Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand
Montag and Mildred spend the day reading through the books, but none of what they read makes any sense. Mildred keeps begging him to destroy the books because it is very dangerous to have them. They could lose their home and be locked away in an insane asylum if they're caught. Montag won't give up, though. As they read, Montag hears the Mechanical Hound that he's certain has been programmed to hunt him sniffing outside his door.
Topic Tracking: Fear 4
Montag needs someone to teach him to understand what he reads, and that brings to mind an old man he once met in the park. Faber was a retired English professor who'd been out of a job when no one signed up for university classes any longer. Montag had met the old man in a park, and they talked for a while. Montag had known that Faber had a book of poetry with him, but somehow he didn'twant to destroy the book or the man. Montag knows that this is the person to teach him now, so he goes to Faber's home for help because he desperately wants to understand what's in the books.
Faber is surprised and afraid when he sees Montag because he doesn't know if the fireman is there to burn his home or to ask for help. When Montag shows him the Bible that he'd stolen from the fire the night before, Faber is in awe because all the other known copies of the Bible had been destroyed long before. When Faber was a boy, he loved books, the smell, the way they feel. He misses them. But as much as he misses books, he's still uncertain why Montag needs his help. The fireman explains that he wants to change the world. He wants people to snap out of their daze and care about the world around them instead of just living for fun. He says that people are hollow now and it's killing them -- first Clarisse, then that old woman who burned her own house, and now he sees that Mildred is dying, too. Montag says, "Nobody listens any more. . . . I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense." Part 2, pg. 82 Faber sees that Montag is sincere, and so he trusts the younger man. Together they plan to reprint a copy of the Bible to keep and study in case Montag has to burn the one that he stole from the woman's house.
Topic Tracking: Fear 5
Topic Tracking: Indifference 6
Faber knows that to bring society back to feeling and thinking, the role of the fireman must be destroyed. Somehow he and Montag hope to bring the establishment down. They decide to plant books in the homes of the firemen and to make them seem traitors to society so that they will be disbanded. How exactly to execute this plan, they aren't certain, but they're in it together. To keep up discreet communication between them, Faber gives Montag a seashell radio that will not only send out sound, but will also pick up sound so that he can hear what Montag hears and speak to Montag as well. With this communication link, Montag leaves Faber to go home. He has to get a book to take to Capt. Beatty at the fire station. Montag only hopes that Beatty didn't notice that the book he stole was a Bible because he's going to hand over another book so that a copy of the Bible can be made. If Beatty notices that Montag gives him the wrong book, the captain will know that Montag has more than one book, and that will be trouble.
Topic Tracking: Fear 6
Montag goes home to find that Mildred has a few women over to watch the wall televisions. Above Faber's voice in his ear, Montag hears the women and their mindless chatter in the parlor. He can't stand it anymore, so he unplugs the walls. He talks to the women, and conversation about anything beyond the programs they were watching makes them unsettled. Montag feels outraged that they are so indifferent to the world. They don't care about their husbands or their children. They don't care that their government is preparing to wage war against another country. They only care about the characters in the television, and Montag absolutely cannot stomach their indifference any longer. In his rage, he brings a book into the room, and they are all shocked. Mildred tries to play it off as a firemen's job to prove how silly books are, and Faber tries to calm Montag so that he doesn't give himself away. Mildred tells him to read a silly poem so that he can show the women how useless books and literature are, and he goes along with the plan realizing that he's gotten himself into trouble because any of these women could report him to the fire department for having a book. The poem that he reads makes one of the women cry, and both the guests leave because Montag has frightened them with his anger and with the poem.
Topic Tracking: Fear 7
Topic Tracking: Indifference 7
He finds his stack of books hidden behind the refrigerator, and he notices that some are missing because Mildred must have burned them in the incenerator. He moves the other books into the shrubs of the backyard so that they will be safe from her.
Montag goes to work with Faber whispering in his ear trying to keep him calm and collected. Montag turns the book over to Beatty and the captain burns it without even looking at the title. Attempting to seem normal, Montag sits down for a game of poker, but he can't get comfortable with Beatty sitting across the table watching him. He feels like Beatty knows about the other books, and he is nervous. But when Beatty keeps throwing literary quotes at Montag, the pressure builds. The captain talks about a dream he had not long ago in which he and Montag got into a debate about books and Montag was throwing quotes at the Captain, and Beatty was arguing right back. Beatty keeps talking and quoting and pushing Montag to crack telling him "What traitors books can be! You think they're backing you up, and they turn on you. Others can use them, too, and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor, in a great welter of nouns and verbs and adjectives." Part 2, pg. 107 The more Beatty says, the more worked up Montag becomes. When Beatty reaches across the table and grabs Montag's wrist, he can feel the pulse racing there and he tells Montag that the dream ended with him coming back to the firemen as before and realizing that books needed to be destroyed.
In the tension after Beatty's performance, Faber whispers in Montag's ear that he knows that the Captain is persuasive and that he belongs to the powerful majority, but Faber wants a chance to convince Montag that he was right to want out of the business. Faber says that he wants Montag to make his own decision about which side to stick with, but he at least wants a chance to plead his case. Montag starts to answer him aloud and is saved such a dangerous mistake when the alarm sounds. The firemen are off to do their work and Montag goes with them. He is shocked into complete silence when the fire engine pulls up in front of his house.
Topic Tracking: Fear 8
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