Inner Thoughts

Author's Note:

This is my response to the passage "Montag said nothing, but stood looking at the women's facing as he had once looked at the faces of saints in a strange church he had entered when he was a child.  The faces of those enameled creatures meant nothing to him though he talked to them and stood in that church for a long time, trying to be of the religion trying to know what that religion was, trying to get enough of the raw incense and special dust of the place into his lungs and thus into his blood to feel touched and concerned my the meaning of the colorful men and women with the porcelain eyes and bloody ruby lips." for tone, meaning and purpose.

Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

Page 95

This passage, from Fahrenheit 451, illustrates how Montag feels as though he should and has to be like everyone else around him, but knows that he cannot.  It personifies the materials in the church, trying to reach him, trying to make him like the rest of the crowd, but failing.  Its purpose is to show that certain feelings and thoughts can be buried or burned or destroyed, though they will never completely disappear.  The tone of this passage seems desperate, almost as though Montag still wants to be regular or normal; it seems as though Montag detests the thoughts he's pondering and the emotions he's feeling .  Overall, I feel that this passage clearly shows the reader Montag's inner thoughts and the reason behind his feelings.