“It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 3). This opening quote of Ray Bradbury’s futuristic novel, Fahrenheit 451, is a critical one. This line is spoken by the protagonist, Guy Montag. He is a fireman but not the everyday stereotypical type; he enjoys burning. He lives in a futuristic society in which a fireman’s job is to burn prohibited literature. He is a brave, rash, rebellious character. Guy’s round, dynamic character is shown throughout his actions in the novel. Guy is a fireman who takes pride in his profession. He is a third generation fireman of about thirty years old who loves to burn. Guy lives in a society where books are banned because they encourage creativity and free thinking. This futuristic government wants society to …show more content…
This one girl’s simple question sets the plot into motion. Guy goes home where he thinks it over. The ventilator grille catches his eye because he is hiding something; he felt the guilt of hiding something illegal: books. He feels guilt and regret for failing to love his wife. It is not until after he burns the house of an old lady who refused to leave her books. He burned both but stole a book from her house. He was brave enough to keep one book that he was supposed to burn, and he even had the gut to show Mildred. This is the point where his rebellion began. When he could not speak to Mildred about his ideas, he bravely went to Faber, a man he only met one time, asking for assistance. This is the moment when his perspective begins to change. He decides to read a piece of poetry to Mildred and her friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, knowing they are conformists. Although he knows they probably will not support reading, he takes the risk. His rash character causes him to not think about the possible consequences of reading to these ladies. After the burning of the woman, he faces the dilemma of his love and hate for his job. His bravery and
Guy Montag is a fireman whose job is to burn books. Essentially, guy’s job is to start fires supposed to put them out. Books are against the law in futuristic USA, and have been replaced by wall size TV sets. Books were made illegal because they would provoke thought that would cause disagreements and they also offend the readers. Over time, books were revised to make them shorter. Eventually, the books were revised so much that the “books” were 1 page long. Later on, the government concluded that it is best if books no longer exist. Homes were constructed to be fireproof, and the fireman's job was changed to burn the
Guy montag, a future fireman who sets fires, and enjoys it. This society cant read books, it's illegal, all books are burned seemingly to everyone’s enjoyment, including guy. Largely defining his character as finding a fire-fueled smile that never leaves his face. Clarisse, a girl living next to guy, changes his mind with simple questions he’s never heard, “are you in love?’’ No one asks him a personal question, he doesn't know the answer. With books being burned for their knowledge, authenticity is scarce and people are feed what they “need” to hear, substance-less information no one cares to change or question because they don't know how, just hop in the truck and hit 90 mph for an hour if something bothers
While Montag is on the run in the streets, he hears through a Seashell a command for everyone to look for him, and his mind pictures a very realistic image: “He imagined thousands on thousands of faces peering into yards, into alleys, and into the sky, faces hid by curtains, pale, night-frightened faces, like gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of his face” (132). He pictures “thousands on thousands” of people conforming to the will of an upper government, no questions asked. They all will do exactly as told, but something about the image seems especially unsettling. The word “gray” was repeated four times and connected to every phrase describing them. This color is often associated with blandness and lack of unique color, and
But, books were illegal in this day and age, so he must keep the city protected. While watching the senior burn with her books, he learned that these books are so important to some people- there has to be something special about these books. As a result of this, he stole some of her books and took them to his home to read. This example proves that the old lady develops Guy Montag’s character considering he went from being fearful and weary about owning books, to becoming curious and wanting to learn the importance and significance of books. He begins to become intrigued, going against the law and putting his job- and life- at risk.
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.
Guy Montag is a firefighter and a firefighter in his society burns books because it is a
Guy Montag is a man that cannot think for himself and enjoys following the government’s orders. The novel introduces him with one of his thoughts, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 1). On his way home from work one day, Guy meets a young girl named Clarisse McClellan. She’s the only person who questions his actions and challenges him to start thinking about why he burns books. Clarisse asks Montag if he ever reads the books that he burns, Montag laughs and says, “That’s against the law!” (Bradbury 5). Montag has been so brainwashed and ignorant about burning books, but Clarisse gives him new ideas by continuing to create doubts in his mind. She talks to Montag about the firemen from the past and how they were different then they are now. Clarisse says to Montag, “Is it true that long ago
Guy Montag, a local ‘firemen’ lives in a despairing dreary world where instead of firemen extinguishing fires they create them, they burn and banish books. They believe that books are a sin and trouble to society. Although Montag is one of the main sources of the books being burned he meets a bright young girl that changes his ways of thinking and
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 features a fictional and futuristic firefighter named Guy Montag. As a firefighter, Montag does not put out fires. Instead, he starts them in order to burn books and, basically, knowledge to the human race. He does not have any second thoughts about his responsibility until he meets seventeen-year-old Clarisse McClellan. She reveals many wonders of the world to Montag and causes him to rethink what he is doing in burning books. After his talks with her, the society’s obedience to the law that bans knowledge, thinking, and creativity also increasingly distresses him. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows conformity in the futuristic America through schooling, leisure, and fright.
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings” is a famous quote said by Heinrich Heine, which relates to the concept of book burning, seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury uses his unique literary style to write the novel Fahrenheit 451; where he brings his readers to a future American Society which consists of censorship, book burning, and completely oblivious families. The novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is one of the many firemen who takes pride in starting fires rather than putting them out, until he encounters a seventeen-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan. As the novel progresses, the reader is able to notice what Clarisse’s values are in the novel, how her innocence and
In this novel the “hero” is Guy Montag. Guy is a fireman who believes he is happy. Contrary to the jobs of firemen today, his job is to start fires rather than put them out. He burns books and the houses that inhabit them to ashes. Montag lives a very mundane life, like the rest of society. However, when he meets Clarisse McClellan, a young curious neighbor, everything begins to spiral down as she makes him notice what he is missing in his life. Something has been taken away from him that makes him feel empty and discontent. “He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 12).
In an indifferent society that only tracks, copies, and pretends, diversity is unthought of. However, Guy Montag, the protagonist in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is not like the rest of his society. Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic time where independent thinking is outlawed. Bradbury’s novel represents a time and place in which individuals who want to learn and grow are thought of as uncivilized. These “uncivilized” people are being thrown into insane asylums because of their desire towards knowledge. Policemen are called to the scene if someone is in possession of a book. Firemen are then instructed to scorch all the books and sometimes even the entire house if it seems it is a threat to society. Guy Montag, the
Guy Montag is the protagonist and central character of the book, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury that transforms from a conformist in a totalitarian society to rebuilding a society that reads books. Montag fits the cliché description of a good-looking male with “black hair, black brows…fiery face, and…blue-steel shaved but unshaved look.” (Bradbury, 33) For the past eight years he has burned books. He is a 3rd generation firefighter, who in the beginning of the story, loves his job, which consists of burning the homes of people who perform criminal acts of reading and keeping books in their homes. By understanding Montag’s relationships, discontentment, and future, one can begin to understand the complexities of Guy Montag.
In a society preserved by destruction, fire was thought to be the answer. Guy Montag, one of many firemen, participated in this so called “preservation”. Books were considered abominations. Reading provoked thought, and thought led to reality and unhappiness. The solution was to burn everything. Burn the books, burn the houses, burn the foundations of life! Guy went along with this, led his boring life, took the boring walks to and from his work, and afterwards came home to his boring wife Mildred. She, like many others, was consumed by her television “families”. All was thought to be well until one day he stumbled across Clarisse, a curious girl in his incurious world. She awakened his mind and senses. Changed by her, he works to preserve
Fahrenheit 451 begins with the protagonist, Guy Montag, whom takes pleasure in burning, seeing things eaten, blackened and changed by the flames. His job was to destroy the most illegal of possessions, the printed book, alongside the homes that contained such things. Montag never questioned