Fahrenheit 451: The Sieve and the Sand

The Sieve and the Sand is the second portion of Fahrenheit 451. At the beginning of the section Montag and his wife Mildred are reading some of his stolen books. (It was revealed in the earlier section that Montag has stolen a lot more than one book. He asks Mildred's help in finding a meaning in the books.) Mildred is always protesting about reading the books. She is afraid of them, and all she wants to do is watch her three television walls.

As Montag reads some of the books he becomes very confused. He is reading the words, but he has no idea what they mean. To better understand what he is reading Montag calls a man he met earlier. He calls a man named Faber. Faber is an old english teacher. Montag met him in the park a while back. He saw that he was reading a book, and he asked him about it. They both soon began to trust eachother, so Faber gave Montag his adress and phone number just in case he wanted to call about some books.

When Montag calls Faber and asks about some books, Faber hangs up on him because he thinks he is messing with him. After that failure, Montag goes to Faber's house. He brings a book, so Faber will not think he is trying to do something to him. Montag asks Faber if he can help him understand what is going on in the book that he is reading. He is reading the Bible. Faber finally agrees to help Montag, so he gives him an earpiece. The earpiece is there so that Faber can tell things to Montag through it, and, in turn, Faber can hear what Montag is saying.

Montag goes home and sees that Mildred has two friends over. They are watching TV. Big surprise. Montag turns off the TV, and he tries to have a conversation with the women. He takes out a book of poems and reads some of it to them. They women become frightened. Midred explains that every fireman can take one book home a year to show to their families how terrible they are. After many attempts from Faber to convince Montag to agree, he finally does. The women leave the house in fright.

Montag then sees that his wife has been burning some of his books. He re-hides them in the backyard.

Montag finally goes back to work and brings a book with him for the chief. Beatty takes the book and throws it in the trash. He then talks to Montag in quotes from many books. He explains how bad literature is. All of this confuses Montag. They then get a call to set a fire. The call is for Montag's house.