Which particular section of the novel are you talking
about? Do you mean towards the beginning when Clarisse and Montag walk together for the
first time? One of the quotes that Montag actually says during this conversation is the
official slogan of the firefighters, that, as you can guess, refers to their job in this
dystopian world:
Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday
Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official
slogan.
There is a slight
irony in this slogan, as really they obviously don't burn the authors themselves, but
their books, and their is a slight jaunty tone added to the slogan in the way that the
days of the week share the first letter of the author whose works are burnt on that day.
However, what is important to note is the way that the total destruction of these books
is referred to, so that even the ashes themselves are burnt again once the books have
been converted into ashes. We are presented with a society whose desire it is to
completely eradicate the presence of any books at all, and the slogan of the
firefighters only serves to confirm this.
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