Have you ever changed your opinion on something? If so, then you would be in the same boat as Guy Montag. Montag, a character from the novel Fahrenheit 451, transforms from being a book burner into a book activist. In part 1 of the novel Montag is a dedicated fireman, who enjoys burning books for a living. In Montags society, it's a normal event to have books burned. Montag states, "It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed." When he says that he's expressing his love and excitement for burning books. Montag did not think twice about his job, he had no remorse for his actions. He did not think at all, until he met Clarrise Meclellan. Clarrise was a character in the novel who was not like the basic member of society. Clarissa took time to think about things that other people failed to even realize. The night Montag met Clarrise she asked him a question that made him mad but made him think. She asked, "Are you happy?" . This made him realize he wasn't happy with the way he was living his life. After this encounter, Montag started being more curious about things such as : his growing friendship with Clarrise, and his ignorance about books and their value. Montag's curiosity got the best of him and he did something that the society did not condone. He realized he valued the books enough to steal them. …show more content…
He didn't quite understand why he did it though. Montag says, " So it was the hand that started it all." He believes that this his brain had nothing to do with the decisions, but that his hands with free will,grabbed the book. Montag is now transforming into a new person. He reveals himself and his wrong doings to Mildred, his wife, and she doesn't know how to react or accept the news. Montag becomes distant to her and the rest of the people in his society. Now, Montag is free of the society's
The passage above is talking about how a woman burnt herself to save her books. The passage suggests how people fight for what they want. When the author included this event, he was trying to show how Montag starts to change. Guy Montag begins to doubt his job, and believes that he is not doing the correct thing, he realizes he is causing harm. Montag didn't understand why someone would sacrifice their life for a book, but the only way to figure that out was to read. The author made Montag curious of the event, and that's how he introduced his passion to books.
The novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury correlates with the 2002 film "Minority Report" because of the similarities between characters, setting and imagery, and thematic detail.
The first line of the book reads, “It was a pleasure to burn” continued with, “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1). Clearly Montag enjoys his work and seems to have no remorse for what he is doing and the damage he is causing by burning the book.
As I have mentioned, Montag is like all the others at the commencement of the novel: loving his job, never questioning an authority that has never given him any reason to obey. This all changes though when, while walking home from work, he encounters a young girl named Clarisse, who, through her innocence and oblivion to the world around her, shows him that society is crumbling around him and that he can be a part of the solution, not as everyone else is-the problem. For the first time in his life, he questions what he sees around him: his wife overdosing on pills, Clarisse getting hit by a speeding car and killed, and even the book burning which he does every night for money. Or was it amusement? Either way, curiosity gets the better of him as he "steals" a book from a raging fire during one of his raids.
Books are banned by the government in the dystopian society that brings the unstable perspective of not knowing what is good and what is wrong. The people of this society think that books will take away their happiness and ruin their lives. However, the government hides a secret that it uses to gain control over the citizens and change their minds. At the beginning of the book, Montag starts off by revealing his perspective on burning, “It was a pleasure to burn” (1). At this point it wasn’t clear who said this but whoever it was, they seemed to like burning.
His job as a fireman is not the usual one. He is to find out of anyone in the community that has a book of any kind, a copy, anything and when they are found they must burn the house to the ground. By this time, at the end of the novel, Montag has fled the town in fear of getting killed. The town was going downhill fast.
In the end of the book we learn that the city Montag once lived in has been destroyed. It’s here where we get the end result of Montag, the man who once took special pleasure in destroying books now takes pleasure in preserving them. If not for Clarisse who opened his eyes to the truth through questioning life, or Faber who revealed the truth and magic in the books, and Granger who taught Montag how to preserve the books Montag could have very well been a victim of his cities destruction. It’s clear that Montag was heavily influenced by these three Individuals changing him from a once law abiding citizen of the futuristic government to a refugee of the law discovering reasons worth fighting for regardless of outcome.
He seems to be content in his life and is infatuated by his job. The opening line in the novel is from Montag’s view point and says, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” (Bradbury, 1). The reader is led to believe Montag believes whole heartedly in what he does for a living. However, when Bradbury introduces Montag’s first antagonist, Clarisse McClellan, Montag begins to question aspects of his life. Clarisse is young, full of ideas, different from the rest of society, asks a lot of questions, and has her own views of life. Clarisse was interesting and brought light to their dark world. The second antagonist is Montag’s wife, Mildred. Mildred on the other hand is not quite as interesting. She is egocentric, unhappy, and concerned only about the walls (televisions) in her home and the characters from the shows being referred to as family. Beatty, Montag’s boss, would be the third antagonist of the novel and he is portrayed as a loud over bearing man. When Clarisse McClellan dies and Montag is forced to burn books, a home, and the occupant that refuses to leave, Montag goes through a change in character. This is the point where the reader would categorize Montag as a round character. Montag begins to question his life, work, society, and all that surround him. Montag had actually been sneaking books from fires over the past year out of curiosity but had never actually read them up until this point. Montag goes against all that firefighters believe in and starts to read the banned books. Mildred filled with fear of discovery and retaliation begs Montag to not bring about such a risk. However, against his wife’s wishes, Montag chose not to listen. Montag got a professor named Faber to help him better understand the books he was reading and that is when Montag realized
People nowadays have lost interest in books because they see it as a waste of time and useless effort, and they are losing their critical thinking, understanding of things around them, and knowledge. Brown says that Bradbury suggests that a world without books is a world without imagination and its ability to find happiness. The people in Fahrenheit 451 are afraid to read books because of the emotions that they will receive by reading them and claim them as dangerous. Bradbury hopes to reinstate the importance of books to the people so that they can regain their “vital organ of thinking.” In Fahrenheit 451, Montag steals a book when his hands act of their own accord in the burning house, regaining his ability to read and think on his own (Bradbury 34-35; Brown 2-4; Lee 3; Patai 1, 3).
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
“Behind his mask of conformity, Montag gradually undergoes a change of values. Montag realized his life had been meaningless without books” (Liukkonen). In the beginning of the novel, Montag said, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). For most of his life, Montag conformed just like the other members of society. He set things on fire because it was his job and did not question whether or not it was the right thing to do. Throughout the story, however, he grew to find and voice his own opinions and resisted the conformity that his society stressed. When Montag had to decide whether or not to burn Beatty to death, he proved himself by not giving in to what was expected. He killed the captain of the police department, which was an entirely defiant act (Bradbury
The stress of the situation made him appear old and frail, “then his eyes touched on the book under Montag’s arm and he did not look so old anymore and not quite as fragile. Slowly, his fear went” (Bradbury 76). How ironic that in a society that shuns religion or any symbols of God, the Bible proves to be the item that opens the door further for Montag to assess his deepest feelings. Faber agrees to help in exchange for keeping this last known copy of the bible. Faber’s help propels Montag towards his full self-discovery. Mildred is another character who helps in the process, although from a negative perspective. She is a picture perfect example of everything that is wrong with this society. She kicks a book and yells: “books aren’t people. You read and I look all around, but there isn’t anybody!” (Bradbury 69). Her disdain for books is not the only contribution she makes, her comments about family really open Montag’s eyes to the reality of this society’s artificiality. Referring to the television screens and the characters on it, Mildred says: “My family is people. They tell me things; I laugh, they laugh! And the colors” (Bradbury 69). During this encounter, Montag realizes that his own wife does not consider him a part of his family. Strangely enough, this frees Montag from any attachment to his present way of life and he feels unencumbered to pursue to his final
He is a firefighter, but instead of putting out fires, he burns books. To the government in his society, books are a threat to their power and are now illegal. Montag soon is exposed to this truth, and attempts to change the way fellow citizens in the society think. His first attempt to expose the wrongs in their society is to show books to his wife, Mildred. “‘Millie! he said. ‘Listen. Give me a second, will you? We can’t do anything. We can’t burn these. I want to look at them, at least look at them once’” (Page 63). Mildred is very close minded, and follows the ways of the society. She sits in front of the TVs in the house all day, and is happy with her way of life. Unlike Montag, Mildred does not bother to question how society functions. After this failed attempt, Montag turns to Faber, who was a professor at a university. He brings a book, the Bible, with him, onto the train. “There were people on the suction train but he held the book in his hands and the silky thought came to him, if you read fast and read all, maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve” (Page 74). All the books Montag has collected
One of the main reasons that Montag changed so drastically over the course of the book was his curiosity. Montag spent a lot of time thinking about his job and started questioning everything he was doing. He starts wondering why books need to be burned and why things are the way that they are. Montag takes up a special interest in book and why things are this way. “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work?” Montag asks Beatty showing his curiosity. Montag’s curiosity is what drives him to find out everything he can about books, society and the way that things used to be. It is only natural for him to begin to question everything especially because his job involves burning hundreds of books a day yet he was never told why these books need to burned. Imagine destroying an object everyday, and being told how important your job is. Naturally you would want to know why you are destroying these objects. This is what happened to Montag and Beatty tried to explain it to him and tells him he shouldn’t be too curious about it “A natural error, curiosity alone,” Beatty also asks Montag “Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career, he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know. Isn't that so?” Curiosity is a very natural emotion and even Beatty, who tries to explain things to Montag and discourages books, even admits to looking a few books but says “I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing!” I believe that this would make Montag even more curious.
Some characters like Montag did not succumb to the ignorance of society. Unlike Mildred characters like Montag believed in the power books and knowledge. Montag was once like Mildred until he met Clarisse; his neighbor. Clarisse was different from anyone Montag had ever met. She made him question his career, his happiness and even his marriage. After talking to Clarisse, Montag realizes he’s been ignorant for his whole life and begins a dangerous search for knowledge. After eventually stealing a book and reading it Montag realized that knowledge is really important. Books symbol knowledge because they provide their readers with information they did not know prior to opening the book. Montag no longer believed that ignorance was bliss “”. Through Montag’s fight for knowledge Bradbury is able to help the readers to understand that people are afraid of knowledge because they fear making mistakes. “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by” says Faber (Bradbury 104). Knowledge is gained from experience. The best and worst sides of Montag were revealed during his journey because he made mistakes and learned from them. At the end of the novel Montag like readers comes to the realization that knowledge and experiences is the true meaning of life.