What Montag means when he says those things is that the
people back in the "civilized" part of the country have no real lives. Their whole
lives are illusions. This makes sense when you think about Millie's life, for example.
The only things that really matter to her are the "family" inside the parlor walls.
This is not real.
The line you mention shows this by using
these images of things that are not real, that have no substance. Montag envisions
these people eating things that can't be held, things that have no real physical
presence: shadows, steam, and vapors. This is a metaphor for the unreality of what the
people depend on. He is thinking that they are trying to live on things (like the
families in the parlor walls) that have no real
substance.
So, the whole point of this is that Montag is
reflecting on how empty and unreal the lives of the people in the cities
are.
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