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Guy Montag Analysis

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Guy Montag, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, exhibits great change through his actions, thoughts, and choices that completely shifts his views of the world around him, as he transitions from an enforcer of the tyrant, censoring government, to an outlaw, a fugitive trying to break the tight-knit conformist view of society. Through this change, he begins to question everything he once believed in: his job, his lifestyle, and even his own wife. At the beginning of the book, Guy Montag is set up as not only a follower of the governments will, but he executes it, by being a fireman, which is that society’s figure for a police officer. When the reader first meets the character Guy Montag, it is with the phrase, “It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 1). In this line, we see the characterization of Montag. He is experiencing joy in destruction, which helps the reader to understand, perhaps not initially, but later in the book that he is a follower/adherent of the tenants of his society. As a matter of fact, the reader learns the true definition of “Fireman” which reveals that he is an enforcer of the law and will of his government. This is a complete differ from the real world’s view of the term fireman. Today, a fireman is a person who saves lives, helps people, but in Guy Montag’s case, a fireman is a cancer, spreading from house to house, burning all that disagrees with what the government wants and demands. A typical fireman, which is Guy Montag in this point of the book, is

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