What are direct quotes from Fahrenheit 451 that give insight into Montag?

The following quotes were picked in chronological order to show Montag's dynamic journey from being a fireman who burns books to a reader who wants to defend them:

"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed" (3).

The above passage demonstrates that Montag starts out being all things fireman. He likes his job; he fulfills his duties; and he doesn't think twice about it. Once he meets Clarisse, though, things change. She starts to make him think about what firemen used to really do. Montag slips at work, though, and wonders these things aloud as in the following quote:

"Montag hesitated. 'Was--was it always like this? The firehouse ,our work? I mean, well, once upon a time. . .'

'Once upon a time!' Beatty said. 'What kind of talk is that?'" (34).

This vocal slip lets his boss Captain Beatty know what he's probably already been guessing--that Montag is reading. No one would have used that phrase without having read some fairy tales.

"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing" (51).

A turning point for Montag, though, is when a lady burns herself with her books and her house. It is unfathomable to Montag for someone actually to choose to die by fire all in protest over some books! When once he dabbled in reading, now he wants to know what books can really offer him; and, he wants to see if they have something that will improve his life.

"Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense" (82).

Montag's life, he realizes, is depressing because he doesn't have children, he doesn't know and love his wife like he feels he should, and he doesn't know what direction he should be heading. He's amazed that TV and radio have distracted him and his wife so much that they have forgotten how, when, and where they first met.

"'Well,' said Beatty, 'now you did it. Old Montag wanted to fly near the sun and now that he's burnt his damn wings, he wonders why'" (113).

This last quote finds Montag caught for his crimes of owning and reading books. Again, these five quotes could be used to show Montag's dissention from being a law-abiding fireman to a criminal within Bradbury's dystopian society.

How did we preserve food when we didn't have electric fridges?

The main reason food needed to be preserved before the advent of electric refrigerators was to slow the action of bacteria and mold which caused food to spoil and could even be dangerous to people who ate the food.

One method was pickling surplus vegetables. By placing cucumbers for example, in a brine with salt and vinegar and spices and then placing in vacuum sealed jars, the pickled items would last a very long time.

If it was cold during the winter months, ice could be put into an "ice box" in a large chunk to keep foods cool. Streams could be used to keep beverages and food cool and if a cave was nearby, their naturally cool and stable environments are ideal to keep food from spoiling. Produce could be stored in a cool, dry environment such as in a cellar or basement to extend how long fresh produce or canned items could last.

Salting was another method of preservation. By salting and thus drying the food, it prevented the food from spoiling and slowed bacterial action. Salted codfish can still be bought today and when ready to use, it can be washed and soaked to remove the salt and soften it once again before cooking.

Drying meat to make beef jerky as an example, could allow the food to last very long and it could be eaten that way, or reconstituted when soaked in water. Produce like beans can be stored when dried for many months and fruits can be dried out and stored for a very long time as well.

Smoking meats has long been a method of preservation. Items like bacon, ham, fish and others are made by smoking over a low flame for a very long time. The smoking is a preservative which extends the shelf life of meats.

Using the action of microbes, fermentation is a process which can extend the shelf life of foods. An example is the making of wine from grapes or beer from grains. The alcohol produced by fermentation performed by microbes known as yeasts can allow these beverages to last a very long time. Fermented foods are also healthy-- sauerkraut can be made with lactic acid bacteria which are able to ferment the cabbage because starch and sugar are present in the leaves. The sauerkraut can last a longer length of time than the fresh cabbage would and can be stored.

The production of jelly or jam with some of the excess fruit crop would be used to preserve rather than have to discard fruit that spoiled quickly. The fruit would be boiled with sugar and cooked down and later placed in jars which were vacuum sealed. These fruits would be preserved for later use and would not easily spoil. 

These are some methods people used before refrigeration and to a great extent still use today in the constant struggle to maintain our food supply.

What was Johnson's role in the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society?

President Johnson played a critical role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the development of the Great Society programs. When John F. Kennedy was President, he had little success in getting a civil rights bill passed. Kennedy didn’t have the same support and leverage with Congress that Johnson had. Kennedy didn’t campaign for Democrats running for office in the election of 1960, so he had few favors to call in from elected officials, especially on civil rights bills that were considered controversial at the time. Johnson, however, knew how to work with Congress and had many favors owed to him by other elected officials. President Johnson insisted that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a way to honor the legacy of President Kennedy.

President Johnson developed the blueprint for the Great Society programs. He wanted to be viewed in the same positive manner that Franklin D. Roosevelt was viewed when it came to helping people by developing government programs. Therefore, President Johnson helped to develop various programs to help those in need. These programs included the Medicare and the Medicaid programs, which provided health insurance to the elderly and the poor. The Head Start program was also one of Johnson’s Great Society programs. This gave disadvantaged kids a chance to start school early. The Voting Rights Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act were other examples of Great Society programs that helped people. The Great Society tried to make life better for those who were disadvantaged or mistreated in life.

President Johnson was responsible for getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, and the Great Society programs launched.

What is text evidence that describes the setting of Divergent by Veronica Roth?

The setting of Divergent is revealed in the first chapter while Tris and her brother Caleb are riding the bus to school. As the first-person narrator, Tris describes the bus ride and briefly mentions what she sees.

The first clue she gives is that she can see the building they call the Hub, but that used to be called the Sears Tower. In Chicago today, the Sears Tower is known as the Willis Tower; the skyscraper's name was changed from Sears to Willis in 2009.

The second clue is in the very same paragraph. Tris mentions the bus traveling under the elevated train tracks that run all over the city. Anyone that has been to Chicago has surely seen, or even ridden, the "L" train, which is a system of elevated tracks that carry passengers to every corner of the city and beyond. 

What events lead to the two hangings that author Elie Wiesel describes in Night?

In Night, author Elie Wiesel describes two hangings that were particularly troubling for him. For the most part, the prisoners are so used to death that it is a part of their lives, but these trouble many of them because they involve a youth and a child. 

The first one happened soon after the camp was bombed by the Allies. A youth from Warsaw who had been in concentration camps for three years was brought before the other prisoners and led to the gallows. The head of the camp read aloud the verdict,

"In the name of Himmler...prisoner Number...stole during the alert...According to the law...paragraph...prisoner Number...is condemned to death. May this be a warning and an example to all prisoners" (Wiesel 59)

So, he was hanged for stealing--most likely food--during the earlier bombing.

The second hanging involved the Oberkapo, who was Dutch and had over seven hundred prisoners working under him, and his pipel--a young boy who served him. Most pipel were hated because of their cruelty, but this one, like the Oberkapo, was well-loved by everyone. Both of them were to be hanged because awhile back, the electrical power building at Buna was blown to bits, and the Gestapo traced the action back to the Oberkapo and the boy. Both of them refused to talk even though they were tortured for weeks. The Oberkapo was eventually sent to Auschwitz and probably gassed, but the young boy was hanged in front of all the prisoners at Buna along with two other men, whose crimes we are not told. This was one of the worst horrors Elie Wiesel witnessed in the camps.

Is Daisy as great as Gatsby thinks she is?

Daisy is not as great as Gatsby thinks she is. First, he has inflated her in his mind to such mythic proportions that no real woman could possibly live up to his expectations. Nick notes this on the afternoon that Daisy and Gatsby are finally reunited after five years:

Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything.

Second, even if Gatsby had not built Daisy up in his mind as the symbol of all his desires, she simply was not a person of great character. She was weak. Near the end, after her flirtation with Gatsby, she went back to Tom, despite all his adulteries. As Nick puts it:

the dead dream ... slipped away ... whater intentions, whatever courage she [Daisy] had had, were definitely gone.

At the end of the novel, Daisy lets Gatsby take the blame for running over Mrytle, even though she was the one driving his car.

Finally, she doesn't show up for Gatsby's funeral, even though he arguably laid down his life for her. Nick writes:

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money ...

The novel might show Daisy to be unworthy, but it both exalts and critiques the idea of having a dream: in fact, such dreams, for better or for worse, are at the heart of what America is and has always been, Nick Carraway maintains.  

What causes the shiny, clean line on the otherwise dull wire of Scout's costume?

The shiny, clean line found on Scout's ham costume came from the knife of Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell, Maycomb's most despicable character, carried a grudge against Atticus since Tom Robinson's trial. Bob Ewell threatened to seek revenge on Atticus for exposing the ugly truth that Mayella, Bob's daughter, tempted Tom Robinson, and Bob physically assaulted his daughter after finding out. On Halloween night, Jem and Scout were leaving from the school's auditorium following an organized Maycomb Haloween event, which included a pageant entitled Maycomb County: Ad Astra Per Aspera. Scout played the role of a ham in the pageant which displayed Maycomb's agricultural products. Mrs. Crenshaw made her costume out of bent chicken wire and brown cloth to resemble a ham. Scout's bulky costume hampered her movement but acted as a protective barrier during Ewell's attack. After examining Scout's battered costume following the attack, Sheriff Tate says, "This thing probably saved her life." (Lee 360)