Winston Smith vs. Guy Montag
The two protagonists in Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 both started out somewhere, following the rules and doing what they were told, and towards the end of the book you see them change and become completely different people. In 1984, the reader experiences a nightmarish world that Orwell imagines through the eyes of the protagonist, Winston Smith. In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Guy Montag is on a desperate search to find and understand his own life and purpose. These stories are set in the past tense but they both talk about what the future would or could be like.
Winston Smith, from the novel 1984, is a low status member of the Party who rules over the nation of Oceania. Winston is never alone, even in his own house. Everywhere he goes the Party is watching him through what they call telescreens. Oceania is run by a leader that is referred to as Big Brother. Winston is struggling with the fact that he doesn’t even have control of his own life, it’s controlled by the Party and Big Brother. When Winston becomes frustrated by the Party and Big Brother he illegally buys a diary in which to write criminal things like, “Down with Big Brother.” The Thought Police can basically read your mind, so even thinking anything rebellious or illegal will get you in trouble with them. Winston knows that he will soon get caught by the Thought Police for committing a thoughtcrime. He convinces himself that he will be caught no matter what he does, so he continues to rebel. Winston finds the courage to join a secret organization, called the Brotherhood, in order to take down Big Brother.
O’Brien, the Brotherhood’s leader, turns Winston in and he goes to jail. There he is questioned by O’Brien and tortured, ...
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...s running from his life he meets a group of people called the “Book People.” They are books lovers who have memorized many books. When enemy jets appear in the sky and they completely obliterate the city, Guy and the Book People move on in search of survivors and to rebuild the city. Montag started as a man with a incomplete life. That life was fulfilled when he discovered literature.
In conclusion, Winston Smith and Guy Montag are two men who are distinct in their own ways. Winston really figured out his life while he was in jail. That makes me think, do you need to be somewhere like that in order to get your life back together? Guy Montag found his satisfaction in books. Which I believe is the way to get your life in order. They are similar people for the reason that they both are unsure of their place in the world and who go through a journey to figure it out.
Guy Montag, the main character of "Fahrenheit 451," resembles Jon Anderton, a fictional character from "Minority Report." The two protagonists coincide with each other due to the vast roles they play as dichotomic symbols. A dichotomy is a division into two diverse groups. In the novel, Montag encounters a young girl named Clarisse, who invokes the change in him, setting up the transition for the entire novel. "Are you happy?" Clarisse asks Montag shortly after meeting him (Bradbury 7). This question allows him to think for himself and causes him to rebel and go
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.
She awakens a love and desire in Montag to enjoy the simple things in life. He also discovers that his happiness is fake when he discovers that he does not love his tranquilizer addicted wife who cares more about her television relatives than real life. Guy Montag slowly becomes unhappy with his life when he learns of Clarisse's death in an automobile accident and when he had to burn an old lady alive in her house because she refused to let them burn her books. & nbsp; When we discover that Guy Montag is unhappy with his life, we start to realize that he is trying to change his way of life. When Montag goes to talk to his wife about the disadvantages of being a fireman, she offers no sympathy and tells him to stay away from her because all she knows is that books are unlawful. After awhile, Captain Beatty has a talk with Montag because he is suspicious of Montag's behavior.
... middle of paper ... ... Similarly, when Montag leaves his community, he finds the ‘book people’. After he is long gone and the city is bombed because of the war, Montag and his new friends return to the community to rescue survivors and rebuild a new, improved civilization.
Montag throughout the novel faces situations and meets people who opens his eyes about society Montag is a fireman in the society; however, the job fireman takes on an entirely different meaning. Instead of stopping fires, Montag starts them. In the society literature is outlawed and it’s his job to burn the book along with the houses that held them.
The main character Winston Smith was a very curious and rebelliousness individual. He wondered how and why the gove...
In 1984 , the godlike Big Brother lurks in every conceivable public and private sphere through the Telescreens, hidden microphones, secret cameras, and prowling Thought Police. Big Brother’s sinister smirk hangs on every street corner in large, floor to ceiling posters that citizens cannot escape even in their own home. Big Brother’s inescapable presence commands not only perpetual obedience but utter, unwavering devotion. Questioning Big Brother’s decisions, proclamations, and reign unequivocally leads to vaporization, dubbed “becoming an unperson” in Newspeak, and torture in the heinous Ministry of Love. As Winston remarks in his diary “thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.”
The conflict between Winston and Big Brother starts from the beginning of the novel when Winston begins to keep his secret diary about Big Brother. Winston Smith is a third-nine years old man who is a member of the 'outer-party'--the lower of the two classes. Winston works for the government in one of the four main government buildings called the ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite history books in order for people not to learn what the past used to be like. Winston's occupation is the major factor which lets him to realize that Big Brother is restricting people's freedom. However, Winston keeps his complains about Big Brother and the party for his own secret because the party will not allow anyone keeping a rebellious thought. The tension between them gets serious when Big Brother becomes suspicious of Winston. Winston is therefore watched by O'Brien, an intelligent execute at the 'Ministry of Truth', who is a member of the 'inner party'--the upper class. Without doubting Big Brother's trap, Winston shares his ideas with O'Brien. O'Brien mentions a gentleman named Emmanuel Goldstein whom he claims to know the leader of the rebels against the party. O'Brien also promises to help winston, and promises him a copy of Goldstein's book. But O'Brien betrays him as Big Brother has planned.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
Guy Montag is a fireman who is greatly influenced in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The job of a fireman in this futuristic society is to burn down houses with books in them. Montag has always enjoyed his job, that is until Clarisse McClellan comes along. Clarisse is seventeen and crazy. At least, this is what her uncle, whom she gets many of her ideas about the world from, describes her as. Clarisse and Montag befriend each other quickly, and Clarisse's impact on Montag is enormous. Clarisse comes into Montag's life, and immediately begins to question his relationship with his wife, his career, and his happiness. Also, Clarisse shows Montag how to appreciate the simple things in life. She teaches him to care about other people and their feelings. By the end of the novel, we can see that Montag is forever changed by Clarisse.
Guy Montag is a fireman in charge of burning books. In the town he lives in the people are forbidden to read books. Whenever a person was caught with books that made them question anything the books were burned and sometimes even the people. A young girl named Clarisse McClellan opened his eyes to the emptiness of his life with her innocently penetrating questions. She makes him start to think about the things he used to do such as his job (Bradbury 12). When he continues to talk to her, he begins to change.
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
...radbury the protagonist Guy Montag had three mentors that helped him along his journey; Clarisse, Faber and Granger. Clarisse is the one who first opens his eyes to the world around him, Faber teaches him how he should approach this new way of thinking, and Granger establishes him as an intellectual who can help society rebuild after the destruction from the war. A line from the Book of Ecclesiastes Montag remembers very well sums up his transformation: “And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (158) Now Montag is finally learning who he is and what he should do with his life; through his three mentors he has found his identity.
Montag then makes his escape from the city and finds the book people, who give him refuge from the firemen and Mechanical Hound that is searching for him. The burning of his house and his Captain as well as the fire trucks symbolizes Montag's transformation from a mechanical drone that follows orders, to a thinking, feeling, emotional person, who has now broken the law and will be hunted as a criminal. He is an enemy of the state; once he turns his back on the social order and burns his bridges, so to speak, he is set free, purified and must run for his life.... ... middle of paper ...
Much can happen in a matter of minutes; a man can go from thinking he is happy to thinking his life is falling apart, or can change from hating someone to loving them. These experiences sound outlandish, but they happened to Guy Montag, the main character in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Winston Smith, the main character in George Orwell’s 1984. These two dystopian novels are about the characters discovering major problems in their societies, and then trying to fix them. Montag lives in a society where television controls people’s lives and books have become illegal. On the other hand Smith lives in Oceania, a territory led by a totalitarian regime. This regime is headed by Big Brother and is referred to as the Party. By examining Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, it is seen, not only through the dehumanized nature of society, but also through the theme of lies and manipulation that both Orwell and Bradbury wish to warn of a horrifying future society.