Faber: Voice of Reason?

Faber was a vital character in contributing to Montag’s curiosity about books. Unlike Beatty, who says books allow one person to sense that they excel over others and cause everyone else to feel inferior, Faber says that books allow a person to think and reason about the information they have just read. He also explains that books allow people to think freely instead of being persistent and dominating like the “family.”

Montag first meets Faber when he is walking in the park. He catches Faber with a book and only after reassuring him that he is safe does Faber talk to him. Faber gives Montag his address and phone number with the option of befriending him or turning him in. Montag goes to Faber’s house after obtaining what he believed to be the last copy of the Bible. Faber then tells him, “It’s as good as I remember. Lord, how they changed it in our ‘parlors’ these days. Christ is one of the ‘family’ now” (81). What Faber means by this is that the “family” is a substitute for books. Books used to be the primary source for information, but now new media has taken over.

Montag is so used to being dependent on others to tell him how he should live his life that he looks to Faber for advice. Faber takes Montag under his wing so that he can live his life through him, seeing how easily influenced Montag is. Faber tells Montag that it is not books that he is looking for, but the meaning that they contain and what he feels about those meanings. He then gives Montag an earpiece that permits them to communicate with each other discretely. Faber tells Montag what to say when Beatty attacks him by quoting different literary works. After Beatty sees that Montag is listening to something in his ear, he knocks the earpiece out and threatens to trace it. Montag kills him with the flamethrower and flees to Faber’s house. Faber instructs Montag to follow the abandoned railroad tracks to hide. Here he finds a new “family.”

Montag rebelled against everything that the government told him to be with Faber’s help. Was Montag’s choice in befriending Faber the right choice to make? Did the knowledge that Faber gave Montag help him to achieve freedom and happiness in the end?