Montag

Overall Summary of Entire Novel Guy Montag is a fireman in charge of burning books. A gentle young girl named Clarisse McClellan opens his eyes to the emptiness of his life with her innocently penetrating questions and peculiar love of people and nature. After his wife, Mildred, attempts suicide without even realizing what she is doing, after he witnesses an old woman let herself be burned with her books, and after he hears that Clarisse …

…of some help to mankind in the aftermath of the war that has just been declared. Enemy jets appear in the sky and drop their bombs on the city, which is instantly vaporized. Montag and the others turn and head up the river to see if they can help the survivors, and Montag knows he will soon follow the other refugees out into the countryside, where there will always be plenty to keep him fulfilled.