Revelations of Montag and Also of Myself

  In this section, the Hound reaches the river, but seems to have lost Montag's scent since instead of following the river, the helicopters and the Hound go back toward land in the opposite direction of Montag.  Montag uses his time floating the the river to think and reflect on everything that's happened.  He has a revelation that he must never burn again because "The sun burnt every day.  It burnt Time.  The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him" (p.141).  He also realizes that burning books is not the only issue and that someone needs to start "saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads, any way at all so long as it was safe…The world was full of burning of all types and sizes" (p.141).  Montag is seeing the bigger picture now of his corrupted world.  

  Montag then decides to get out of the river and as soon as he does, he sees two eyes peering out at him and he immediately thinking it's the Hound!  He can't believe after all of that, the Hound has still managed to find him, but when he shouts in exasperation, the eyes run away, and he realizes that it's just a deer.  Montag relaxes and takes in everything pleasant about nature, "the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land.  He was not empty" (p.144).  Montag finally seems to be filling the void and emptiness that he felt in his old life.  He's beginning to find the things that he always felt was missing from his life.  This section ends with Montag finding the railroad track and for reasons he can't explain or prove, he just knows that Clarisse had been at the exact spot once upon a time, long ago.  

Reaction & Questions:  In this short section, although not much happens physically, a lot is explained about Montag's emotions.  I loved the revelation about the sun burning time.  He's having the realization that life is short, and he must live it to its fullest.  Since Montag has found the railroad tracks, does this mean he has escaped?  Will he reunite with Faber somehow?  Will he find people on the tracks like Faber said he would?  Will the reader get to see/find out what is happening in the town or will we stay with Montag until the end of the book?  

Reaction - A Text-to-World Connection:  In the homework done class this week, I had a text-to-world connection regarding this book overall that I want to include in this week's blog.  We learned about spoof ads, which use humor and satire to try to show the world what's really happening, similar to what Montag is trying to do.  This ad in particular is what made me have the text-to-world connection:  

  After seeing this ad, I immediately thought of "Fahrenheit 451" and how everyone follows the TV walls and practically lives by the TV walls.  This ad is aimed at our current world in 2013.  This book was written in 1953.  I'm not sure how much TV influenced America in 1953, but obviously enough for the author, Ray Bradbury, to see where it was leading our country.  I think I was too wrapped up in the story of the book to really think beyond it.  After seeing this ad though, I now completely see the parallels in the book and the world that I live in.  I can't believe that I didn't see it before.  Very interesting and sad stuff.  Hopefully our world does not get as bad as it does in the book, but I see how we could be heading down that road.