Book Club: Fahrenheit 451 Q&A

Hi everyone! How have you all been?

As I often have to do lately, I unfortunately have to apologize again for my delay in writing this blog post. I’ve been unexpectedly busy at work, and had a lot of exciting things happening in my life, but that unfortunately means I didn’t have the time to write as much as I would have liked.

I hope that everyone is enjoying our newest Book Club read: Fahrenheit 451. For today’s Q&A, I will be presenting you with a few reading questions based on everything up to “Part Three: Burning Bright”.

Here are five questions for you to think about, followed by my answers…

Questions

1. Do you think that Beatty is really as bad as Faber describes him? “[…] the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority.”
2. How do you feel about Mildred? Do you think that Montag still has a chance to “save her”?
3. Do you believe that Clarisse is really dead?
4. Do you think that Clarisse’s family has some kind of connection either to Faber or to Beatty?
5. What do you think is going to happen next? Will they burn Montag’s house? Do you think that someone turned him in? If yes, who?

My Answers

1. I am conflicted about this. Part of me wants to say yes. Yes because I can’t stop thinking about the similarities between Beatty and George Orwell’s 1984‘s O’Brien. Through Winston’s eyes, I trusted O’Brien, and now I don’t want to make the same mistake with Beatty. However, part of me still wants to believe that Beatty is somehow still questioning the validity, truthfulness and usefulness of his job.
2. To me, Mildred represents the state of being of the majority of the population in this dystopian future. Her more or less conscious suicidal attempts, and her need to find easiness in the overflooding virtual reality of her 3D television screen, portrays a desperate cry for help, be it an aware or an unconscious one. I therefore believe she somehow can, and needs to be saved.
3. It is hard to think that Bradbury would only introduce a character like Clarisse as a secondary one, and have her die or disappear without any further information. So I kind of want to believe that we’ll see more of her in the third part of the book. However, I’ll admit that she has already performed her awaking cathartic function on Montag, therefore she might as well be gone. I guess I’ll just have to read on and see if she’ll be back…
4. I don’t think Clarisse’s family disappearance has any connection with Faber, because, if there were a “secret book organization” of which the McClellan’s were part of, I don’t believe the professor would be aware of their existence. Keeping my mind though on the connections between Fahrenheit 451 and Orwell’s 1984, I can’t stop this little voice in my head telling me not to trust anybody, and I wonder if Clarisse and her family could actually be spies.
5. I honestly wouldn’t know what to expect next. I finished reading part two with a sense of anxiety building up in me, so if I were to trust my guts, I’d say nothing good is going to happen. It would be easy to think that either Mrs Phelps or Mrs Bowles turned Montag in, but part of me strongly doubts that. I believe that it was either Captain Beatty’s own decision, or that it was professor Faber to betray him.

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions! Leave your responses in the comments below!

On the 31st of May I’ll be announcing the date and time of our next Live Book Club Chat. So follow me on Instagram if you don’t want miss out! In the meantime, keep reading, and try to get to the end of the book by the beginning of June.

Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Love,

Elly, XO

PS: You can get your copy of Fahrenheit 451 here.

 

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