Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand

Sections 1-3

Pages: 1 – 23%

Setting: At the Montags, in the green park, in the subway

Time: The same afternoon in November

Character(s): Guy, Mildred, Faber

Summary: Guy continues to read from the books. The TV room with the three TV walls is turned off. Mildred is very nervous and thinks this is all a bad idea. She doesn't understand what the point of reading books is when you have television for entertainment. Outside the apartment door, the two notice a mechanical tracking dog. Guy hears the bombers flying outside and wonders if the rumors of war are true: He has heard rumors that the rest of the world is starving while the people of the USA have enough to eat, and that in the rest of the world people have to work hard while people in the USA are enjoying themselves.

He believes he can learn from the books how to prevent such wars. Because books, unlike the TV program, address problems such as wars. Guy believes that people can learn from books not to keep repeating the same mistakes of human history.

Guy remembers that once in the green park he met a man named Faber, a former professor of English literature. Faber became unemployed 40 years ago when the philosophy department at the university was closed. That day in the green park, he philosophized and quoted poetry and secretly offered Guy a book of poems, but Guy did not accept. He gave Guy his contact details.

Guy calls Faber and asks him how many copies of the Bible are left. Faber says there are none left and hangs up. Guy wants to deliver the Bible, the last book he saved, to Beatty so that he will ...