English Questions

"The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse." Explain the paradoxes in this sentence.

Who gets in a beetle-taxi while says, "Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now. . ."?

"Well, that's one way to get an audience. Hold a gun on a man and force him to listen to your speech. Speech away. What'll it be this time? Why don't you belch Shakespeare at me, you fumbling snob?" What is your reaction to Beatty's mockery of Montag?

The man who says his wife is reading strange books

"And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Google the first few words. What book and chapter of the Bible contain this verse?

"To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak." Which man remembers this Bible verse?

Name the first Native American who came to the Puritans and spoke broken English.

"Did you hear them, did you hear these monsters talking about monsters? . . .the way they jabber about people and their own children and themselves and the way they talk about their husbands and the way they talk about war. . ." Who says this? What does he mean?

When the firemen get a call about books in a woman's house, she says, "Play the man, Master ___, we shall this day light such a ___, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall ___ be put out."

"And we are here as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night." What do these lines say about life?

"Here we go to keep the ___ ___, Montag!" Who says this?

Faber says that instead of haggling and nagging the women, Montag should feel what emotion for them?

Why does Beatty quote literature passages which seem to contradict each other?

"It is computed, that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end." A. Use the internet to find the origin of this quote: B. How does the rebellion in this quote relate to Montag's character arc?

How are the children the same age as Clarisse different from those in her uncle's time?

Montag tells Mildred, "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long it is since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" Explain how Montag's thoughts here are the opposite of what society in Fahrenheit 451 wants people to think about.

What does Montag hope to achieve by listening to Faber through the green bullet?

"Patience, Montag. Let the war turn off the 'families.' Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge."

Explain each of these sentences spoken by Montag:A. "My wife's dying."B. "A friend of mine's already dead."C. "Someone who may have been a friend was burnt less than 24 hours ago."D. "You're the only one I knew that might help me. To see. To see. . ."

Beatty says that firemen "stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought. . .I don't think you realize how important you are, we are, to our happy world as it stands now." Do you agree with Beatty's belief that people are better of with simple entertainment instead of deep, complicated thinking? Why or why not?