In "The Sieve and the Sand", Montag's wife, Mildred, invites some of her friends over to watch parlor programs. Montag, growing increasingly skeptical of society, decides to shut off the parlor and attempt to draw some conversation out of the women. Their responses infuriate him, despite Faber attempting to calm him over the ear-radio they share, and Montag calls them "monsters talking about monsters", taking particular issue with "the way" they talk about things.
The three subjects the women talk about are the war, their children, and politics. None of the women seem to have any regard for the danger of the war, attempting to keep up a cheerful attitude that it will be over in two days, with no casualties of any personal importance to them. One is repulsed at the thought of children, but the other says she had two by cesarean section (despite being fully capable of giving birth, but not wanting to be inconvenienced) and that now she puts her children in school most of the time, and when they're at home she puts them in the parlor. Finally, the women reveal that their primary considerations in the previous presidential election were the personal appearances of the candidates, treating it more as a beauty contest and wondering why a short, fat man would ever be considered a match for a tall one.
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