After events in his life made him realize how his life was meaningless, Guy Montag, a fireman of a future dystopian society in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, starts to search for salvation in books for which his job requires him to burn. Montag, who starts out loving his job comes in contact with the neighbor’s daughter, Clarisse. Clarisse asked him multiple questions in life that made Montag’s faith in his profession, society and himself decline rapidly. He quickly makes close attachments with people who can keep a true friendship. Montag, as a result of losing faith, tries to find meaning in books, which are illegal, while doing his job. He often gets overwhelmed, confused, or frustrated when facing the complexity of books. Montag also has trouble deciding how to become independent of important people in his life. He becomes rash …show more content…
Montag changes greatly in what he thinks about himself and ability to love from a robot controlled by society to a independent thinking human being with his own values throughout the course of the story. Montag changes what he thinks about himself from all accepting to the standards that society places for him to wanting to become his own person. As Montag finishes the job of the night, He “grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame. He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt- corked, in the mirror. Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered” (2). Montag feels proud of himself and the actions he committed from that moment and before. He is unknowingly following instructions society set for him, and since society accepts him, he loves the actions he committed. After Clarisse leaves with leaving Montag on the
In every book, characters go through times where they challenge themselves. In Fahrenheit 451, a book written by Ray Bradbury in October 1953 Guy Montag faces several challenges throughout the book, just like any other character, but every event he faces changes him, his way of thinking, how he sees his surroundings, and even starts to doubt if the people closest to him are actually good people. Montag changes a lot, and his experiences and events faced lead to a new person.
Montag, a fireman who ignites books into glowing embers that fall into ashes as black as night. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury expresses a message in which society has opened their doors to mass devastation. Guy Montag, a “fireman”, burns houses that have anything to do with books instead putting fires out like the job of a real firemen. In Montag’s society, books are considered taboo, and owning books can lead to dire consequences. Ray Bradbury portrays a society in which humans have suffered a loss of self, humanity, and a powerful control from the government resulting in a fraudulent society.
Montag's thinking and morals changed throughout this story a plentiful of times, how did it exactly change? Montag tells his feeling about books and how he had changed in his mind set to his wife Mildred. “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important and about something real” (Guy Montag 49). Without being bothered in ones life, life would be boring and everything would be dull. Guy
The first line of Fahrenheit 451 provides a crucial insight into the very little we know of Guy Montag’s life prior to the opening of this novel. “It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 1). With those six simple words the author, Ray Bradbury, conveys Montag’s obvious satisfaction with his life as a fireman. The exposition of this novel depicts a dystopian future where the vast majority of citizens live in numb contentment. For decades Montag has been content to blindly conform to the expectations of his culture. At this point in the narrative the main character is content, he is not yet affected by the events that will propel him into action.
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.
The novel Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, focuses on the life of the character Guy Montag. In the beginning, Guy follows conformity and censorship just like everyone else; however, as time moves on, his ways of thinking change. He meets new people and experiences different situations that alter the way he views his society and censorship. People such as Clarisse and Beatty awaken feelings and thoughts that have long been subdued inside Montag. In addition, experiencing the murder of Beatty and the suicide of Mrs. Blake dramatically shape Montag. After years of following others, he finally learns to follow his own thoughts and beliefs.
Montag was an ordinary brainwashed citizen; he did whatever he was told without knowing why. He was a perfect example of the saying “Ignorance is Bliss.” If you don’t know (or don’t want to know) that anything’s wrong, there’s no need to worry or panic. Clarisse, Beatty, and Faber all helped him in very different ways. Clarisse helped him by just being different and showing him that it’s okay to think a different way. Beatty helped him subconsciously, thinking he was setting him back on track, but by doing so, showed him a different point of view. Finally Faber helped him as a guide through the foreign and bewildering world of literature and more importantly, the truth. Montag mutated from a middle class citizen with no new thoughts other than
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.
Montag is one of the inhabitants of this society that slowly broke through the conformity of the government. Montag had always been just going through the motions like he always had been, burning books and then coming home to his wife, Mildred, to spend more time with their ‘family,’ the television program that continued on and on with thoughtless conversations that assured that the people watching them had no time to ponder anything outside of that show. Montag was unlike these people. Clarisse, the deceased neighbor of Montag, was the first person to make Montag notice his differences. Montag had always noticed the differences in Clarisse, and noticed that by interacting with her his personality started to change from the standard
What do you believe? Would you sacrifice everything you’ve ever had to just read a book? Montag, the main character of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, learns to realize that there is more to living then staring at a screen. Guy Montag is initially a fireman who is tasked with burning books. However, he becomes disenchanted with the idea that books should be destroyed, flees his society, and joins a movement to preserve the content of books. Montag changes over a course of events, while finding his true self and helping others.
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.
Montag changes himself in just the way he thinks, he is the same person, but with different beliefs. He is still the confident, outgoing, smart guy he was before the he met Clarisse. But instead of changing all of that, he changed his beliefs. He was still very outspoken, just about his new belief. His whole life turned upside down, but he still managed to keep his same morals as a person. So is he really a different person, or is has his eyes just been opened up to the world?
Montag has an interesting social life. Near the beginning of the story, he does not really know anyone that well. Even his own wife seems like...
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 ...
Of all literary works regarding dystopian societies, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps one of the most bluntly shocking, insightful, and relatable of them. Set in a United States of the future, this novel contains a government that has banned books and a society that constantly watches television. However, Guy Montag, a fireman (one who burns books as opposed to actually putting out fires) discovers books and a spark of desire for knowledge is ignited within him. Unfortunately his boss, the belligerent Captain Beatty, catches on to his newfound thirst for literature. A man of great duplicity, Beatty sets up Montag to ultimately have his home destroyed and to be expulsed from the city. On the other hand, Beatty is a much rounder character than initially apparent. Beatty himself was once an ardent reader, and he even uses literature to his advantage against Montag. Moreover, Beatty is a critical character in Fahrenheit 451 because of his morbid cruelty, obscene hypocrisy, and overall regret for his life.