Thursday, July 18, 2013

What external conflict does Faber have in Fahrenheit 451?

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Faber is an ex-professor of English who acts as a mentor to the protagonist, Guy Montag. You could say that Faber's overarching external conflict is with the entire society of Fahrenheit 451—in his conversations with Montag, he points out the shallowness and emptiness of modern life and critiques the fireman system, the media, and the decline of reading and books. In this way, Faber and Montag can be said to share an external, person vs. society conflict that brings them together. Faber also comes into an external, person vs. person conflict with Montag when Montag reads "Dover Beach" to Mildred and her friends in spite of Faber's pleas (via the "green bullet") for him to stop.


Faber's main external, person vs. society conflict comes to a head the night Montag takes shelter in his house with the Mechanical Hound on his trail. If the Hound tracks Montag all the way there, Faber's life as well as Montag's will be in danger, and the firemen will, at the very least, burn Faber's home and his books. Before he flees, Montag tells Faber to clean all the surfaces that Montag has touched and to turn on the sprinklers to get rid of his scent. On his way to the river, Montag looks through the windows of houses at their "parlor walls," which are all broadcasting the manhunt. He watches the Hound pause outside Faber's house, where the sprinklers are indeed running, and then continue on its way, so we know Faber survives that particular external conflict.


After seeing the city he has fled decimated in the bombing, Montag thinks to himself that at least Faber has already left on the early morning bus—but that it's likely Faber's destination has been destroyed as well. Though we don't know what happens to Faber after this, we can surmise that a whole new external conflict awaits the ex-professor as he, like Montag and his new companions, sets out into this changed world.

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