Fahrenheit 451 Moral Courage Research Paper

Moral Courage in Humans Life

Moral Courage can be transformed and changed, but the results will always favourable for the person who displays it.

By examining Moral Courage in the poem “If” the writer makes it clear that it is hard to achieve but worth it. This poem titled “If” is written to his son, explaining different situations when his moral courage may be challenged and how difficult it will be to do the right thing in each case scenario: “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you/ But make allowance for their doubting too”(3-4). According to the writer if he believes in himself and tolerate other people that do not, in other words, have enough self-confidence to stand people that do not believe in him, he will have moral courage.

Montag constantly changes his thoughts about his environment and the society in which he is living. At the beginning of the book, Montag is a fireman, and his job is to burn books. He loves his job and he thinks he is doing the right thing: “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten”(Bradbury 4). Later in the book he meets Clarisse a girl who changes Montag’s point of view and opinion of some aspects of his life by asking the question: “are you happy?...” (Bradbury 8). When he gains insight after reflecting on the question he realizes he is not happy: “He was not happy. He said the words to himself”(Bradbury 10), and now he is incapable of understanding why and how people act the way they do in their society: “There are too many of us, he thought… Strangers come and violate you… Strangers come and take your blood” (Bradbury 13). In the end he realizes one of the main reasons that contributed to people living such monotonous lives, is the lack of books and lack of interest in each other: “We need not to be alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile. How long has it been since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real”(Bradbury 39). Against all the dangers involved with reading, he steals a book and reads it: “Montag had only an instant to read a line… His hands had done it all, his hands with a brain of his own, with a conscience and curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief”(Bradbury 28). He goes from destroying books and feeling pleasure from doing so, to being curious and intrigued by them. Later on he joins a group of old men who hope to someday restore the peace and a normal life of people with books they have memorized: “as long as we know that and always have it around… someday we’ll stop making the same goddam [mistakes] and jumping into the middle of them”(Bradbury 120). Humans