Timeline:

Theme: Censorship causes diminished individual thought.

 

 

The Hearth and the Salamander:

1. Montag meets Clarisse McClellan, a seventeen year of girl who challenges the way things are in society.
2. Montag and his fellow firemen go to a woman's house who is suspected of hiding books, in order to burn them. While they are there Montag discovers hundreds of books that the woman had kept hidden, and steals one of them for himself. The woman chooses to die in the fire with her books, which confuses Montag.
3. Montag begins to question the book burning that is going on in his society and becomes more interested in reading and knowledge, contrary to Beatty’s and Mildred’s wishes.

• “And for the first time I realized that man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I’d never even thought that thought before,” (Bradbury 49). -Montag to Mildred

The Sieve and the Sand:

1. Montag becomes obsessed with the idea of books and plans to meet a man named Faber, a person he had previously met at a park.
2. When Montag talks to Faber, and learns the history of books and the real truth behind government censorship. Faber and Montag formulate a plan in which they plant books in houses of firemen to spark suspect in them.

• “I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always...I don’t want to change sides and just be told what to do” (Bradbury 88). -Montag to Faber

3. Mildred hosts a party with her friends and her parlor “family”. Montag becomes upset when he sees this and brings out a book to read to them, despite the original plan they had.
4. Montag goes back to work where Beatty confronts him about what he has been doing. Montag acts like nothing is wrong and they leave when they are called to burn a house.  

Burning Bright:

1. Montag is forced to burn his own house.
2. Montag kills Beatty, then runs away. While on the run, he almost gets run over by a group of thrill-seeking teens driving a beetle.
3. After walking farther, Montag comes across a group of people who, just like him, have explored the ideas inside books.

• “We read the books and burnt them, afraid they’d be found” (Bradbury 142). -Granger to Montag

4. The city is completely destroyed by bombs. Montag and Granger lead the development of a new society that is built upon meaningful ideas and books rather than emptiness.

This theme is important to our understanding of the story because…

We see the influence that books had on Montag and the decisions he would make throughout the novel.

This theme connects to our modern-day society because…

Books have shaped prominent ideas in our world today, and have allowed people to develop individuality and meaningful thoughts.