On the Run

  So Montag is now on the run.  He was able to find a few books that Mildred missed in the yard, though.  He can't believe what he's done and begins to break down crying when it occurs to him that Beatty wanted to die.  "He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling…How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad, and then…" (p. 122).  After coming to this realization, he begins to keep moving, finding a Seashell radio in his pocket, he listens, and there is a police alert out for him.  He also learns that War has been declared, but cannot really think about it since he is occupied with his own escape.  

  Montag decides to head to Faber's house.  On his way there, he tries his best to stay in the shadows, but he finally must cross a road.  As he begins to walk across the road, he hears a car coming straight for him and he thinks it's the police.  As the car gets closer, speeding up faster, he begins to run.  As the car is within feet of him, he trips and falls and thinks it's all over and they've got him, but then the car swerves and drives away.  He looks up and it's a bunch of kids just being punks.   "The driver of the car, seeing Montag down, instinctively considered the probability that running over a body at such a high speed might turn the car upside down and spill them out" (p.129).  Had he not fallen, they probably would've hit and killed him for no reason.  Montag felt sadness as he wonders if these were the same kids who killed Clarisse.  

  This section ends with Montag creeping into a house from the back door.  At first, I thought it was Faber's house, but then it says, "Mrs. Black, are you asleep in there?"  Then, I remembered that Black was the name of one of Montag's coworkers.  The books confirms this saying "now since you're a fireman's wife, it's your house and your turn, for all the houses your husband burnt and the people he hurt without thinking" (p. 130).  Montag places the books in the kitchen and calls in an alarm from the pay phone.  He can hear the sirens heading toward the house as he walks away.

REACTION AND QUESTIONS:  Hmmm… Beatty wanted to die?  That thought never occurred to me.  Is that really the case, or is that just what Montag tells himself to justify what he had done?  OR did the author include this so that the reader would feel better about it, maybe?  I still don't know if I buy it, but it's definitely a possibility.  Throughout the book, there have been mentions of this War that is taking place, but it has never really been discussed fully.  Will the War play a bigger role in the end of the book?  Will the police find Montag?  They have already announced that he is wanted, so they aren't trying to cover it up.  What will the government's reaction be to the alarm at Black's house being called in?