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The book's name is the exact temperature at which paper starts to burn.
The book's theme is set in a near-future dystopian world where people are not allowed to read or own any book. If found any book, the person is prisoned or killed and their books are burnt. Reckless driving behaviour is encouraged. People are supposed to drive so fast everything seems blurred; Green blur is grass, white blur is houses. Because of this speeding, billboards were 200 feet long so that people could read the billboards properly
"Burn 'em to ashes and then burn the ashes" slogan of firemen.
One of the few books not forbidden was the rule book of Firemen of America
Firemen were feared by people because even though they just burn books but they had the authority to check anyone's home for books, in some cases even secretly planting a book to take revenge or teach a lesson. They are even described as the saviours.
The protagonist, Guy Montang is a fireman, who ironically makes fire and burn books, and Montang's number is 451 as a fireman which is a very slight nod at the temperature and the book's name.
One of the main characters in the book though short-lived is Clarisse McClellan. She acts as the catalyst and sets up the chain of the events which lead to the event of the book. She is the reason behind the whole personality change of Montang. Even though Clarisse appears at the beginning of the book, you can still divide Montang's personality into pre-Clarisse and post-Clarisse personalities. Pre-Clarisse personality was the same as the average man there, books are bad and meant to be burnt. Clarisse is described to be having a moonlit aura and a curious personality. She’s 17 and her uncle said she is 17 and insane.
Montang like other people was not used to talking to each other and ideas weren't discussed, Clarisse changed that, she ignited the thought of thought making in Montang.
People are used to not thinking about things, they are discouraged from thinking their thoughts and encouraged to just follow orders and a set routine. You are supposed to visit therapists if you have abnormal tendencies like going out hiking, watching birds, collecting butterflies or just sitting and thinking. Talking and asking questions is considered anti-social.
The school had an hour of TV class, an hour of a game and then an hour more of painting pictures. Students don't ask questions and school just runs the answers and by the end of the school, kids are so tired that just putting their head on a pillow would make them sleep. Children break windows, damage cars with steel balls, take out their cars and speed recklessly around the city creating a nuisance without any consequences from law enforcement. Moreover, they are even encouraged to do this.
People are devoid of basic emotions such as love. There are couples but a couple is much more like a living arrangement of two roommates. Montang and his wife, Mildred, were couples and married for a significant time but still, they both had hard times having romantic emotions to such extent they couldn't even remember where first met which is usually a very special moment for couples. Instead of talking at the dinner table and spending time together, they were busy doing their own things, Montang would be busy burning books, while her wife would be busy by surrounding herself with "walls". Walls are entertainment devices that are literally walls. People buy them, and make a room out of them. This is a very good metaphor for showing how people in the book surround themselves with the walls from the outside world, which is somewhat similar to people spending most of their time surrounded by the online world rather than the real-life world. Wives are happy about their being at war and don't worry if they would come back or not.
Mechanical hounds play an important part in firemen and law enforcement. The hounds have morphine loaded jaws to neutralise the criminals. They can remember a lot of different chemical combinations to identify any object, track it down then kill or capture it. When not in use, firemen have fun and play games with them to catch rats or chickens, Montang's colleagues would feed in the rat's or chicken's smell or chemical composition and set the hound loose to kill the object.
One more life-changing event that gave full throttle to the thing which Clarisse started was when a woman was hiding the books in her attic. She was given the choice to move away from the pile of books or to burn with the books, she chose the latter and burnt the fire herself before the fireman Captain Beatty did and burnt to death with the books. This cruel scene affected everyone on the team as they were silent the whole time while going back to the station, but, Montang had the worst effect on him. He was shocked to the core because of this. This made him think more about the things Clarisse talked about and gave a push to what she started. During this event, Montang brings a book with him at home which makes him paranoid for a while; Because having a book was a serious crime. When his Captain, Beatty, gave him a visit later, he somehow managed to protect his book and learns that firemen have a single day allowance if for some reason they carry a book with them at home, they 24 hours to burn it before the rest of the firemen come and burn down the books and arrest him. This incident made him curious about the books as he told Mildred "there must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." He does not just think about books but the person behind the books too as he later tells Mildred "And for the first time I realized that a 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. It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it's all over."
When Captain Beatty visits Montang's place, he tells Montang the history of books how people first read books and then moved to something else which was shorter and with time their attention span decreased. He also talks about how books are contradicting to each other.
After Captain Beatty indirectly gave a threat to Montang, Montang tries his best to escape, he tries hiding all the books he secretly brought with him over the years. Still anxious about it, he is trying to find a way out of this. For this, he uses the help of old retired English Professor Faber whom he met years ago. After meeting Professor Faber at his place, both Montang and Professor decide that they will secretly print more books so that they keep the books alive somehow. They decide that Montang will bring back all the books he had at his home while Professor would get in contact with someone to print books. Professor gives Montang a homemade earpiece so that they can communicate.
At this point, a war breaks between the country and a foreign country and you can see bombers flying towards the border
Later, Captain Beatty forces Montang to burn his own house because he was hoarding books. While he is burning and trying to find a way to escape, Professor Faber helping him with the earpiece but he has nowhere to go, he can't run because of the hounds, he has no other option to burn his own house. While Montang was burning his house, Captain Beatty was poking him the whole time and in impulse reaction Montang fires his flamethrower at Beatty, burning him to death. He knocks out two other firemen and then burns down the hound too when it tries to tackle him. This results in a long pursuit between the law enforcement and Montang which lasts all night. Enforcement claimed that they had a 100% catch rate and no criminal could ever escape them or their hounds, but this turns out to be a false claim as they fail to catch Montang but to save their reputation they portray a random walker on his morning walk. During this pursuit, for a brief period when Montang stops at Professor's house, he tells Montang for the way to escape. And following this advice, he meets a group of outlaws like him. These outlaws tell him how if someone has read a book, they can retain every single word from it, and how they become the book themselves. This event also made Montang learn how fire can be comforting too and not just dangerous.
While they are discussing this, enemy bombers raid the city, bombing and destroying it. Seeing this, Montang thinks of Mildred, Clarisse and Professor Faber; He thinks about them being safe. He also remembers at this time where he met Mildred for the first time. City and civilization are compared to the mystical bird 'Phoenix', how it burned itself in a pyre and from the ashes, it rises again like a young born. After the city is destroyed, all the outlaws decide to head back to back to the city and help the people there. This time with the hope of changing the city for the better and show them how whatever life they were living until now wasn't worth it. One of the outlaws, Granger, said the first thing they would do is to build a mirror factory so that people can look at themselves and unlock their self-understanding so that, this time they are a better society.
Powerful quotes
If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one Better yet, give him none. - Captain Beatty
“That's the good part of dying; when you've got nothing to lose, you run any risk you want." - Guy Montang
"And for the first time, I realized that a 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. It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it's all over." - Guy Montang