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How Does Montag Change In Fahrenheit 451

Decent Essays

Maxmilian Savin
Bledsoe
English 10
13 October 2014
Change in Perspective
Within Fahrenheit 451 Montag experiences many encounters with people, both good and bad. Most of the important people he encounters alter his views on his society or change his thoughts about things like books and intellectuals in general. Others he comes across are merely just mindless people that are basically examples and reinforce the idea of how his society is in a horrible state. It is likely that Clarisse is the most important person in Fahrenheit 451 that Montag encounters or meets. Clarisse acts as a catalyst for all of Montag’s actions from near the beginning of the novel to the end. “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 across the lawn with the mask” (Bradbury 9). These are Montag’s thoughts after meeting and speaking to Clarisse for the first time at the beginning of the novel. Before she leaves, she asks Montag if he is happy. This causes Montag to question his happiness and he concludes that it is not real happiness and that he’s just been wearing it like a mask, …show more content…

The Unidentified Old Woman is a person Montag saw at a call while he was working. The firemen are called to a house that has books and an old woman inside. Montag and the firemen go into the room with the books and douse them with kerosene. The old lady refuses to leave her books and dies with them. This, once again, calls Montag to question things. “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house” (Bradbury 48). Montag questions if what he has been told his whole life is true. If books are useless, contradict each other, and upset people, why would someone want to die with the books. He starts the find out that there is something more to books than just conflicting

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