Guy Montag is one of many firefighters assigned to burn books in a future version of the United States where books are illegal. The novel begins with a concise description of the joy he feels while burning books. In the book he is described as wearing a helmet with the number 451 (the heat with which paper burns, hence the name of the book), a dark black suit with a salamander on the arm and a "phoenix disc" on the torso. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned" Get an original essay Coming home from work at the fire station, he feels a sense of nervousness or you watch him in the shadows. This is when he meets a very unusual new neighbor named Clarisse McClellan. He immediately sees that Montag is a fireman and seems very interested in him and his outfit considered "crazy" and proceeds to tell Montag that she thinks the firefighters' original job was to put out and extinguish fires instead of lighting them “incredible power of identification”. She asks him if he is happy with his life and then Clarisse enters his house without hearing Montag's answer. Questioning the imbecilic question, Montag says he's a little worried because he doesn't normally talk about his personal life with strangers. When he returns home, he realizes that he is not happy with his life. Montag continues to feel uncomfortable going to bed. He sees his wife Mildred listening to her favorite radio show "Seashells". Montag accidentally kicks an empty sleeping pill bottle, realizing that his wife had overdosed on the pills and calls an ambulance. Just as he does, a team of jet bombers drops bombs and shakes the house immensely. The ambulance arrives and two very cynical operators show up with a snake-shaped machine to pump Mildred's stomach. Montag reflects on the question Clarisse asked him and all the events that happened. He feels terribly dizzy as he takes a sleeping pill and falls asleep. The next day, Montag tries to talk to Mildred about his attempted overdose the night before. Mildred says she has no memory of her attempted suicide. When Montag asks him, he is completely shot down by his wife. Instead, he insists on talking about the plot of the television programs he watches. Since he is not interested in the conversation, Montag goes to work. When he goes outside, he sees Clarisse having fun in the rain. She rubs a dandelion on her chin and explains to Montag that if any pollen comes off she's in love. Then, he rubs the dandelion on Montag's chin but, to his embarrassment, no pollen is removed. Afterwards, Clarisse asks Montag why he chose to become a firefighter in the first place. Clarisse says he's not like any of the other firefighters she's met before. Montag tells Clarisse that she should go to her therapist who was assigned to her by the authorities due to her "lack of sociability" and her seemingly dangerous motivation towards independent thinking. Once Montag reaches his job at the fire station, a mechanical bloodhound joins the pet, but, to his surprise, growls and threatens him. Montag immediately reports this phenomenon to his captain, Captain Beatty. He's worried it might be a murder plot because the exact same event has happened twice this month. After that, the other firefighters make fun of him and say that a Seattle firefighter was himselfcommitted suicide by pulling the trigger of the mechanical bloodhound on his own chemical complex. Beatty tells Montag that the hound will be checked and assures him that the problem will not recur. Over the next week, Montag sees Clarisse walking to and from her home every day. Clarisse asks Montag why he never had children with his wife and also explains why he decided to stop going to school. On the eighth day, he did not see Clarisse outside the house and when he arrived at the fire station, he asks Captain Beatty what happened to the man whose library they burned. Beatty then tells how the man was sent to an asylum for the mentally ill. Montag then asks if firefighters have ever been employed to put out fires. The other firefighters show him a manual where they were set up in 1790 to burn English-influenced books. Then the alarm sounds and they head to a rickety old house owned by an old woman. The old woman stepped aside to allow them to take the books. A book falls into Montag's hands and he decides to quickly hide it under his coat. Even after dousing the books in kerosene, the woman stands her ground and does not leave. Beatty begins to set the house on fire, but Montag stops to try to help the old woman leave quietly. She insists on refusing and, as Montag leaves, lights the fire herself, burning her and the house. All the firefighters are very quiet on the ride home to the station. Montag returns home and hides the book he has under his pillow. Montag tells Mildred that he hasn't seen Clarisse in about four days. She asks Mildred if she knows anything about her recent disappearance, and Mildred says she believes she was killed in a car accident. Montag wakes up very sick, smells kerosene and vomits. Montag tells Mildred about the old woman's house the night before and asks her if it's okay if he leaves work for a while. He tries to explain to Mildred that he is guilty of burning all the old lady's books and house, but Mildred doesn't want to listen. He attempts to talk to Mildred about how much this really bothers him and asks her when she was last bothered by anything. The argument ends when they see Captain Beatty approaching the driveway. Captain Beatty comes to check on Montag, saying he figured Montag would call in sick that day. He tells Montag that every firefighter sooner or later encounters the "problem" he has experienced and tells him the history of his profession. Beatty's monologue borders on hysterical, and his tendency to jump from one thing to another without explaining the connection makes his story very difficult to follow. Part of the story is that photography, film, and television have made it possible to present information in a quickly digestible visual form, which has made the slower, more thoughtful practice of reading books less popular. Another strand of his thesis is that the spread of literacy and the gigantic increase in the number of published materials created pressure for books to be more similar to each other and easier to read (like the condensed Reader's Digest books). Ultimately, Beatty says that "minorities" and special interest groups found so many objectionable things in the books that people eventually abandoned the debate and began burning the books. Mildred's attention wavers as Beatty speaks, and she stands up and absentmindedly begins tidying up the room. In doing so, she finds the book behind Montag's pillow and tries to call attention to it, but Montag yells at her to sit down. Beatty pretends not to notice and continues talking. He explains that ultimately the public's demand for easy, incontrovertible pleasure caused the..