“Knowledge is power”- Unknown. Ray Bradbury's dystopian society watches as the evil of conformity consumed their once beloved city until Montag, protagonist, sheds some light where all hope was lost. Through the use of characters and events, Bradburry shows a transformation in Guy Montag throughout Fahrenheit 451.
Using Clarisse McClellan as a catalyst, Bradbury creates an inner conflict within Montag. In the beginning Clarisse was asking Montag a lot of questions that made him uncomfortable. As the story progresses he changes, and says ‘We need not to be left alone we need to be really bothered once in awhile” (49). Then the question that had him reevaluating his life was “Are you happy.”(7). This is where Bradbury made the change start,
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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 …show more content…
Faber,a english professor, has a very important part on Montag’s view throughout the book. “Again he found himself thinking of the green pask a year ago.”(70). Bradbury used the old man to be as Montag’s alter ego or conscience, the person that he was trying to get to help him understand how to understand the books. After the interaction with Faber Montag goes back home to see Mildred’s friends and he reads them a part in some poetry he learned “Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore….”(96). Bradbury put this in the 2nd part because at first Montag didn't understand the books at first and he didn’t have the bravery to read in front of people, but he read it in front of MIllie’s friends. In part 3 we meet Granger a hobo as they say in Montag's society, another man that wants to ask why and how. He also influences Montag to wait for the war to end so they can spread their knowledge of the books they memorized. He also made Montag realize that he wasn’t providing anything for his community “What did you give to the city, Montag?.... Ashes….” (149). It also surprised Montag when Granger knew how the system worked and he didn’t “See that?...it’ll be you; right up at the end….” (141). Granger and Faber played a significant role in Montag’s “new life” by teaching him new
And everything she said made Montag start to think. While Montag and Clarisse were walking, Clarisse asked Montag “ How long is it since you were really bothered?” she said knowing he didn’t think enough to even be bothered by something. “About something important, about something real?” He heard this question and never thought about it, he reacted impulsively and thought she was crazy for asking such a question. Clarisse later asked him a very deep question and said “Are you happy?” Of course Montag said the first thing that he thought he felt, and said that yes, he was happy. but clarisse knew the truth, that he didnt know what happy was to be able to say that and thats why she asked. Even though Montag didnt think about the question then, once he enters his house he cant shake the question. When clarisse asks these questions she asks them seriously. However when Montag hears these questions he thinks they are obscure and laughs as if his answers are obvious. So clarisse asks him another brain teasing question and says “You laugh when i haven’t been funny, and you answer right off. you never stop to think what i have asked you.” This really gets into Montags head, weather he knows it, or not. And things Soon begin to change.
Clarisse McClellan shows a great example of individuality in the novel. She “liked to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking and watching the sun rise” (Bradbury 5). Clarisse’s question and curiosity showed how different she was than the others. She was a great thinker and Montag thought this made her strange. While she was talking to Montag, she tells him “You 're not like the others. I 've seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The others would never do that. The others would walk off and leave me talking. Or threaten me”, she saw something in Montag that showed how he was willing to be like her, different (Bradbury
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.
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...
Montag is different than others around him. McGiveron said “An insanity of mindlessness” (Mcgiveron 1). This is the world Montag lives in. He is not alike his peers at all. “Montag has a conscience and a curiosity” (McGiveron 1). This shows he has a special set of traits that is rare in this society. Montag moves past things much better than those around him. An example of this is “even when Montag finally kills the taunting beatty he displaces him syntactically from the center of the action.” (McGiveron 2). Here we see the relentlessness of Montag. To include Montag is special compared to the rest of his dystopian
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.
Bradbury describes Clarisse as a teenage girl who is a genuine lover of life. The novel describes that she is a nature lover and is very outgoing. Bradbury has Clarisse contradict Montag's wife Mildred. Clarisse was the main reason Montag starting questioning his happiness and books. Bradbury adds Clarisse’s character to the novel, so her words can be help Montag examine his current life decisions. By her doing this Montag suddenly comes to see some of the missing pieces of his life. Ray Bradbury uses his power of words through Clarisse’s character by having her be different from everyone else in the
Bradbury’s main character Montag’s becomes confused, and starts questioning his entire life and beliefs and all these questions start when Bradbury introduces Clarisse the energetic and curious seventeen year old girl. When coming across Montag the first time while he was walking home, she asked him a most puzzling question, “Are you happy?” and walks away without waiting for an answer (Bradbury 10). He dwells on that question at first thinking it was a silly question. This is when he begins questioning his happiness and comes to the realization that he is in fact not happy, but he cannot figure out why. Perhaps he thinks that he has to be happy, he has a good job and a house
Clarisse McClellan, a unique outcast whose personality traits you could say has influenced Montag to question his life. During one night after work Montag has a little run in with this unique individual into which his transformation initiates. Montag and Clarisse share a conversation into which becomes a life changing experience for Montag, they talked about life and how it’s so different from the times long ago. However though towards the end of this fascinating conversation Clarisse asked Montag one last question right before taking off, she asked Montag this, “Are you happy?”(Bradbury 7). Montag hesitantly states that yes he was happy right when she took off. Later on that night we find out Montag’s wife Mildred had overdosed on ...
Their initial conversation is the focal point of the book, revealing to the audience that Montag is different and more capable of thinking. Additionally, Bradbury makes it seem like the other characters who don’t question society, such as Mildred and Beatty, are threatened by Clarisse and her way of thinking. Mildred acknowledges Montag and Clarisse's short friendship in a harsh way and is glad to mention to Montag that Clarisse has been killed at the end of the first chapter.
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.
“Behind his mask of conformity, Montag gradually undergoes a change of values. Montag realized his life had been meaningless without books” (Liukkonen). In the beginning of the novel, Montag said, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). For most of his life, Montag conformed just like the other members of society. He set things on fire because it was his job and did not question whether or not it was the right thing to do. Throughout the story, however, he grew to find and voice his own opinions and resisted the conformity that his society stressed. When Montag had to decide whether or not to burn Beatty to death, he proved himself by not giving in to what was expected. He killed the captain of the police department, which was an entirely defiant act (Bradbury
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...
One of the main reasons that Montag changed so drastically over the course of the book was his curiosity. Montag spent a lot of time thinking about his job and started questioning everything he was doing. He starts wondering why books need to be burned and why things are the way that they are. Montag takes up a special interest in book and why things are this way. “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work?” Montag asks Beatty showing his curiosity. Montag’s curiosity is what drives him to find out everything he can about books, society and the way that things used to be. It is only natural for him to begin to question everything especially because his job involves burning hundreds of books a day yet he was never told why these books need to burned. Imagine destroying an object everyday, and being told how important your job is. Naturally you would want to know why you are destroying these objects. This is what happened to Montag and Beatty tried to explain it to him and tells him he shouldn’t be too curious about it “A natural error, curiosity alone,” Beatty also asks Montag “Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career, he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know. Isn't that so?” Curiosity is a very natural emotion and even Beatty, who tries to explain things to Montag and discourages books, even admits to looking a few books but says “I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing!” I believe that this would make Montag even more curious.
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