Text 1:
In this passage (page
48), Montag is looking at Mildred, and she is described. Before this, Montag
and Mildred talked about Clarisse dying, and Montag sensed the Hound outside.
After, Montag confesses his feelings about burning the woman and her books
earlier. I thought this might be interesting because a lot of figurative
language is used and might give us hints on what Bradbury is describing her as.
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Mildred stood over his bed, curiously.
He felt her there, he saw her without opening his eyes1,
her hair burnt2 by chemicals to a brittle straw, her eyes
with a kind of cataract unseen but suspect far behind the pupils3,
her reddened pouting lips, the body as thin as a praying mantis from dieting,
and her flesh like white bacon4. He could remember her no
other way.
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1) Connection: Montag also felt Clarisse was there before he met her, and
felt the empty pill bottle earlier before he kicked it. Her presence, like
Clarisse’s, can be felt by Montag, except Clarisse had an almost magical feel
to it, while with Mildred it is kind of scary and fake. This could be Bradbury
foiling one off the other.
2) Word Choice / Connection: Fire, burnt, and related words are
often repeated in Fahrenheit 451. While a lot of times people like Beatty have
an idea of fire and burning things that is good and clean, burnt is often
associated with being “Damaged by fire,” not cleaned like Beatty describes it
as. Mildred, if she is burnt, is damaged by the fire that burns books in this
world, she is not a full person without books.
3) Word Definition: “Cataract” means “An opacity of the
crystalline lens of the eye, or of the capsule of the lens, producing more or
less impairment of sight, but never complete blindness.” Mildred has a part
deep inside her that is stopping her from really seeing the world, and that
must be books. It is hidden, and Mildred appears to be able to see fine on the
outside but in reality she cannot.
4) Figurative Language: Her flesh being like white bacon isn’t likely very deep
language, but it does show that she stays inside all day, or she would get a
tan. This brings up the point of her working, does she have a job, or is only
Montag a worker? There don’t seem to be very many jobs available in this world,
the only ones really seen are firemen (only need so many), policemen (you need
even less, the police force has been cut down a lot), teaching (can’t be
teaching very much, no post-secondary education with college professors),
health workers (machines do everything anyway), psychiatrist (most “strange”
people are just given up on), and of course the military, which seems to be the
largest employer. We do however see people commuting to work, so there must be
more jobs. Also they seem to be mostly government-paid jobs, showing the huge
control the government has.
Text 2:
This paragraph (page 93) occurs after Montag gets home from giving Faber money
to print a book, and right after Montag starts quoting books to Mildred’s
friends, who have just come over to visit. I think this passage is interesting
because of the way it describes Mildred (and her friends) might be
enlightening.
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He was eating a light supper at nine in
the evening when the front door cried out1 in the hall and
Mildred ran from the parlor like a native fleeing an eruption of Vesuvius2.
Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles came through the front door and vanished into
the volcano’s mouth3 with martinis in their hands. Montag
stopped eating. They were like a monstrous crystal chandelier tinkling in
a thousand chimes, he saw their Cheshire Cat smiles burning
through the walls of the house, and now they were screaming at each other
above the din.
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1) Word Choice / Word Definition / Figurative Language: The Oxford English Dictionary defines
“to cry out” as “To utter loud and (usually) impassioned exclamation,” or as an
object, “To emit a creaking sound.” “Cried out” seems like an unusually
passionate description of something small like a door moving. This could mean
that the door is being personified, which seems unlikely, or that it is an
exceptionally violent sound, possibly painful. This seems to show how Mildred
was running from the parlor in a crazy way, paying no heed to anyone or
anything else, including Montag trying to have dinner.
2) Word Choice / Wording / Connection: Vesuvius is “the name of an active
volcano on the Bay of Naples in Italy.” One of its most famous eruptions
occurred in 79 CE, destroying the Roman cities Pompeii and Herculaneum. Anyone
trying to run from an exploding volcano would be killed regardless. This seems
to imply that Mildred has no hope of escaping the parlor, and her running is
futile. This might relate to how Montag tries to get her out of the society
where she is stuck watching television all day and she doesn’t think, because
there is no hope of getting her out of there, like there was no hope for anyone
running from Vesuvius. This could show that Montag is either perserverant, or
maybe just stubborn.
3) Word Choice / Figurative Language: Vanishing into a mouth is similar to
being eaten by said mouth. Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles are, like Mildred, being
eaten by this unescapable volcano. This might show that it is a fool’s errand
for Montag to even try to read books to them to get them to try to understand.
This also seems to compare the volcano to the parlor walls that are eating Mrs.
Phelps and Mrs. Bowles up.
Text 3:
This passage (pages
41-42) happens right after Montag takes a book from a house when burning it,
and is going to bed. After this scene, Montag and Mildred talk about where they
met (but they forgot), as well as about the television show going on. I chose
this passage because I think it could give insight on how Mildred feels about
Montag.
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He stumbled toward the bed and shoved
the book clumsily under the cold pillow. He fell into bed and his
wife cried out, startled. He lay far across the room from her, on a
winter island separated by an empty sea1. She talked to him
for what seemed like a long while2 and she talked about
this and she talked about that and it was only words, like the words he heard
once in a nursery at a friend’s house, a two-year-old child building word
patterns, talking jargon, making pretty sounds in the air3.
But Montag said nothing and after a long while when he only made the small
sounds, he felt her move in the room and come to his bed and stand over
him and put her hand down to feel his cheek. He knew that when she pulled
her hand away from his face it was wet.
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1) Word Choice / Figurative Language / Connection / Trouble: According to the Oxford English
Dictionary, “winter” is often used “With reference to the chilling or injurious
effect of winter,” or in reference to “a time or state of affliction or
distress.” If Montag is on this winter island, he is probably in some state of
distress, possibly from taking the book and being guilty or worried. In fact,
Montag seems to be worried or guilty for a lot of the book, which seems kind of
strange. Even though he is doing all these things and seems to think it is the
right thing, he still feels guilty.
2) Wording: When Bradbury writes “seemed,” it implies that it did not
actually take a long time, just seemed that way. This could be because either
Montag is really tired, or Mildred just drones on about boring, unimportant
stuff. Either way, Montag probably isn’t listening, which seems hypocritical
because he always wants other people to listen to him.
3) Word Definition / Word Choice / Syntax: “Jargon” means “Unintelligible or
meaningless talk.” Mildred’s words are just that, words, with no real meaning
to them. This is like a lot of the talk in the book, with people like Mildred
and Mrs. Phelps, probably repeated, shallow sentences. The repeating of phrases
that are similar here are used to emphasize the point that there really is no
meaning to what she says. Mildred, and others, probably talk like this because
without books, they never learned to really think and say meaningful things.
