Identity in Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

826 Words2 Pages

Is that honestly yourself who decides to take the action that you just did? The answer should be yes, however, the main character of the book called “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury would answer no. This book is a science fiction which takes place in an unnamed futuristic city. The main character named Montag starts to doubt on the society and tries to find out the truth by going over many happenings and meeting with key people. Within this story, identity is one of the main themes, and Montag shows his importance through himself. As he makes his journey of discovery, he gradually loses his own identity such as mind, body, and even existence, and causes identity crisis as he takes of the characteristics of the people he meets. 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. The next thing he loses is the control of his own body. When he meets with Faber, an old retired English professor, he is given a tool called green bullet.

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