Fahrenheit 451 Passage Analysis
Independent Reading- Fahrenheit 451
Passage Paper
Neil Y
A.
The passage I chose comes from the beginning of the book Fahrenheit 451, in the section, “The Hearth and the Salamander”. This passage takes place in the early stages of the book when an alarm, Guy Montag, the protagonist, and the other firefighters to an old house owned by an old lady. The old woman refuses to abandon her home and insists that she wants to die among her books. She lights a match and burns herself along with all her books. During the encounter, Montag steals one of the woman's books and takes it home with him. When he gets home, he is shaken by the woman’s death and very nervous about his illegal possession. Montag is a third generation firefighter in his family, …show more content…
The passage that I analyzed helped me further understand the motif of “hands” in the book. Montag blames his hands for stealing the old lady’s book, not himself. In Part one, Montag starts to distance himself from his hands, “Montag's hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest.”(35). Montag, by referring to his hands and not himself shows that he believes he is not doing the action and has no control over his hands. In part two, Montag makes another reference to his hands being apart from himself,“The numbness will go away, he thought. It'll take time, but I'll do it, or Faber will do it for me. Someone somewhere will give me back the old face and the old hands the way they were. Even the smile, he thought, the old burnt-in smile, that's gone. I'm lost without it”(75). Montag believes that his hands are the problem, and that if he gets his old hands back it will go away. He still continues to believe that his actions are his hands fault and not his own. This motif really explains the theme of identity in the book. Montag believes that if your identity is not completely yours, then you are not completely responsible for all your
Passage Paper
Neil Y
A.
The passage I chose comes from the beginning of the book Fahrenheit 451, in the section, “The Hearth and the Salamander”. This passage takes place in the early stages of the book when an alarm, Guy Montag, the protagonist, and the other firefighters to an old house owned by an old lady. The old woman refuses to abandon her home and insists that she wants to die among her books. She lights a match and burns herself along with all her books. During the encounter, Montag steals one of the woman's books and takes it home with him. When he gets home, he is shaken by the woman’s death and very nervous about his illegal possession. Montag is a third generation firefighter in his family, …show more content…
The passage that I analyzed helped me further understand the motif of “hands” in the book. Montag blames his hands for stealing the old lady’s book, not himself. In Part one, Montag starts to distance himself from his hands, “Montag's hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest.”(35). Montag, by referring to his hands and not himself shows that he believes he is not doing the action and has no control over his hands. In part two, Montag makes another reference to his hands being apart from himself,“The numbness will go away, he thought. It'll take time, but I'll do it, or Faber will do it for me. Someone somewhere will give me back the old face and the old hands the way they were. Even the smile, he thought, the old burnt-in smile, that's gone. I'm lost without it”(75). Montag believes that his hands are the problem, and that if he gets his old hands back it will go away. He still continues to believe that his actions are his hands fault and not his own. This motif really explains the theme of identity in the book. Montag believes that if your identity is not completely yours, then you are not completely responsible for all your