"It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break eggs at the smaller end." Mildred sat across the hall from him. "What does it mean? It doesn't mean anything!" In the Fahrenheit 451 society, rules are the cornerstone of how they live their lives. People of this society like Mildred cannot imagine risking their life or stopping it because they don’t want to live without something that was prohibited. Books. Forbidden. People like Montag and Faber would break the rules and risk everything just to protect books and all the knowledge and power they hold. People like Mildred and Captain Beatty cannot fathom breaking the common idea and would never risk their life to help urge on greater cause. …show more content…
We see it portrayed in Montags thoughts, actions, and the ideals of the society as a whole. We also see the idea of this theme in Part 1: The Hearth and the Salamander. Montag sees this play out when he follows an alarm to a woman’s house to burn her books. He went in, did his job, and burned everything. Montag was so alarmed at the fact that the woman would not leave the burning house but rather would choose death over a life without her books. This woman’s actions, I think, unlocked Montag’s pent up wonderments and caused a chain reaction of him rebelling and breaking the rules to save the powerful knowledge. Her dedication to the cause made him think about why she would sacrifice