Sieve and Sand

  Montag is trying his best to read the books, but he isn't able to understand or make sense of anything that he is reading, which is very frustrating to him.  He realizes that the book he had taken from the house of the woman who burned herself along with the books is the Bible, which Montag knows is a rare and important book.  Knowing he does not have much time left before turning over the book to Captain Beatty, he contemplates giving Beatty a different book instead, but then if Beatty knows which book Montag stole, then Beatty would know that Montag had more than one book!  Mildred is no help at all since she just keeps screaming at Montag that he's ruining their lives.  Frankly, she is really annoying me.  I'm surprised Montag even told her about the books.  Personally, I wouldn't have trusted her, she is too far gone to understand Montag's thought process.  Montag is finally seeing that his country has deprived him of information and he seeks answers and wants to know the why behind things.  The reader gets a better picture of this world when Montag says, "We've started and won two atomic wars since 1990! ... I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed.  Is it true, the world works hard and we play?  Is that why we're hated so much?" (p. 73-74).  I hadn't thought to ask if other countries burned books as well.  It seems like only this country, which I am inferring is America because of the way that Clarisse spoke of the past, burns books and tries to keep people "entertained" instead of "in the know."  Another reason why I am able to infer that the country is America is that in this section of the book, Montag remembers an encounter he had with a former English professor named Faber who was reading a book, but quickly hid it as soon as he saw Montag.  Montag convinced him to talk for a while and once Faber wasn't scared of Montag anymore, he began to say something that Montag thought might have been a poem, "Faber held his hand over his left coat pocket and spoke these words gently" (p. 75), which made me think of the "Pledge of Allegiance."

  Montag decides that if he is going to give Beatty the Bible, then he needs to somehow make a copy of it before he gives it to him.  How the heck is he going to make a copy?!  He gets on the subway, but the book does not say where he is going.  Maybe to Professor Faber's house?  Earlier in the book, he attempted to call him, but Faber thought it was a trick.  Perhaps he is going to go see him in person?  While on the subway, Montag recalls a memory of himself as a child trying to fill a sieve with sand because a cousin told him he would get a dime if he could do it.  "And the faster he poured, the faster it sifted through with a hot whispering.  His hands were tired, the sand was boiling, the sieve was empty" (p. 78).  Montag equates this memory with trying to comprehend the books he stole.  He is reading and reading, but cannot seem to make sense of any of it, like the sand, the words fall right through his brain.  He begins trying to read the Bible publicly on the subway, without seeming to care if anyone sees, but a song keeps playing and is distracting him from reading.  Montag gets extremely frustrated and starts yelling, "Shut up!" The people on the subway are startled by him and think that he has gone crazy, which he in fact, might have for a moment.  He manages to slip out the door at the next stop before any guards can get him.