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Fahrenheit 451 essay analysis
Farenheit 451 analysis
Fahrenheit 451 essay analysis
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In the book Fahrenheit 451 Montag was originally fine with his society, but when he found out new things about it he learned that it had been lying to him all along. Montag is totally fine with his society and how he is living his life, he believes that he has an amazing reputation and nothing can compare. Montag talks to Clarisse and is questioned, he begins to think more about these questions and why she was asking them. In result, Montag starts to doubt the way he is living in the society. Montag is done with his society and forms his thoughts into actions and tries to fix his society in the best way that he can. Opinions, knowledge, and determination are things that can cause someone to think differently of the world that they live in. …show more content…
Montag loves his job and what he does, there is nothing that can compare to it and he thinks that he has the perfect life. Montag feels that it is a special thing to burn and that it is amazing to see things changed. “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed”(Bradbury 1). He loves that he can make things change and he doesn't think otherwise because that is against the law. Montag doesn't think or question anything that he is doing because he is part of the society and he “helps” the people that are “crazy” and try to break the rules by reading literature. Montag doesn't understand why Clarisse would ask if he is happy if she can just answer it by herself by looking at him.. “‘Happy! Of all the nonsense’... Of course I'm happy. What does she think? I'm not?”(Bradbury 8). He doesn't even think about what she is asking but answers quickly and believes what his society wants him to think. He answers without thinking of what Clarisse is saying because he thinks that his society is great and that he can't possibly be unhappy when he is in such a great world. When Montag is working, he pictures himself as great figure that helps people in need and he is a mighty person because he saves lives from literature. Montag loved the way that things would burn, and that they made …show more content…
Clarisse and Montag are talking and Clarisse is questioning Montag, but he doesn't know how to respond and gets confused about what she is trying to get at. Montag doesn't know what clarisse is trying to get at and he is very confused about it. “‘Bet I know something else you don't. There's dew on the grass in the morning.’ He suddenly couldn't remember if he had known or not… ‘And if you look’---she nodded at the sky--- “there's a man in the moon.’... They walked the rest of the way in silence, hers thoughtful, his a kind of clenching and uncomfortable silence”(Bradbury 7). Montag doesn't know why she is saying this, but he also can't remember if she is right, he is asking himself on the inside why he can't remember. When it says that he walked in a clenched uncomfortable silence Montag is confused. Montag has never really noticed things like these and he never looks at the grass in the morning, that's why he can't figure out why it's so important for Clarisse to ask him about it. Montag is slowly changing, because he is starting to notice the things around him and he sees nature and how it can vary every day. “One day it was raining, the next it was clear, the day after that the wind blew strong, and the day after that it was mild and calm, and the day after that calm day was a day
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...
With pride, Montag carries out just that. Until one day he meets a young girl of seventeen who changes his mind about everything. Clarisse McClellan knows many things that Montag has never considered. For instance, she recites poetry, the ideas of great philosophers, and most importantly, facts about the world’s history. When she first speaks to Montag of these illicit things, he is taken aback and begins to question all that he has been told.
The novel first introduces Guy Montag who is a fireman. He is not the average fireman though because instead of putting out fires he starts fires to burn books and the homes they are being hidden in. The novel introduces Montag as a happy man who loves his wife and his job. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag comes to the realization that he is not happy in his marriage or life in general after meeting Clarisse. Bradbury uses his words to describe Montag’s questions about life and his happiness. Bradbury has Montag questioning his beliefs about books and if they really are so hurtful. Montag said, “And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books” (Bradbury 49). In the previous quote, Bradbury uses
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses the life of Guy Montag, a fireman in a near future dystopia, to make an argument against mindless conformity and blissful ignorance. In Bradbury’s world, the firemen that Montag is a part of create fires to burn books instead of putting out fires. By burning books, the firemen eliminate anything that might be controversial and make people think, thus creating a conforming population that never live a full life. Montag is part of this population for nearly 30 years of his life, until he meets a young girl, Clarisse, who makes him think. And the more he thinks, the more he realizes how no one thinks. Upon making this realization, Montag does the opposite of what he is supposed to; he begins to read. The more he reads and the more he thinks, the more he sees how the utopia he thought he lived in, is anything but. Montag then makes an escape from this society that has banished him because he has tried to gain true happiness through knowledge. This is the main point that Bradbury is trying to make through the book; the only solution to conformity and ignorance is knowledge because it provides things that the society can not offer: perspective on life, the difference between good and evil, and how the world works.
... ideas in books and understand them. Before this Montag never questioned the way he lives, he was blinded by all the distractions. The role that Clarisse plays in the book enables Montag to break free of the ignorance.
The first event that results in Montag becoming a dynamic character is his conversations with Clarisse McClellan. She is seventeen, and people consider her insane and anti-social. She is considered anti-social, because she is talkative and expressive. In Bradbury’s made up world, the meaning of social is staring at the parlor walls (large TV screens), and having no thought at all. Clarisse is very different from the rest: “I rarely watch the ‘parlor walls’ or go to races or Fun Parks. So I’ve lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess. Have you seen the two-hundred-foot-long billboards in the country beyond town? Did you know that once the billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly they even had to stretch the advertising out so it would last” (pg.7).Clarisse’s enthusiastic and cheerful disposition lightens Montag’s attitude, making him a more optimistic person. He is not so closed-minded anymore, and he learns to be himself, and sometimes care free. Montag learns to see the brighter side of things and believe in him...
During Clarisse and Montag’s first encountering, Clarisse asks, “Are you happy?” (Bradbury 10). The question Clarisse asked Montag motivates him to doubt about the meaning of his life and what he does as a firefighter. Clarisse’s interrogation revealed the absence of love, pleasure, and contentment in his life. Walking home after meeting Clarisse, Montag could not stop the inquiry of what he has done in the last ten years of being a fireman and why he does it. It encourages Montag to start his journey to find explanations of why the government wants their people to conform and the reasons behind burning books. This novel would not be able to function without the motivations of Clarisse towards
Montag witnesses a woman burn along with the books in her house at the hands of him and his co-workers. The next day, he is too traumatized to go to work and stays at home instead. Beatty, Montag’s boss, pays him an unexpected visit and attempts to console his troubled mind. In an effort to comfort Montag, Beatty explains that “ ‘[w]e must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. [....] Breach man’s mind. [T]here was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. [...] [A]s custodians of our peace of mind, [...] [t]hat’s you, Montag, and that’s me” (Bradbury 55-56). As shown by his statement that everyone is not “born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but [...] made equal’ ” so that there is nothing “ ‘to judge themselves against,’ ” Beatty is explaining the reasoning behind their society’s mindset. He justifies the death of the woman by implying that those who are different are also catalysts for conflict. Bradbury’s simile identifies the corruption of their government as they strip people of their rights in order to effectively control the mass population. Meanwhile, Montag absorbs this new perspective, no longer left in his state of unawareness. In addition, his own purpose in life is being defined in terms of society when Beatty claims that “there was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. [...] [A]s custodians of our peace of mind, [...] [t]hat’s you, Montag, and that’s me.” Provided with this reasoning, Montag is finally able to begin forming an understanding of how the world operates through society’s perception. Similar to Montag, the prisoner begins his ascension
In Ray BradBury’s fiction novel “Fahrenheit 451,” BradBury paints us a dystopian society where every citizen lacks the ability to think critically. Citizens are known to have short term memory, a lack of empathy for others, and an addiction to short term pleasures such as loud music and television. The main character Montag, once a societal norm in the beginning of the book, goes through a series of changes that fundamentally influences him to rebel against this society for their practice of igniting books. Bradbury uses specific events in Montag's transformation throughout the book, such as his conversations with Clarisse and his conversation with his wife’s friends, to help Montag realize that he isn’t
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.
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
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
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.
Clarisse is Montag’s first mentor in his journey; she is the one who first opens his eyes to the world around him, as well as asking the ultimate question “Are you happy?” (7) To which Montag cried “Am I what?” He never gave whether he was actually, truly happy a real, legitimate thought in his entire life. He just woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, ate lunch, went home, ate dinner, and went to sleep; and all with a big grin fixed on his face. But now, after a bit of consideration he came to the realization that “He was not happy…. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask a...
In Fahrenheit 451 the main characters are Montag, Faber, Clarisse, and Beatty. Montag is someone who knows what he wants and what he wants is change. He is a fireman who suddenly realizes the emptiness of his life and starts to search for meaning in the books he is supposed to be burning. Though he is sometimes rash and has a hard time thinking for himself, he is determined to break free from the oppression of ignorance. He quickly forms unusually strong attachments with anyone who seems receptive to true friendship. At first, Montag believes that he is happy. He thinks this because of the question that Clarisse asks him. When he views himself in the firehouse mirror after a night of burning, he grins "the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame." His biggest regret in life is not having a better relationship with his wife. Faber is a very wise and intellectual man. He readily admits that the current state of society is due to the cowardice of people like himself, who would not speak out against book burning when they still could have stopped it. He berates himself for being a coward, but he shows himself capable of acts that require great courage and place him in considerable danger. Clarisse seems to always be of in her own world. She was a beautiful seventeen-year-old who introduces Montag to the world's potential for beauty and meaning with her gentle innocence and curiosity. She is an outcast from society because of her odd habits, which include hiking, playing with flowers, and asking questions. She asks questions such as, "Are you happy?