Fahrenheit 451 Climax

Climax

"And then [Captain Beatty] was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering mannikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him." (pg119)

This moment in the story is the climax, as it held Montag faced with a life-changing choice; a man he hated stood in front of him, he had nothing left to lose, and a dangerous flamethrower in hand. Montag could have chosen to give in to all that Beatty wanted; perhaps he would have regained some forgiveness in a short while. Despite this possibility, he does make the decision to burn Captain Beatty down to nothing, and you can tell he thoroughly enjoys it. There's a bit of irony as he thinks to himself about his work well done; "You always said, don't face a problem, burn it. Well, now I've done both. Good-bye, Captain." (pg121)

As for the other two firemen present, Montag gave them the benefit of the doubt, possibly thinking they were nothing but poor men who blindly followed orders of their cruel superior.

After this incident, Montag's problems aren't over. The Mechanical Hound is still after him, but armed with his flamethrower, Montag brings it down before it's able to numb any more than one leg. Montag is surprisingly able to escape after this, even with an unusable leg and all the authorities after him (now all the authorities besides Captain Beatty, that is). Because of his decision, there is also a larger list of crimes on Montag's head, the newest addition murder. Faber, however, was only discovered by Beatty through the earpiece, which were burned together, keeping him relatively safe and unknown.