soon regains movement in his leg though and escapes.

Discussion Question: How is Beatty's death deeply affecting Montag? Do you think that Montag will still try and overthrow the society that he lives in?