The novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is a novel about a fireman named, Guy Montag, who is living in a time where there is a war going on. Montag’s occupation is to burn houses that contain books inside them. In the beginning of the novel, Montag has never questioned anything in his life that is until he meets a young girl named Clarisse who sparks something inside him to have a different perspective on his life and society. With all the changes happening to Montag in the book, the novel is primarily about the rebirth of a repressed society. For example, in the beginning of the novel Montag meets the young girl named Clarisse, Clarisse was a girl who questioned things such as life, the past, the present, and so on. She was also the first person to question Montag, asking him if he was happy, and why do firemen start fires now instead of putting them out. This is when the change of Montag himself begins. He becomes curious, and on one particular evening on duty he seizes a book from a burning fire and takes it home. However, Montag was not able …show more content…
Montag ran to the only person he could trust, Faber. Faber recommended to Montag that he should run out of town and go to the railroad tracks and find “the book people”. There Montag meets Granger, the leader of the book people. Soon after it was discovered that the town Montag lived in was bombed, and everything was destroyed, leaving the majority of the survivors being the book people. The day after the bombing the book people decide to go back to town and help the others rebuild, and Bradbury writes, “To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else. What else? Something something…” By ending with the majority of the survivors being the book people, they are given to rebuild a new society built on their knowledge, and aim for a
After meeting the intellectuals, they help Montag further hide his scent from the hound and they welcome him to their group. The group of intellectuals then go on to say that there are thousands like them across the country and that they are waiting for a day when they can bring human civilization back from the “dark ages” using their memories of books; this gives the group of intellectuals a purpose, as they believe that the loss of books has destroyed human society and that they can rebuild it. A bomber then comes over the city that Montag has just escaped from and releases a devastating bomb above the area. Due to the power of the bomb, the city is destroyed, meaning that everyone Montag had known are dead and that if Montag had not left the city as quick as he did, he would have also died. Montag then goes on the quote bible verses as he heads towards the destroyed
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.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was first published in 1933, and its story entails a futuristic world in the middle of a nuclear war. The totalitarian government of this future forbids its people from reading or taking a part in other acts that involve individual thinking. The law against reading is, presumably, fairly new, and the government is faced with the enormous task of destroying all of its citizens' books. This disposal of books is the profession of the main character, Guy Montag, who is officially titled a "fireman." He and his crew raid libraries and homes, burning any books they find before dozens of overjoyed 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.
Someone else who changed Montag's thinking, changed it by their actions not by tell him anything.<YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN MORE SO THE READER KNOWS WHAT YOU MEAN.> One day the firemen got a call with an address of someone who was hiding books. The firemen, doing their job like always, went to the house to find the books and burn them.
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
As Montag was reading the books he say’s “There must be something in books, something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house;....”(48). In the beginning Bradbury writes about how Montag just thought the the reason the people acted like that, because they were crazy but now he’s seeing there must be something powerful and meaningful in books. This incident also had Montag rethink his lifestyle, because he told his wife “... maybe I wait my job awhile?”(48). That was unexpected because at first he didn't see anything but his job. Bradbury added that the lady in the house made Montag confounded. Montag commented “well, this fire’ll last me the rest of my life, God! I’ve been trying to put it out, in my mind all night. I’m crazy with trying.”(48). This was unexpected because he’s seen fires all the time but somehow this one has traumatized him. Also when the woman in the burning house protected about them having her books, he was thinking like what’s making her stay in this house with some unmeaningful books. “You can’t have my books,” she said.”(35). After that night Montag was fed up, with everything because of that one woman persistence to stay in that house with
As Montag continues his journey to enlightenment, similar to the prisoner, he progresses to the stage of belief, embodied by Clarisse. Montag initially meets Clarisse, a social outcast, while walking home from work one day. From their first encounter, he notices that she constantly questions society and the ways of the world. They begin to develop a friendship but it is abruptly cut short when she suddenly disappears. One day, about a week after her disappearance, “[h]e didn’t know what there was about the afternoon, but it was not seeing her somewhere in the world. [....] [A]t first he did not even know he missed her or was even looking for her, [...] there were vague stirrings of dis-ease in him. Something was the matter, his routine had
Ray Bradbury, perhaps one of the best-known science fiction, wrote the amazing novel Fahrenheit 451. The novel is about Guy Montag, a ‘fireman’ who produces fires instead of eliminating them in order to burn books (Watt 2). One night while he is walking home from work he meets a young girl who stirs up his thoughts and curiosities like no one has before. She tells him of a world where fireman put out fires instead of starting them and where people read books and think for themselves (Allen 1).
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag at first assumes his position as a fireman, burning books and enforcing the laws of the government 's policies, providing stability in his world. His job as a firemen allows him to obtain books without arising too much suspicion. At first, these books don 't have a big impact on Montag. However, after talking with Clarisse, and hearing of a past where people lived not in fear and mindlessly, Montag soon realizes an importance to the books. With this realization also comes the conflict of whether rebelling to achieve and bring back the way of the past is worth it, or if rebelling against the societal laws and norms isn 't worth it for him. With all factors such as family, current relations with
Societal individuals have also initiated new ways to distract themselves and in turn, distance themselves from themselves and their families. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, the main protagonist of the novel, took a colorless fluid which resulted in a change in “chemical index of your perspiration. Half an hour from now you’ll smell like two other people”(Bradbury 149). Montag received a colorless fluid that was supposed to change the chemical index of your perspiration or your sweat directly from a stranger named Granger; Montag had never met the man before and then Granger goes on to say “With the Hound after you, the best thing is bottoms up”(Bradbury 149). It is rather odd, that a man took a drink from someone that he has never met before
In the view of Thomas Foster in the chapter, “If She Comes Up, It's Baptism” water for the most part symbolize something outside of the context given in the novel. In other words he says that if a character is written to almost drown and don’t the author may have been using this as an excuse to make the character reborn. “So maybe on some level tossing the characters into the river is (a) wish fulfillment, (b) exorcism of primal fear, (c) exploration of the possible, and not just (d) a handy solution to messy plot difficulties” (Foster 153). Furthermore the author can craft their narration, however they see fit, similarly with any other literary technique. After some thought, seeing the correlation between this and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 came to mind.
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses characters and events to show how montag transformation throughout the novel.
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...
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 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.