Fahrenheit 451: Part 2 — “The Sieve and the Sand”
Episode 45
This week, Professor Pipes burns the midnight oil to bring another spicy take on Ray Bradbury's incendiary classic, Fahrenheit 451. This time she tackles Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand! Wondering what that weird title is all about? Well you’ll have to watch and see!
TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases! I’m Professor Pipes and today I’m sieving and sanding, or, well, discussing “The Sieve and the Sand,” also known as Part 2 of Ray Bradbury’s sci fi dystopia, Fahrenheit 451. But before I do, let me remind you about where we left off…
Previously:
Previously in Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was not living his best life. For one, his whole job was to burn books, but he’d been secretly stashing away some. His wife Mildred was similarly unhappy and spent her days watching and talking about television. However, their teenage neighbor Clarisse seemed to love life… and asking questions, which confused Montag and made him start questioning things too. After learning that Clarisse had died and watching a woman die alongside her books, Montag decided it’s quittin’ time, but his boss Beatty was seemingly a mind reader and showed up just then to tell Montag the noble history of firemen and the necessity of burning books because they’re just too complicated. As Part 1 ended, Beatty left, and Montag revealed his secret books to his wife, deciding to read them before they must burn.
Plot Summary:
Part 2 begins with Montag still reading to Mildred, who is - surprise surprise - not interested. Ooh and the not-so-cute robotic hound is outside sniffing around! Hmmm… Smells like books! Soon Montag wonders aloud about Clarisse, but, again, Mildred is not interested, saying she doesn’t want to talk about dead people. Well of course not - she’d rather talk about tv people. They’re my real friends! Montag’s basically getting nowhere, and then he remembers that he once met a former English professor. Nope, it wasn’t me, Cooper. It was Faber! Montag had caught him reading a book, but instead of reporting him or burning the book right then and there, they got to chatting, which is exactly what Guy Montag needs right now! So he gives him a call, but Faber thinks it’s a trap, even when Montag asks about how many classic books are still out there, so Faber hangs up. Rude! Montag is worried that the copy of the Bible he recently nabbed from the old lady might be the only copy left in the world, so he decides he needs to make a copy before he has to burn it in front of Beatty. Before Montag heads out to see Faber and Mildred’s friends come over to watch the parlor walls, Montag asks her if the tv characters love her, but of course that’s a silly question…
On his way, Montag starts panicking on the subway and pretty soon decides to try to memorize the Bible before he has to burn it. Seems easy enough. When he gets to Faber’s place,
and, you know, convinces him he’s not there to burn anything, Faber explains why Montag is feeling so lost and why books - well, their contents - are so important. First, they provide true, detailed information about life. Second, they provide us with time to think and consider. And finally, they give us the ability to make decisions based on those first two reasons. Montag and Faber come up with a dangerous plan - start a book club! Ok, not really, but that would be cool. Their plan is to plant books in firemen’s houses and report them, bringing the firemen down from the inside! Mwahaha! Since Montag is worried about talking to Captain Beatty, Faber gives him a teeny tiny in-ear phone, so he can listen in and give advice. With that, Montag heads home as war looms overhead.
Unfortunately, his wife’s got company, and I’m not just talking about the tv “family.” Montag is so disgusted by their pointless chatter that he turns off the tv *gasp! and starts to ask the ladies real questions, and boy do they have… answers. Wait - I’ve got to get into character. On politics: “why even bother running an ugly short man against a tall, handsome one.” On husbands: “ my third is off at war, but if he dies I’ll just get a new one.” On children: “oh who would want those?” and “oh they’re easy; just send them away and plop them in front of the parlor walls when you can’t escape them.” The ultimate iPad kids. Montag gets so fed up that, despite Faber’s protests in his ear, he pulls out a book and starts reciting poetry while Mildred explains it away as a rule that firefighters get to read one book a year. Makes total sense. The poem moves one woman to tears, which further frustrates the other one. Montag then burns the book, kicks out the ladies, and hides his remaining books, since Mildred has burned some already. Then, as Faber both scolds and urges Montag on, he heads to the firehouse, where he gives a random book to Beatty, who burns it. Then Beatty launches a mental barrage, quoting literature to tear Montag down, describing a dream where they fired quotes at each other, each countering and contradicting, and confusing until dream Montag decides to go on burning. Then, in a sinister bid to make the dream a reality, Beatty leads the firemen to their next fire: Montag’s home. Dun dun dun…
Characterization:
Now that we’ve gotten to know our main players, let’s discuss ‘em.
Montag has grown a lot from the start of the story until now. He admitted that he was basically an NPC, with every decision made for him, just going through the motions of life. He and Mildred couldn’t even remember how they met, almost like characters in a book with no backstory. Montag also realized that, until he met Clarisse, he was just wearing his happiness like a mask. However, after seeing the world through her eyes, Montag began to think, consider, and learn more about the world and himself. Not only is he reconsidering his relationship and his job, but he is also no longer satisfied just being told what to do. Even as he is plotting to burn the firemen down from the inside out, he asks Faber, “When do I start working things out on my own?” The thing is, he’s still not quite there yet, letting Captain Beatty just tear him down without response, but he’s getting there. It’s kind of a… slow burn!
Mildred, on the other hand, hasn’t changed a whole lot. It seems that she is deeply sad and distracts herself with television or her ear radios or time with “friends.” Whatever it takes to avoid facing anything real or sad, like Clarisse or war or death, especially her own. Like her friend, it seems that Mildred’s always connected “poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings.” Now Montag says that books might be able to get them “half out of the cave,” which is likely Bradbury’s reference to “Plato’s Cave,” an allegory about the effects of education, or the lack thereof, on society. People are like prisoners, chained to a wall, seeing the shadows of objects outside the cave on the wall in front of them. While the thinkers are able to escape their chains and understand that the shadows aren’t reality, the other prisoners don’t have any desire to leave. And that’s Mildred to a T. She’s been trapped in this reality her whole life and cannot accept anything beyond it, frustratedly pointing out that “Books aren’t people” and therefore aren’t REAL in her mind. She’s happy staring at the wall. The parlor wall, in fact. And even though Montag tries reading to her, tries pulling her with him as he thinks and grows, she simply can’t join him. As Montag says, “Poor Millie.”
Faber is a complicated character who, unlike most, is pretty self-aware. He’s wise and educated and comes up with a plan to destroy, and therefore hopefully help, their society, but he’s admittedly a coward, and a guilt-ridden one at that. He saw the way the world was going, but “did not speak and thus became guilty.” He’s not even willing to help now until Montag starts ripping pages from the Bible to torture him. And though Faber eventually agrees and does help Montag as he’s verbally attacked by Beatty, he does so while still “safe at home, tending [his] fright with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of chance.”
Speaking of Beatty, our villain has announced himself in style! His verbal smackdown was a thing of beauty. Frighteningly evil beauty, yes, but I’ll always appreciate a well-placed literary reference. He is clearly much more well-read than he initially let on, quoting a dozen authors with ease, intentionally choosing quotes that contradict each other to prove his ultimate point of “What traitors books can be! You think they’re backing you up, and they turn on you.” Read a little and pretty soon you’re ready to “destroy authority.” And we can’t have that, can we? His manipulation is made all the more menacing when he says, “I’ve got you going, have I? …Shall I talk some more? I like your look of panic.” Sadistic.
Analysis:
Next let’s discuss some of the key ideas in this section of the story. Some haven’t changed a lot, like Bradbury’s view of Censorship as the destroyer of Knowledge and the destructive nature of Technology. I mean, a perfect example of all of this is Faber’s description of how they’ve changed the Bible on the parlor walls, saying, “Christ is one of the ‘family’ now. I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we’ve dressed him up, or is it dressed him down?” They censored and changed the Bible to suit their purposes, making Jesus a character to sell products. Faber also points out that, unlike books, technology “grows you any shape it wishes!” So censorship and technology are tools meant to mold the masses.
Speaking of the masses, that brings us to a theme we haven’t discussed yet, and that’s Autonomy and Agency. As Montag grows, he wants to have more control over his life. He points out to Faber that even though he’s literally plotting against the government, “I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always.” He wants to start making his own decisions. Even when he is taking action, like tearing the Bible to get what he wants from Faber, there is a sense of distance between his mind and the action, since “His hands, by themselves, like two men working together, began to rip the pages from the book.” He didn’t do it. His hands did. He still feels removed from his actions and numb to the world, so he continues to seek out help. This lack of autonomy is a systemic problem since, as Faber says, “Those who don’t build must burn” meaning that if we aren’t able to think and create, our natural tendency is to destroy the works of others. The builders and the burners are at odds, with Faber saying that Montag needs to think about what Beatty said and then make his own choice, since “I want it to be your decision, not mine.” Meanwhile, Beatty doesn’t want Montag to be an individual or to make his own decisions, saying, “all is well, the sheep returns to the fold. We’re all sheep who have strayed at times.” In other words, it’s best to remain just like everyone else, safe in the fold.
It’s clear this society can’t really separate Pleasure from Happiness. I mean, page one says, “It was a pleasure to burn,” but only a few pages later Montag realizes he’s not actually happy, which is what set him off on this whole adventure. He explains that, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy.” Similarly, even though they have plenty of “off-hours” for leisure, they don’t have time to think. Technology has assured that, with their hundred mile per hour cars and their games and televisions and radios to fill their brains all the time. And they clearly aren’t thinking about the world. In fact, Montag wonders if the war is happening because “we’re having so much fun at home we’ve forgotten the world.” Society is so concerned with personal comfort and pleasure, that “People are having fun” but they’re also “Committing suicide! Murdering!” This is exemplified by Mildred’s friends, who seem to be having fun fun fun watching television and talking about nothing, but as soon as Montag begins quoting “Dover Beach,” describing a dream world with “neither joy, nor love” where “ignorant armies clash by night,” Mrs. Phelps is pulled out of her fun and starts crying, perhaps thinking - for the first time - of her husband fighting in an ignorant army. So pleasure and happiness are clearly not synonymous, and pursuing only pleasure means a lot of people are really unhappy.
Food for Thought:
As always, like Clarisee, I like to leave you thinking, so I’ve got some food for thought for ya.
First, this section is titled “The Sieve and the Sand” in reference to Montag trying fruitlessly to fill a sieve with sand before the sand could all fall out, and he relates this to his goal of memorizing the Bible before it needs to burn. So, is it too late? Is this idea of saving knowledge a lost cause?
Second, there’s a LOT more references to war in this section. Why do you think Bradbury chose to describe the war in more detail - and more frequently - in this section of the book?
Third, what are your thoughts on Beatty’s argument that books are bad because they contradict each other?
Fourth, in what ways is “Dover Beach” the perfect poem to be read to this society? What similarities are there between the world the poem describes and the one Bradbury describes?
Finally, Faber mentions that books are necessary for three reasons: quality of information, leisure to digest it, and the right to carry out actions based on what we learn. How does this relate to Fahrenheit 451 itself?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Go forth; read a bunch; and be good, happy people.
