Preparing for Battle

  Montag does end up visiting Professor Faber.  Montag explains that he stole the book and wants to learn how to understand what he reads because, "We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy.  Something's missing. ...The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books" (p. 82).  He explains to Faber that he thought if he were to salvage some books, perhaps it could help.  Faber tells him that he is brave, but a "hopeless romantic," since it's not the fact that books are missing, it's the content of what was in the books that has been a great loss to their society.  The new technology of the wall TV's and Seashell radios is not to blame, but the content that is being dispersed to the nation through these devices is what is causing people to not think for themselves.  I found this insight to be eye-opening, as I too had believed that it was the lack of books making the people the way they were since they weren't receiving the knowledge contained in books.  I did not, however, think that the new technology could still deliver the same types of information, but it doesn't, and that's where the problem lies.  Faber continues, explaining to Montag that there are three things missing besides the books themselves:  1) "quality, texture of information" 2) "leisure to digest it" and 3) "the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two" (p. 84-85).  These are not easy fixes to a society, and Faber is doubtful that he and Montag alone could change things.  He argues that in the beginning, people stopped reading and thinking for themselves on their own, and the government just decided to take advantage of their weakness.  Montag is still determined to do whatever he needs to do to try to make things right.  So Montag and Faber come up with a plan to plant books in firemen's houses and then turn them in, the idea being to bring down the firemen.  This section ends with Professor Faber giving Montag a little device he has created that looks like a Seashell radio, but works like a walkie talkie.  Montag is worried that Captain Beatty might brainwash him back to the old way of thinking, so Professor Faber will be in his ear, feeding him lines.  They think perhaps Beatty may even be on their side, since he seems to know so much about books.  Also, Montag decides to leave the Bible with Faber and take a chance that Beatty doesn't know which book he stole, so that Faber can check with an old friend who used to print newspapers about making copies of it.    

   I love Montag's determination to fix things, even though he is just one man.  I would like to think that I would be brave, had I been in his situation, but I think I probably would have been a coward like Professor Faber and not say anything... I mean, how could one person change the nation?  At least, that's how I would think.  But then again, there are obviously still people out there who believe that society is corrupted.  People like Clarisse and her family, the woman who burned with her books, and people like Montag... Maybe they will somehow find a way to form a militia against the government?  I  wonder, could Captain Beatty really be on their side?  I think that maybe Captain Beatty went through a revelation just as Montag is now, and he had to make a choice, and he chose to not fight and to just give in.  Who knows, maybe Montag could turn him?