Exploratory Draft Stage 3

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.