During the card game at the fire station, Montag asks a question. What is it, and how does it prove pivotal?

By the first card game that we witness, Clarisse has already influenced Montag more than he can know. Montag has already become more introspective about the world, about his life. Montag asks Captain Beatty if "it was always like this". Montag wants to know if burning books had always been the fireman's role in society. The other men are shocked at Montag's question. It is countercultural in a world where the culture is written in stone.For Montag, it is the beginning of his awakening. Montag's rebellion against manufactured truth in an autocratic society is about to begin.