Fahrenheit 451: Burning Bright

I feel like the third section of Fahrenheit 451 changed a lot from the first two sections, especially in its tone.  The tone of "Burning Bright" is more suspenseful and unpredictable than the tone of the other two parts.  As I read on, I found myself anxiously anticipating what would happen next--would Montag get caught while he was running away from the scene of the crime?  what would happen to him after he floated down the river?  I feel dissatisfied that the end of the book never expounds on what happened to Montag or Mildred or the city or Faber; instead, Mr. Bradbury leaves the rest of the story up to our imaginations, I suppose.  I wish I knew if Faber and Montag ever find each other again, or where Granger, Montag, and the band of hobos end up after they reach the city. I am also sad to say that Clarisse McClellan seems to actually be dead; I was wrong about her being kidnapped by Central Intelligence for knowing too much.

I found it interesting that at the beginning of part 3, Montag takes the flamethrower to his entire house, and he willingly torches everything because he wanted to "change everything."  But later when Montag finds Granger and the other hobo intellectuals in the woods, they are huddled around a fire, and for the first time, Montag realizes that fire is multifaceted in the sense that it can be used not only for clean, thorough destruction, but also for warmth and for light.  I believe that this realization is what the title "Burning Bright" refers to--when Montag sees fire used for good, he sees the men who believe as he does, and he develops a hope for the future.  There is a light at the end of his dismal tunnel, and it is burning bright.

Once again, Mildred is pretty much the worst.  She turns her own husband in for having books in his possession, has their house burned down, and leaves, probably forgetting about him as soon as she gets a short distance down the street.  Once Montag is out of town, he acknowledges that he does not miss her and would not feel sad if she died, yet he keeps bringing her up.  He knows that she feels the same way about him, but even so, he thinks about her during the war and imagines exactly how she dies.  He keeps repeating "Poor Millie, poor Millie."  This confused me, because if he really did not care about Mildred like he said, he probably would not be so concerned.  Why does he continue to waste time thinking about this slovenly, awful woman after all the things she has done to him?

As I said before, I do wish the ending of Fahrenheit 451 had been a little less up for interpretation, a little more clear, but I did enjoy this book.  Ray Bradbury is a brilliant man and I was surprised at how many similarities there are between his dystopia and our society today.  I have a new perspective on book censorship, the media, and books in general, all thanks to Fahrenheit 451.