Hearth and Salamander
Guy Montag: GM
Clarisse McClellan: CM
Chapter 1 (pages 3-31)
GM is a fireman who takes pride in his work and enjoys it as well. He burns all kind of books (in this futuristic
world books are illegal). He has been a fireman since he was 20 (10 years)
At the beginning of the chapter, GM and his squad are burning books(pg 3)
Books are banned: reason: probably because books encourage free thinking and personal opinion, and the
government wants everyone to think the same and “be” the same so it is easier to control them this way
At the beginning, GM accepts everything they tell him, he does not question the laws. Although he accepts
these laws, he is different from other people, and he is ready to change…CM is the igniter that makes him
start to realize the environment
GM’s uniform: salamander on the right arm, because it represents the firemen can withstand fire. Also they
wear a phoenix disc because it represents they are the “saviors” who are making the world a better place...there have
been 2 nuclear disasters and they are “rebuilding” the society...but making it “better”, like a phoenix being burnt and
being reborn from the ashes.
GM comes back to the fire station and takes a luxurious shower and then walks out of the station and takes
the flying train
It was a calm and quiet autumn night with some wind
GM’s smell of kerosene (from fire) is described by himself as “perfume” (pg 5)
After being dropped in a station close to his house, he runs into CM, his neighbor. She is described as colorful,
smells like apricots.
CM is “seventeen and crazy” (pg7)…she describes herself as this.
CM is described from GM’s perspective, as “an odd one” (pg7) because she is a vivid observer and asks a lot
of questions and is not afraid of asking them.
CM is not afraid of firemen like most people are (pg7)
GM probably likes fire itself because as a child, in a power failure, his mother found and lit the last candle and
there was a brief time of “rediscovery” and “illumination”. This was also a moment mother to son (pg7)
14. Question> CM: “Do you ever read any books you burn?”
GM: (laughing) “That’s against the Law!” (pg 8)
1. Question> CM: “Is it true that long ago firemen put out fires instead of going to start them?”
GM: “No. Houses have always been fireproof…” (pg 8)
1. Comment>CM: Tells GM that drivers (they drive super fast) do not notice grass, houses, etc…
“Environment” in general because they are jailed if they slow down.
GM: “You think too many things.” (pg 8)
1. Drivers are probably jailed if they slow down because the government does not want people to observe and
see the beauty of the environment
GM does not take time to think in these comments/questions like if he is trained to respond in a certain way or
what they told him what is right and wrong. He responds immediately
CM’s house is full of joy, lights, and people talking (family, warmth, and hearth). GM thinks this is strange and
asks what they talk about for so long.(pg 9) The lights represents: ideas, thoughts, self-expression
GM’s house is dark, gray
When CM was leaving to her house, she asks GM if he is happy
Doors of houses open by placing your hand into a glove hole (recognition)
Entering his house, GM answers to himself that he is happy
There is something in CM that makes GM think about her> the “incredible power of identification” CM has.
A. CM stands out because she is defiant
B. She asks a lot of questions and she is a vivid observer
C. She notices things others don’t because of her curiosity and questioning
D. She thinks freely
E. She is different from other girls
F. “lack” of respect (pg 8) towards GM because she asked him why he was laughing to her questions
Foreshadowing, while entering his house, GM stares at the ceiling where there is a ventilator grille and
“something lay hidden behind…” (pg10)
Foreshadowing: This strange conversation reminded him of the conversation he had with an old man he had
met in the park(pg 10)
Entering his room, GM realizes he is not happy and he “wears” happiness as a “mask” that CM had “taken”
away. (made him realize) (pg 12)
GM enters his room and hesitates and does not want to open the window or turn on the lights
While going in bed, GM feels an object by his foot and he begins to feel something is wrong.
Husband and wife sleep in separate beds
GM takes out his igniter and flicks it on; with the light he sees Mildred, his wife, and her face pale and white with
her ear thimble.
The object by GM’s foot was a crystal bottle of sleeping pills that were once filled with thirty capsules and now
it was empty. (Mildred swallowed them) (pg 13)
GM begins to panic because of his wife’s deadly state, as jet bombers flew and roared over his house. This is
foreshadowing of an upcoming war.
GM calls the “Emergency Hospital” (pg14). Two handymen from the hospital and attend and cure Mildred in
bed with two objects/machines. She was drugged so she didn’t feel pain.
1st machine: It slid down into Mildred’s stomach from her mouth like a “cobra” (page 14). It “drank up” all the sleeping
pills Mildred swallowed.
2nd machine: pumped out all of the blood from Mildred’s body and replaced it with fresh blood
The hospital did not send M.Ds because this case was easy and simple. The two handymen had a ear thimble
too
GM calls Mildred’s name to test if she would respond, but did not. GM starts to think that there are too many
people in this world and nobody knows anybody. Everyone is a stranger. GM starts to doubt and suspect the two men
who had taken out blood and placed somebody else’s blood in her that could make her worse
After one hour, Mildred’s cheeks were pink again and blood seemed to flow normally. GM finally opened the
window for the night air come in.
There is relaxed laughter and joy coming from CM’s house while other houses “ kept to themselves in the
darkness” (pg 17) GM approaches silently across his lawn to hear what they were talking about
GM enters his house and goes to sleep
When GM woke up, Mildred’s bed was empty, she had woken up and gone to the kitchen
Mildred is always wearing her seashell ear thimble and knows how to read lips to communicate without having
to unplug her ear thimble
A. The government probably invented ear thimbles to take away real world sounds and environment
Mildred appears to 1) have forgotten what had happen to her and that she ever took he sleeping pills or 2)
does not want to admit she tried to commit suicide
In the late afternoon it was raining, GM was getting dressed in his fireman uniform and he wanted to talk with
Mildred about her swallowing a lot of sleeping pills. She denied and said she would never do that
Mildred watches the “parlor walls” which are giant TV screens in the wall (they have 3). She is watching a
drama where she has to interact with the characters and say some lines from the script. Mildred is anxious in
getting the 4th parlor wall installed (pg 20) but it costs 2000 dollars and GM cannot afford that. The parlor walls and the
ear thimbles is how she spends her time, her happiness is being materialistic not intellectual. She calls the characters:
relatives and family
As GM walked out of his house, CM is walking in the center of the sidewalk with her head up so a few drops
were falling on her face. CM says the rain drops taste good. CM holds a dandelion flower in her hand that she found in
her lawn. She believes that if you rub it under your chin and if it rubs off it means you are in love. She tries it with GM
and it does not rub off, which means he is no in love, although he claims to be. When GM got a little upset about this
CM apologizes
CM goes to the psychiatrist because they make her go. “‘He says I’m a regular onion! I keep him busy peeling
away the layers.’” (pg 22) The psychiatrist wants to know why CM goes out and hike around the forest and watch birds
and collect butterflies. He also wants to know what she does in her free time: she says she sits and thinks, but doesn’t
tell them about what.
A. She probably has to go to the psychiatrist because she is “dangerous” because she is different and
has independent thoughts
CM likes to put her head back and let the rain in her mouth… “it tastes like wine”(pg23)
GM thinks CM seems much older than Mildred because she appears more mature(observer, thinker) while
Mildred behaves kid-like (she wants a 4th parlor wall, arrogant)
CM states that GM is peculiar as well, that he does not look like a firemen, different from other firemen she had
met:
A. He looks at her when she talks
B. When she said something about the moon he actually looked at the moon
C. The others would threaten her
D. He is one of the few people who “put up” with her
E. He listens
GM is in the fire department along with the other firemen. The fire department has an eight legged
“mechanical hound” whose job is to kill (not to rescue like nowadays). It has a calculator to program some commands. Th
e firemen sometimes let free some animals like rats, chickens or cats and bet each other. The beast was
“sleeping” when GM went out to look at the city. When he came back he said hello to the beast and touched it.
The hound growled and half rose to attack. GM got afraid and went up the pole, where the other firemen were
playing cards. GM claims the hound was programmed in its calculator to attack him, but Beatty, the fire department’s
captain, says GM doesn’t have enemies. The hound has showed hostility towards GM 3 times Foreshadowing: GM
then thinks about the ventilator grille in the hall of his house and what lay hidden beyond it and that someone
had “told” the hound.(pgs 24-27)
Throughout a week, GM saw CM doing “crazy” activities like: shaking a walnut tree and knitting a sweater. (pg
28) She awakens GM’s five senses.
GM feels she had known CM for so many years because they have a good connection between them and
know each other well
CM asks GM why doesn’t have kids, reason: Mildred never wanted any. CM apologizes for asking that
question
CM says that GM always sounds surprise after she tells him something (ex: that old leaves smell like
cinnamon). GM sounds surprise because he doesn’t have time to look at them before
CM helps GM realize some things and look differently at others (change the way he looked at things):
A. Houses not being fireproof
B. Long billboards
C. Dew on the grass
CM points out GM’s laugh sounds much nicer now, he is more relaxed and more like her
CM doesn’t go to school because they say she is antisocial, when she is not, she likes to talk, when it is
considered weird because all the other kids just watch the parlor walls and say that is “social”. They say she doesn’t mix
She says people nowadays kill each other. 6 of her friends have been shot and 10 died in car accidents in the
last year. Anti-social=Anti-society
School in future: 1 hour of TV, 1 hour of sports, 1 hour of transcription history, nobody asks questions, the
teacher tells you everything, which is telling you what or how to think.
CM says she likes to watch and observe people. She notices everyone talk about the same thing, nobody
talks about different things (pg 31)
CM’s uncle knows a lot about the past, how there used to be people in pictures instead of abstract pictures
like in the museum of this world.
CM’s role: change the way GM looks at the world