It's easy to fall into the trap of plot synopsis in an IWA, so don't. Make sure that you're analyzing the text (how Bradbury writes, in this case) rather than summarizing it (what Bradbury writes). Keep focused on the literary and rhetorical techniques he employs instead of the plot details.
We want to focus on moments in the text where the literary technique demonstrates the mentor-mentee relationship. For instance, on page 85 (81, new edition), Faber states
Now, if your suggest that we print extra books and arrange to have them hidden in firemen’s houses all over the country, so that seeds of suspicion would be sown among the arsonists, bravo, I'd say!”Montag takes Faber seriously, missing out on his verbal irony (Faber's next line includes the comment "I was joking"). Montag demonstrates, however, that he's unable to question what Faber says, just as a piece of paper cannot question what the pencil writes on it. We can analyze this in our essay as:
One place where this is evident is in the “Sieve and the Sand” section of the story. Faber employs verbal irony when he suggests that they “print extra books and arrange to have them hidden in firemen’s houses…, so the seeds of suspicion would be sown among the arsonists[. Bravo!]” Montag, like a piece of paper that cannot question what is written on it, believes Faber to be sincere in what he says.We can also use part of the story, a little earlier on page 85, where Faber remarks on a paradoxical comment Montag makes:
When Montag uses the paradox “That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want,” Faber congratulates him. He says, “There, you’ve said an interesting thing … without having read it.” In this way Faber mentors and encourages Montag, imprinting his wisdom like a pencil tracing across a piece of paper.We'll need to keep adding more evidence and more body paragraphs, but this is a good start.
Next: More Body Paragraphs!
