Clarisse!.
's questions leave Montag fascinated with her because of the things she thinks of such as, happiness, love, and most importantly what is in the books he burns.
Montag, at first tries to push away the questions and comments that were spoken about with Clarisse, but he can not stop thinking of her. The rising action begins after reaching his house where Montag finds his wife, Mildred,(or Millie for short) lying next to a bottle of empty sleeping pills, weather they were accidentally or purposely consumed Montag didn't know. He managed to save his wife by calling the emergency squad to have her stomach pumped. The next morning Montag questions his wife about the previous night, and her action, she becomes uninterested in talking with him and avoids answering anything incriminating ".I didn't do that, never in a billion years." (49), then goes about her business; watching television1. Montag leaves for work, unsatisfied with his wife's response.
When he gets to work he immediately encounters the mechanical hound2, who growls at him as he passes. He quickly tells his superior, Captain Beatty, about the encounter with the hound. Beatty is the antagonist in the story. He is well read and uses his knowledge of books as a weapon to fight curiosity about them. Beatty can almost smell disloyalty among his workers,and begins to suspect Montag of wrong doing. "It doesn't like me" (56) Montag says, Beatty "assumes" it is a mistake, and reminds Montag that it doesn't have the capabilities to like or dislike, it simply just follows orders. He tells Montag to forget about it, he will have it checked out. Guy tries to forget, but the intensity of the machine lingers in his mind.
Several days pass before Montag speaks with the young girl, Clarisse, which he had met the night Mildred overdosed on sleeping pills. On the day that Montag is growled at by the hound, Clarisse is there to greet him after work.
