Fahrenheit 451 - Section 5 Annotation

1. P. 142 - In this scene, Montag’s books were caught by Beatty and Montag is in danger. Therefore, Faber asked him to run away, but he couldn’t because of the Mechanical Hound was nearby. This was the reason why the Mechanical Hound was missing in the fire house.

2. P. 142 - “... every thing that showed that he had lived here in this empty house with a strange woman who would forget him tomorrow, who had gone and quite forgotten him already, listening to her Seashell Radio pour in on her and in on her as she rode across town, alone” (142). I sympathized with him because everything that he succeeded were gone, house, books, and wife. However, I’m neutral to this situation because his over emotional and hasty decision induced this situation. He shouldn’t show his books to Mildred, if he didn’t believe her so much.Also, he described Mildred like, “who had gone and quite forgotten him already” that means he expected that she’s kind of selfish.

3. P. 142 - Did he change his mind that it is better to burn everything or did he just gave up or being sarcastic by saying “And as before, it was good to burn, he felt himself gush out in the fire, snatch, rend, rip in half with flame, and put away the senseless problem. If there was no solution, well then now there was no problem, either. Fire was best for everything”(142).

4. P. 142 - “The books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers” (142). The author kept use simile to describe the circumstance of burning books. It helps readers to imagine that circumstance and made the books piteously.

5. P. 142 - “And then he came to the parlor where the great idiot monsters lay asleep with their white thoughts and their snowy dreams” (142). The author phrased people who watched TV in their parlor like Mildred as  great idiot monsters and he described their thoughts as white thoughts and white snowy dreams because while people were watching TV, they don’t think deeply and they only pursue their pleasure. This description helps readers to understand Montag’s emotion in that moment.

6. P. 143 ~ 144 -  First, I felt that Beatty is just an antagonist who creates tension in the plot but, now I like Beatty more than Montag because he knows and has everything. For example, he has intuition that Montag possessed books and great observation to found out that Montag was wearing wireless wire. Also, he has fast drive to complete something. Without his aversion about books and authoritative behaviors, I think he has more abilities to be a hero than Montag.  

7. P. 145 -  In this scene, Montag burned Beatty by using flame thrower. When Montag held the flame thrower, Beatty started to provoke Montag to aim and burn him. This scene has the most emotional impact because the conflict between protagonist, Montag and antagonist, Beatty reached its peak. Montag was outraged to Beatty because Beatty commanded him to burn all the books and his house that Montag wanted to protect. He couldn’t lose his temper from Beatty’s provocation, therefore, he discharged the flame thrower. Also, I was really shocked that Montag actually murdered Beatty in cruel way.

8. P. 148 -  In this moment, Montag realized that Beatty wanted to die when he made a disturbance with the flame thrower because, Beatty didn’t made a strong resistance. However, I hope that author could explain more about this scene. For example, the author can include some lines which are alluding that Beatty wanted to die or something that can make smooth plot or reasonable death. I feel like Beatty death’s occurred so abruptly.

9. P. 154 - In this scene, Montag confused juvenile delinquents as police, so he was chased by them. At that moment, he questioned himself that those teenagers killed Clarisse. Also, I was really confused because I thought Clarisse is really important character, but she disappeared so abruptly.

10. P. 146 ~ 165 - The chasing scenes between Montag and Mechanical Hound, police during these pages implies Montag’s desire to protect books. Because the origin of this whole situation is book and Montag doesn’t want to be caught because he thinks he is innocent and still wants to know about books.

11. P. 146 ~ 165 - In chasing scenes, the police used Mechanical Hound to catch Montag. In our reality, the police uses Hound to search suspects. I think in the future, we invent and utilize the Mechanical Hound in this field, like Fahrenheit 451.