Boldness and Bravery

Things start to get a little more interesting in Fahrenheit 451 after Clarisse "disappears." As if given a shot of boldness and bravery, Montag begins questioning the duties of the firemen, and he steals a book. Readers then learn that he has been stealing books for years from the houses they burn down. Montag decides to finally let his wife see that he has been doing this, and she freaks out.

I think the disappearance of Clarisse gave Montag a little bit more bravery for some reason. Instead of just hiding in the corner all the time, he started to actually let his opinions be known. He was kind of dumb about it, though. He would bring up questions about the origins of firefighting right in front of his entire fire squad, when he probably should have just talked to one person. If you bring up something sketchy in front of a lot of people, it makes the issue more known, and more people get to sit back and think about it. Therefore, there are a lot more people who may be against you and can gang up on you. In a society such as Montag's, that would be enough to get you killed.

I also think it was extremely dumb to tell Mildred about his hidden forbidden books. I do not know if he was trying to somehow make their relationship stronger or something by sharing his darkest secret, but it obviously did not work. Mildred was against the whole idea; she was one of their community's most brainwashed citizens. I do not understand why Montag felt the need to tell her! The two barely got along anyway, so why did he even trust her? I sure would not have. He did not love her, he did not trust her, he did not care about her, yet he let her in on his biggest secret, one that could also get him killed. Good move, Montag.