Fahrenheit 451 short summary of the novel part 1
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Section 1
Summary
The story is set in a grim and futuristic United States. Guy Montag is a fireman. In this world, his job means that he burns books. At the opening of the book, we read a short description of how much pleasure he takes in the job at this point. He wears a black uniform adorned with a salamander on the arm, a helmet with the number 451 (this is the temperature at which paper burns), and a “phoenix disc” on his chest. While making his way home from the fire station, he has a sense of nervous anticipation. After he suspects a nearby presence, he comes across his new neighbor. It is Clarisse McClellan, a seventeen-year-old who is both unique and inquisitive. Clarisse immediately realizes that he is a fireman and appears to be fascinated by his uniform and by him himself. She says that she is “crazy,” and she goes on to suggest that firemen’s original duty was to put out fires rather than to start them. She asks him questions about his job, and she informs him that she has a strange family that does odd things such as talk to one another and walk to places. In this society, being a pedestrian is illegal.
Clarisse’s oddness causes Guy to feel nervous, and he finds himself constantly laughing. In different ways, she reminds him of a mirror, a clock, and candlelight. He cannot stop himself from feeling in a way attracted to her. He finds her fascinating. Her strange questions, shocking lifestyle, insightful perceptions, and “incredible power of identification” interest him. She asks whether he is happy and then goes back into her house. Thinking about this absurd inquiry, he goes into his house and thinks about this puzzling stranger and her understanding of his “innermost trembling thought.”