Please realize that without being given the specific ISBN number, there is absolutely no way for this educator to figure out if your book matches my own. (For example, an older hardcover edition has only 159 pages while the newest 60th anniversary edition has 176 pages in hardcover and almost 250 pages in paperback.) That being said, I am going to play it safe for you and give you a detailed summary from the last half of the book including Part 2 as well as Part 3 so that you can have a decent review of the pages you have already read.
In Part 2 of Fahrenheit 451 called “The Sieve and the Sand,” the character of Montag is entranced by reading the books he has found and spends the afternoon reading them. Meanwhile, there are mysterious scratching sounds made at the door (and the war jets fly overhead). The reader is meant to suspect it is the Mechanical Hound. Millie sees Montag reading and condemns the behavior by claiming the books are meaningless because the characters aren’t human like the characters on the television.
In the effort of reading, Montag gets frustrated easily (because he is not used to that pursuit). As a result, Montag decides he needs someone to teach him and remembers the man from the park who could quote from poems and was quick to hide something. The character’s name is Faber. As Montag attempts to visit Faber on the train, he has more distractions thrust at him and is unable to memorize a book of the Bible (Ecclesiastes).
Montag does finally meet with Faber who is quite wary of the visitor. Finally, Faber decides to help Montag even though Faber thinks that the war about to begin will destroy their society which is the result of human nature and even saving the books won’t prevent history from repeating itself.
In short, Montag and Faber decide to save the books through the help of a special device to help them listen to each other. Unfortunately, Montag goes home to more frustration from Millie who is entertaining the bland and “soulless” Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles. Montag decides to force them to hear Arnold’s “Dover Beach” and then throws the women out. In his great frustration, Montag flees back to the fire house only to hear the alarm again. The firemen head straight to Montag’s house.
In “Burning Bright” (Part 3 of Fahrenheit 451), the firemen arrive at Montag’s house to find Millie leaving forever. Faber continues to try to help Montag through their special listening device, but Captain Beatty discovers the new piece of technology and removes it from Montag’s ear. Further, Captain Beatty has Montag burn down his own home. Not quite knowing what he is doing, Montag kills Captain Beatty and maims the Mechanical Hound with the flamethrower. Unfortunately, Montag is already injected with some of the hound’s anesthetic before it is destroyed.
Montag flees through the back alleys of the city (trying to save any books he can find). He decides to go through with his original idea of sabotaging other firemen, such as Black, by placing a few books in his home. At Faber’s house, the two confirm that the war has begun and that Montag is being pursued. Because of this the two change their trajectory: Faber heads to the printer named St. Louis and Montag heads for the country. Montag is able to confuse the Mechanical Hound by jumping into the river. Montag floats down the river as the hound heads back into town. After leaving the river, Montag meets a small group of people who figure out who he is and offer to help him. One of these characters, Granger, gives Montag a potion that will confuse the hound further. The group watches the television as the manhunt concludes with the death of the wrong man (simply so the people watching can feel closure).
Granger and the group of people helping Montag are called “book covers” because each of them have committed a particular book to memory. In this way, they plan to use the oral tradition to pass on the value of reading and the specific knowledge from those books. It turns out that the time is now. Bombs hit the city, and the group turns back ready to share their information. The end of the book finds the character of Montag finally remembering much of Ecclesiastes from the Bible.
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