Study Guide for Fahrenheit 451:

Directions: As you read, answer the following questions in your journal (these questions will be your journal entries for the next two weeks!). Please write in complete sentences and answer thoroughly.

  1. Explain who Clarisse is and how Montag meets her. In what ways is she different from most people in Montag’s society?
  2. Montag and the Firemen are called to a fire of a woman who refuses to leave her home. Describe in detail what takes place.
  3. Explain what Montag learns from Mildred regarding Clarisse.
  4. “How does Beatty explain the history of books and how education and entertainment changed over time? How does this relate to utopia and man’s changing ideas of the ideal?
  5. Why did people in this futuristic society start burning books? Think of what Beatty told Montag. Be specific.
  6. What does Beatty say every fireman gets an “itch to do” at least once in his career? How is the element of curiosity apparent in this society?
  7. Why does Montag chance telling about and showing his secret books to Mildred? Explain what happens after Montag reveals his secret supply of books to her.
  8. Give two examples from the novel that show that Montag’s world is fairly constantly at war.
  9. Which of Mildred’s ideas in particular seem to show an inner rage? In what ways to other members of this society seem to have ananger in life?
  10. The second part of the book is entitled “The Sieve and the Sand.” Explain, through recounting Montag’s description of this action, how the title fits.
  11. Look up the words of “DoverBeach.” Describe in detail how Mildred and her friends respond to Montag’s reading of “DoverBeach.”
  12. Consider the men returning to the fire station at the end of this section. Explain what happens when Montag returns to the fire station, what he and the others do, and what Captain Beatty says and does.
  13. Describe what happens when Montag is called to burn down his own house. What do we learn about Mildred as a person and a wife? What happens between Beatty and Montag?
  14. Explain at least two things that Montag does to elude the Mechanical Hound searching for him when he departs from Faber’s house.
  15. Describe the society of people Montag meets when he arrives at the community outside of the city. Who are they, what do they do, how do they treat him, etc.