Fahrenheit 451 Literary Response

Montag would still realize that the firemen that are burning books are bad, while those who preserve books are good. If Clarisse had not been in the book, Montag would change his views on books and would start to read and hide them from the other firemen. This is due to how Montag was asking the other firemen a question, “Was it always like this? …

But he never realized that he was not happy until Clarisse asked him if he was happy. Clarisse not only shows him into another reality that could exist, but that shows him the reality that had existed and what should exist. Like reading books should be legal and so should stay up late at night talking or watching TV as a family. Clarisse shows and gives Montag the ability to interpret his own world. Once Montag starts to interpret the world he lives, he begins to take little steps toward books and has a couple of sudden urges of wanting to rescue the book. He slowly starts to realize that a man is behind every book and has put hard work behind it. By destroying a book, Montag is destroying history created by another man, especially when he put so much work into the book. Montag notices that many people care for their television families instead of caring for their actual families, like Montag’s wife or even Mrs. (). Montag even notices that all the firemen look similar, like dark-hair and unshaven, mirror images of Montag. She influences Montag so much that Montag ends up becoming a human being who can think, feel, and analyze from the automan he used to

In the first section, titled The Hearth and the Salamander, Montag shows perseverance. In this section he meets a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan. She teaches him that it’s okay to think freely he questions if burning books is the right thing to do. When Montag returns home after meeting Clarisse he finds his wife, Mildred, had overdosed on pills, but she survived. Daily Montag met Clarisse and he got used to seeing her, until she went missing. Later on the firemen have to burn down a book-filled house of an old woman. The old woman cherishes her

Clarisse tells Montag this, and it makes him wonder if anyone really does care. Montag realizes that he lives in a world of conceited people. He realizes that he does not really care about anyone, including his wife Mildred. People in his society don't think about others feelings when acting. From this, Montag learns the meaning of caring. He learns what a terrible place it is to live in, where no one cares about anyone but themselves. This only changes Montag for the better. At one point, Montag and the other firemen go to a house because a lady has books concealed in her home. The lady, not concerned about being burned to death, is determined to stay with her books. Montag is stunned by her decision, and cares very much about her safety. “Montag placed his hand on the woman's elbow. 'You can come with me'” (Bradbury 39) This is a turning point for Montag, in which he starts to care about everyone and their feelings.

Guy Montag, on the other hand, is a fireman who starts fires, rather than stops them, in order to burn books, which are banned. Anyone caught with books are reported and their house and sometimes the people themselves are burned to the ground. People in his society don’t read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Guy is struggling with the meaninglessness of his life. His wife doesn’t seem to care and when he meets a seventeen year old girl named, Clarisse McClellan it opens up his eyes to the emptiness in his life. After this Montag becomes overwhelmed because of the stash of books in his house that he stole while on the job. Beatty, the fire chief, says that it’s normal for every fireman to go through a stage of wondering what books have to offer. Beatty gives Montag the night to see if the books have anything valuable in them, and to return them in the morning to be burned.

He read a dozen pages here and there. . . Mildred sat across the hall from him. ‘What does it mean? It doesn’t mean anything! The Captain was right!’ ‘Here now,’ said Montag. ‘We’ll start over again, at the beginning.’ “ (65). Montag’s captain, Beatty, has just left his house. Because Montag’s wife, Mildred, has discovered the book Montag stole, he reveals to her, and to the reader, that he has been stockpiling many books for a while now. Montag saw how insistent Beatty was on how books were confusing garbage compared to the fast and instant entertainment of the TV walls. However, having met Clarisse, he begins to wonder if the books actually contain anything worthwhile, and if they contain actual value. Thus, because Mildred has found the book, he makes her read them with him. Mildred reacts the way she does because she has been spoonfed thoughtless entertainment, and thus cannot think critically about what she reads. Montag, on the other hand, is willing to accept this and try and understand what he reads. Mildred shows how well the government has controlled the citizens. She is unwilling to think and understand, only watch. Also, because Mildred sees that Montag has books, she may disclose his secret to the very firemen he works with, as she has been told almost all of her life that books are bad, and should be reported to the nearest fire station. This may cause their relationship to become very strained in the

Montag soon begins to enter the bonfire stage. Clarisse, is an observant, curious, open-minded and unique 17 year old girl. Montag, after meeting a couple times with Clarisse, is when his eyes truly open that his society is full of fake realities. He becomes observant and starts asking questions about his society. While being with Clarisse, Montag would smell the leaves and notice the small details; therefore, he was having a shift from being a prisoner to going up to the bonfire. On page #48 it says, “ You’re not sick,” said Mildred. Montag fell back in bed. He reached under the pillow. The hidden book was still there. “Mildred, how would it be if, well, maybe I quit my job awhile?” “You want to give up everything? After all these years of working, because, one night, some woman and her books-” “You should have seen her, Millie!”…. “You weren’t there, you didn’t see ,” he said. “ There must be something in the books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” This is the event that changed Montags viewpoint on books

During an answer to an alarm, Montag witnesses a woman with a hidden collection of books choosing to be burned alive along with her house. A few days later, he discovers that Clarisse was killed by a speeding car and Montag becomes sorrowful. He begins to act upon Clarisse’s advice. When Montag fails to show up to work one day, Beatty, the fire chief, visits Montag and explains how it’s natural for firemen to become curious about books and what they have to offer. Beatty understands Montag’s situation and gives Montag twenty-four hours to determine if books are worthwhile and then turn them in once the day is up.

Clarisse makes Guy Montag open his mind up to new things. Clarisse asks Guy Montag a question that is very simple yet very deep. The question she asks him is simply “Are you happy?” This question inspires Guy to think about his life and how he can change it. Once Montag gets home he finds his wife Mildred looking lifeless, his wife had tried to commit suicide. It made him think more about Clarisse’s question of “Are you happy?” The next morning when Montag and Mildred had awoke, Mildred did not remember her attempted suicide. His wife’s attempted suicide made him think more about his life and the events of his life so far. Montag tries to understand why Clarisse questions the ways of their society and acts the way she does. Montag does not understand why Clarisse asks herself why. Montag begins to question the society he lives in because of Clarisse’s question. Montag ask a coworker about what firemen use to do in their job in the past. His fireman coworkers tell him to remember the rule book and that they were given the job they do now for a reason. The firehouse gets a call to go burn down another house that contains books, it is Mrs. Black’s house. When they arrive the light of the fire had already started from the burning of her house and books. Mrs. Black decided to stay in her house with her burning books and die. Montag wonders why

One night Montag heads outside in the middle of the night.“The last few nights he had had the most uncertain feelings about the sidewalk just around the corner here, moving in the starlight toward his house”(pg.8). While walking he meets a 17 year old girl, named Clarisse McClellan, who is new in the neighborhood. She guesses right away that he is a firefighter because she smells kerosene. Clarisse asks, “Do you ever read any of the books you

Some people were really passionate about books, but it was rare, because if you wanted to be able to read books, you had to keep them hidden. One day, the firefighters discovered a woman who had been hiding books in her home. The lady refuses to leave the house without the books so they burn the house, books, and the woman. After that, Montag was traumatized. He couldn’t stop thinking about the horrible incident. He began to question himself, and his individuality. That night Montag kept complaining to his wife Mildred, “‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay

She sits home all day and watches her three walls in the living room, that they had equipped with giant TV’s. Mildred bugs Montag for a fourth TV wall. She thinks it would be necessary to achieve the full effect of her TV programs, but Montag refuses knowing that it is a useless and expensive investment. Montag finds Clarisse waiting at the bus stop the next day. She then informs him that she doesn’t go to school because she’s been labeled anti-social by her teachers. Montag and Clarisse continue to carry on a conversation for a while before he eventually had to go and head off to work. Once he arrives at the fire station an alarm sounds to notify the firemen that someone is in the procession of books and that it is time to perform their duty of burning the house of books. Before the firemen begin to incinerate the house, Montag snatches two of the criminal’s books, and when the old lady who owns the houses refuses to leave her personal possessions to be burned the fireman are ordered to burn the house and its books along with her. This act dwells on Montag to the point where is makes him feel sick and very depressed about the inhumane actions he had performed.

Montag grows consistently dissatisfied with his life and work the more he talks with Clarisse. He starts to ponder if perhaps books aren’t so bad, and even snatches one from one of his book burning missions. Meanwhile Clarisse disappears, which I assumed she was dead and his boss, Captain Beatty, is growing suspicious. He lectures Montag on the potential hazards of books and explains the origin and history of their profession. Far from rejuvenated, Montag feels blazing anger and becomes more dangerously rebellious than ever. He spends one afternoon with his wife reading his secret stash of books he’s been storing behind his ventilator grill and decides he needs a teacher. He takes a Christian Bible and tries to memorize some of it on his trip.

“That’s awful! ...Why should I read? What for?”(Bradbury, 73) Mildred hates the fact that her house and her ‘family’ would burn down if Beatty and the other firemen found out about Montag and his books. Mildred doesn’t understand why Montag wants to reason with her and what he finds so special in books. Mildred is a selfish woman who cares only about herself and her friends. As long as nothing happened to her ‘family’, she’d be fine.

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, we can see a lot of things wrong with the society, things that most people think could happen to us, but is it really that unrealistic? Ray Bradbury didn't think so when he wrote it because he was writing about his own time period, shortly after WWII, but the themes he wrote about are still present today. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury criticizes illusion of happiness, oppression, and loss of self, not only his fictitious society, but our society in real life, too.