Part II: The Sieve and the Sand

Part II: The Sieve and the Sand Analytical Page Comb & Annotation Clean-up

THE BIG TWELVE

The Contents of Montag’s Books (71) • " `We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over, so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.'" • Why wouldn’t the government want people reading things like this? • Return to Beatty’s speech in Part I

Why Read Books? (73) • "And besides, if Captain Beatty knew about those books--" She thought about it. Her face grew amazed and then horrified. "He might come and burn the house and the `family.' That's awful! Think of our investment. Why should I read? What for?" • How does Montag answer this question? • What is your assessment of his answer?

Faber (74-75) • “I don’t talk things, sir,” said Faber. “I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I’m alive.” (75) • What is the meaning of this most crucial quote? • How does this memory continue to affect Montag?

The Sieve and the Sand (78) • “Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day trying to fill a sieve with sand.” • How does this childhood memory mirror Montag’s current situation? • How does the Denham’s Dentifrice episode continue to develop this conflict?

Faber (81) • “My wife’s dying. A friend of mine’s already dead. Someone who may have been a friend was burnt less that twenty-four hours ago. You’re the only one I knew might help me. To see. To see…” • Why does Montag need Faber? • What might the character of Faber symbolize?

Universality (83) • “The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” • Summarize Faber’s three missing elements of society…(1) Quality, (2) Leisure, (3) The right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two

The Plan (85-87) • “The salamander devours his tail” (86) • How do Montag and Faber begin to devise a plan to take down the “fireman structure?”

Faber’s Green Bullet (91) • “Go to the firehouse when it’s time. I’ll be with you. Let’s listen to this Captain Beatty together.” • How do Montag and Faber plan on using this “green bullet” that Faber has invented? • Why do they need it?

Montag’s Goal (92) • “I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always. You said get the money and I got it. I didn’t really think of it myself. When do I start working things out on my own?” (92) • What is Montag’s overall goal for this plan he is executing with Faber?

Dover Beach (99-100) • “And we are here as on a darkling plain/Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/Where ignorant armies clash by night” (100) • Famous poem by Matthew Arnold about the death of faith with the advent of scientific discovery, as well as the important of human relationships as opposed to illusions of happiness • Why did Bradbury choose this poem for his novel?

The Majority (108) • “But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.” (108) • Explain why the majority would be an enemy of truth and freedom. • Who else in the novel belongs to this dangerous group?

Part II: The Sieve and the Sand