fahrenheit 451
... over to Beatty and wonders if there is a specific title Beatty knows him to posses, Millie entreats him to get rid of all the books. Later, as he leaves to see about getting a copy of the Bible made before he turns the original into Beatty, he questions Millie about her beloved television characters, asking her if they love her, which they obviously cannot. She is befuddled by his questions, while he is saddened by her lack of touch with reality. Montag gets on the subway, heading for Faber's apartment. On the way, he realizes how numb to the world he has become and wonders if he'll ever regain his sense of purpose. He recalls the frustration he felt as a child when he attempted the impossible task of filling a sieve with sand. He resolves to read and memorize the Bible he carries with him before he must turn it into Beatty, but finds himself unable to retain any of what he reads, just as a sieve is unable to retain sand. He becomes increasingly frustrated as his attempts at concentration are foiled by the toothpaste jingle that is incessantly running through his head. When Montag arrives at Faber's, the nervous old man is at first hesitant to let him in, but does so after ascertaining that he is alone. As Montag tells the old professor that he is the only one who can help him now, the old man eagerly peruses the Bible. He muses about the portrayal of Christ on television and recalls that "there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go." Faber professes himself to be a coward for not having stood up in protest back when they were beginning to ban books. Montag asks Faber to help him understand his books, lamenting that society was missing something necessary to the happiness of it's people and suggesting that it was the books they had actively rid themselves of that was the missing link. Faber counters that it is not the books, but the quality that can be found in them, that society is lacking. He asserts that books are feared because they "show the pores in the face of life" and that makes people uncomfortable. What the word needs, according to Faber, is quality of information like that found in books, the leisure to analyze and understand it, and the right to act on that understanding. Montag and Faber hatch a plan to bring down the oppressive system by planting books in the homes of firemen throughout the country and calling in alarms on them, so as to shake the people's faith in the men they both fear and revere for "protecting" the nation from the dangers of books. Faber, though, retreats from it, saying that people are having too much fun to pick up their noble cause. Rather, he suggests, they should wait for the impending war to implode society so that they may start anew. The old man is obviously frustrated and disheartened by the state of affairs and feels helpless to do anything about it. Montag, in an attempt to elicit the passion that is obviously burning, however faintly, within Faber, begins tearing pages from the Bible. He is successful and after begging him to stop, Faber agrees to enlist an old friend to print copies of books for them. Montag worries that when he returns to the stadium Captain Beatty will, with his rhetoric, convince him again that burning books is a noble public service. Faber gives Montag a small, green, bullet-shaped two-way radio similar to the seashell radios Millie is so fond of. They will use this to communicate, and thereby Faber will be able to hear all that Montag does from the safety of his own home and offer Montag moral support in the face of Beatty's anti-book orations. Montag returns home and is eating alone in the kitchen when Mildred's friends, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles arrive to watch television with Millie. Montag, disturbed by the women's mindless pleasantries and lack of concern for or even awareness of the world around them, unplugs the television walls and tries to engage the women in a discussion about the impending war. Mrs. Phelps is unconcerned about her third husband, who has gone to fight, and the women quickly turn the conve...