Fahrenhiet 451

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, begins on the East Coast, IN A LARGE AMERICAN CITY OF THE FUTURE. The futuristic world described here is chilling; a future where every type of book, save inexpensive comics, are burned by "firemen." One such fireman is Guy Montag, who is tall and dark-haired like most firemen. One thing sets him apart from his colleagues though: he secretly loves books.

    One night while Montag was walking home from a day's work, he meet a young, bright girl named Clarisse McClellan. She was idealistic and hated the social structure of the times. She said that firemen once put out fires started accidentally, instead of starting them. Montag thought this to be nonsense, for the Chief told him firemen had always been fire-starters. Clarisse went on to tell him about her uncle, who remembered the past and had a sharp intellect. She told Montag that her family always stayed up all night talking about a variety of different subjects. He found that to be extremely odd. Why would anyone want to stay up and talk?

    Montag decided that Clarisse was eccentric, because hardly anyone except for firemen ever walked down the street at any time. He went home to his wife Mildred, a woman who had very little to do except to take part in interactive TV shows. She had three walls of the living room equipped with such walls. She thought that a fourth wall would be great, while Montag refused because he thought it would be useless and expensive.