While many people might think that because Guy Montag started out as a firefighter he can not be considered a ‘good guy’ or a hero, but it should be noted that his thoughts and actions are those of a person with good intentions despite starting out as a ‘bad guy’. In my first paragraph I will be stating reasons on why guy Montag should be considered a good guy or a hero. In the second paragraph I will state why his actions and thoughts do not make him a bad person. Lastly, I will state why Montag's actions and thoughts make him a good person. In this paragraph I will be stating a couple reasons why Montag should be considered a ‘good guy’ or a hero. My first reason is when Montag and Clarisse are walking on the sidewalk she tells him that she has to go to a psychiatrist. Before they split up and go their separate ways she tells him that she sometimes forgets he is a fireman because of the way he acts around her. On page twenty one Clarisse starts to tell Montag that he isn't like the other firemen because when she talks he looks at her and listens while other …show more content…
My first reason is when Montag killed Beatty. Montag is not a bad person because he killed Beatty. On page 116 in the book it states that Montag had realized that Beatty had wanted to die which would explain why he kept provoking Montag when they were outside of Montag’s house. So when Montag killed Beatty it was because Beatty had wanted to die not because Montag had wanted to kill him. My second reason is when Montag was in the house with the woman who chose to stay. Montag could have easily left the woman in the house not even trying to not even trying to save her from her house that was about to go up in flames, and he only left when she told him to go and that she wanted to stay in that house. Clearly, I have stated why Montag’s actions and thoughts do not make him a bad
Firstly, Montag is influenced by Clarisse McClellan because she is the first person he has met that is not like the rest of the society. Clarisse is a young 17 year old girl that Montag quickly becomes very fond of. Clarisse influences Montag by the way she questioned Montag, the way she admires nature, and her death. Clarisse first influenced Montag by the way she began questioning him often. Her questions would make him think for himself unlike the rest of society. “Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. “Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone- running in the moonlight” (Bradbury, 10). Clarisse was one of the only people that Montag had ever met that had ever asked him that. This question that she asked him influenced him because he thinks about, and Montag asks himself tha...
Guy Montag is the protagonist and fireman who presents the dystopia through the eyes of a worker loyal to it, a man in conflict about it, and one resolved to be free of it. Through most of the book, Montag lacks knowledge and believes what he hears.
Montag is different than others around him. McGiveron said “An insanity of mindlessness” (Mcgiveron 1). This is the world Montag lives in. He is not alike his peers at all. “Montag has a conscience and a curiosity” (McGiveron 1). This shows he has a special set of traits that is rare in this society. Montag moves past things much better than those around him. An example of this is “even when Montag finally kills the taunting beatty he displaces him syntactically from the center of the action.” (McGiveron 2). Here we see the relentlessness of Montag. To include Montag is special compared to the rest of his dystopian
Chuck Palahniuk once said “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” When Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy, he thought, and thought about it, until finally, he found out he really wasn’t happy. Guy Montag risked his family, his career, and his life, just to hold banished readings within his home. He went against society to do what he thought was right, even if that meant punishment or death. Montag was a hero because he tried to bring back freedom and independent thought, show off author’s greatest works, and even though he rebelled, and killed a man, he did it with good intentions to help the rest of society.
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
Therefore, these three experiences or people help make Montag a dynamic character. These people or events all affect him in a different way. He learns a lot from them. Montag would have said that they made a huge impact on his life, because he feels different emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Don’t forget, Montag went from burning books to preventing books being burned. It takes a lot of courage and inspiration for the Montag from the beginning of the novel, to become the Montag he was at the end of the novel.
Imagine being in a society, where one is not allowed to have their own thoughts and ideas. Crazy, right? Well, it happens in Fahrenheit 451. The novel is written by Ray Bradbury and it occurs in a community where the right of freedom of speech is confiscated by their government. Individuals in the society are banned from the right to own books. Firefighters, instead of putting out fires, set fires. Montag, a thirty-year-old firefighter never questioned the pleasure of the joy of watching books burn until he met a young woman who told him of a past when people were not afraid. In this hectic story, there is one significant character known by the name of, Clarisse. The young, seventeen-year-old woman is an imperative character due to her motivations
Montag is influenced by Clarisse a lot. And, her impact on him is tremendous. She questions his whole life, teaches him to appreciate the simple things, and to care about other people and their feelings. “You're peculiar, you're aggravating, yet you're easy to forgive..”(Bradbury 23) Through all Clarisse's questioning, Montag knows that she is trying to help him. Because of her help and impact on him, Montag is changed forever.
In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag never once thought of what his job really entailed or why he was burning houses and books down. Until one night, he met a girl named Clarice; the girl who changed everything. She might not have been in the book long but her character was essential. Clarice was the start of Montag slowly realizing what it exactly is that his job is making him do. “ ‘Do you mind if I ask? How long’ve you worked at being a fireman?’ ‘Since I was twenty, ten years ago.’ ‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s
He realizes that he is limited to his knowledge and freedom by his government and he doesn’t want that for himself anymore. Bradbury symbolizes this when Montag says to Mildred, “ ‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stand in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’ ” (48). During this quote Montag begins to question his society, and why he burns books. He becomes eager to know why they have certain rules and hopes to find the answers in books. Montag’s curiosity also is established when he says, “ ‘I’ve heard rumors; the world is starving, but we’re well fed. Is it true the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much? I’ve heard rumors about hate, too, once in a long while, over the years. Do you know why? I don’t that’s sure. Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. The just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don’t hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it. God, Millie, don’t you see? An hour a day, two hours, with these books and maybe…’” (70). This displays that Montag is starting to open his eyes to the truth about the world around him. Montag is starting to question authority and the “true facts” that his government gives his society. Montag is becoming empowered and beginning to think for
He and his crew raid libraries and homes, burning any books they find before dozens of onlookers. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Montag appears to be a ruthless, detestable human being. Surprisingly, however, it is Montag who emerges as the protagonist at the end. Montag is a dynamic character; he is constantly learning, changing, and keeping the reader interested. Ray Bradbury is able to incorporate careful details and ideas which change the reader's opinion of Montag and allow him to become the hero of the story.
On page fifty-two of Fahrenheit 451, Beatty says that Hamlet, by Shakespeare, is not commonly known to most people in their society. He says to Mildred, Beatty’s wife, that she may only know it as a “one-page digest in a book…” Ray Bradbury uses this allusion of Hamlet in his book to describe the vastly different society that he had created. For that reason, classics were only known as quick, short summaries to help the reader appear somewhat educated. By using a classic reference, Ray Bradbury alludes to the fact that the society Guy Montag lives in does not know what we consider basic knowledge in our society.
The first of all, Montag loses his control over his own mind. At the beginning of the story, he meets a beautiful girl called Clarisse. She is a peculiar girl who wonders about the society and how people live in there. She tells Montag the beauty of the nature, and also questions him about his job and life. Though he has been proud of being a fireman, Clarisse says, “I think it’s so strange you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow” (21). Montag feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (21) by her words. Everything Clarisse says is something new to him and he gradually gets influenced a lot by this mysterious girl. Actually, the impact of the girl is too significant that his mind is taken over by her when he talks with Beatty, the captain of the firemen. “Suddenly it seemed a much younger voice was speaking for him. He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McClellan saying, ‘Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?’” (31). His mind is not controlled by himself in this part. He takes of Clarisse’s mind and it causes confusion within his mind. It can be said that this happening is an introduction of him losing his entire identity.
This realization comes as a shock to him, and Guy begins thinking more and more. He notices other people who aren’t happy such as his Wife Mildred who overdosed on sleeping pills. Even though she says she is happy, Guy knows the truth that it is only society tricking people to believe that. People don’t overdose if they are happy. Anti-heros are also not reliable characters. Guy Montag is a very unreliable character. He is very compulsive and is always changing his opinion. After meeting with Faber, and old English professor, he is talking to his wife and her friends and tries to show them how unhappy they really are. Faber and Guy had already set up a plan, and when meeting with the women, Guy jeopardizes the plan. Faber scorns Guy’s outburst saying, “Montag, Montag, please in the name of God, what’re you up to?” (Bradbury 98) Guy is very caught up in showing everyone how society is evil, but he does not know the right way to do it. He is very bad at following directions and orders, and often does the complete opposite of what is directed. His unreliability is a sign of weakness and is one reason why he is considered an anti-hero rather than a