F. 451 Entry 9 pgs 90-100

Summarize: Montag goes to the bank then catches a ride home on the subway, all the while Faber speaks to him about the war, and false propaganda. Faber also says that he will talk to him even in Montags sleep because Faber needs very little and sometimes word will stick in a sleeping mind. Montag returns home and is eating supper when he hears the obnoxius sound of Mildred and her friends. In the parlor the walls are constantly changing scenes and sounds, randomly. Montag turns the switch parlor walls off, leaving some very annoyed women. Montag and the women talk about their husbands and the new 'quick' war. He reminisces about how the woman's faces are like churches, beautiful but meaningless in the end. He tries to talk with them again, asking them about their children. One lady responds with a furiously glad, I have none, and the other woman talks about their children as if they were objects, not people. Despite Faber's warning Montag begins to read them some poetry, then a ways through tries to cover it up with Mildred, saying firemen are allowed a book a year to remind them of the utter silliness of them.


Discuss: Faber talking about false propaganda is a way of showing how far the government, even back then when Bradbury wrote the book, would go to fool the people. The scene that happens between Montag and the women is mainly a way to show how this future society views the world, and the effects their view. Children and their parents have no relationship, spouses, already demonstrated by MIldred and Montag, have zero affection. In the end, he wanted to try and talk some sense into them, by means of poetry, and since they didn't want to know, they choose to close their ears.


Literary Elements:
Simile - "...swimming between the clouds, like enemy disks"
              "...like a native fleeing an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius." 
Allusion - Montag talking about the church and angels within he once visited.
                  The poem about the Sea of Faith.
Irony - The fact that the women are so blasé about their own children, when usually the opposite is true in real life.
            When the women say a 'quick war', wars always are long, even in the lasting affects.
            How unconcerned they are about their husbands in war, same a children.