In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag leads a normal life in his society. He works as a firemen, starting fires at houses with books, and lives with his wife, Mildred. Montag never questions his happiness, his job, or his society until experiencing three women that change his world forever. When Montag meets his neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, her many words later affect him when he realizes that even though she was the opposite of his society, her point of view was right rather than society’s. While doing his job, Montag comes across the old woman who owns the books he is about to burn. She will not leave, and encourages them to set her house on fire even though she is still inside. Although Montag has known Mildred for ten …show more content…
But as Montag starts to talk to her and listen to her; he realizes many things that he didn’t before. Clarisse is very observant, and although labeled as unsocial, she talks quite often. She talks about things that nobody in his society would notice, like the fact that billboards are 200 feet long, but used to be 20, how there is dew on grass in the mornings, and how there is a man on the moon. She encourages Montag to notice these things too, and to think about more in general. The first night that Montag meets Clarisse, she asks him if he is happy. Montag thinks about this and realizes that even though everybody in his society is supposed to be happy, he isn’t. This realization makes him notices that his life and his world aren’t perfect at all. When Clarisse is hit by a car, Montag is devastated by the fact that his new found friend is gone. He tries to explain this to Mildred, but she does not understand. “And Clarisse. You never talked to her. And men like Beatty are afraid of her. I can’t understand it. Why should they be so afraid of someone like her? But I kept putting them alongside the firemen in the House last night, and I suddenly realized, I didn’t like them at all, and I didn’t like myself at all anymore. And I thought maybe it would be best if the firemen themselves were burnt.” (67) Montag realizes that Clarisse was the only person he genuinely liked. He doesn’t like his wife, as Clarisse proved with a dandelion, he doesn’t like his fellow firemen, whom he worked with for years, and he doesn’t even like himself. Clarisse also makes him realize that the people who have books aren’t the bad guys, but rather the firemen themselves. Between noticing the small factors of his everyday life, realizing books aren’t bad, and being told that he doesn’t love his own wife, Montag starts to question his entire life
Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, is a novel by Ray Bradbury that takes place in a futuristic world where society is brainwashed into lacking free thought. The main character, Guy Montag, is a firefighter, but because houses are fireproof and society dislikes the free thinking and creativity inspired by books, firefighters burn books as a janitorial job. One day while walking back from his job, Montag meets his new neighbor’s daughter. She talks crazy things that spark him into becoming a free thinker himself. After following society’s rules throughout his whole life, he suddenly switches and starts rebelling by threatening, endangering, and even killing others to try to prove his point to his brainwashed enemies that this way of life is wrong. After burning his path throughout the city, Montag runs away from the police finding his balanced
8-10). Clarisse completely changes Montag’s emotions as she leaves him saying “Are you happy?” making him further question his job and himself both emotionally and physically. This was the first time in the story when Montag actually asks himself if he is truly happy with his life and if he believes that his job is actually the right thing to do. Before he walked with Clarisse, Montag used to be a rule follower and nothing else, he got up, ate, went to his job, went home, ate, watched TV with his wife and went to bed as this continued every day. He was almost emotionless, but once he met Clarisse he changed forever. Montag had been working at the fire station for multiple years now and the day after meeting Clarisse he came in and asked about books and what a fireman’s job was like in the past. “Montag hesitated, “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work? I mean, well once upon a time…” “Once upon a time!” Beatty said. “What kind of talk is that?” Fool, thought Montag to himself, you’ll give it away… “Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them
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.
Throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag goes from a relatively "typical" fireman to a man on the run. In the story, Guy meets his seventeen year old neighbor Clarisse McClellan, she questions Montag about his life now and the life he has always lived. Near the start of the book Clarisse asks Montag, "Are you happy?" Clarisse's question influenced Montag in many ways, causing him to wonder about his life. After speaking with Clarisse, Montag starts thinking about his wife, Mildred, and whether they really love each other or not. He leaves her to go home and find out for sure. Once he is inside he asks Mildred if she remembers where they met for the first time. Neither Mildred nor Montag remembers where they met at for the first
Guy Montag, the main character in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, goes through a huge change in his life. He changes from a typical fireman who follows the laws, into a person who challenges the law. Montag wakes up from being numbed and realizes that he is unhappy. Montag 's wife, "Mildred", who is addicted to Television and radio, did not care about Montag 's feelings. However; Clarisse and Faber played a big role in Montag 's life. Montag is a metaphor for a numbed society and his courage is demonstrated as he wakes up and evolves into his real human self throughout the book.
Montag in order to change himself and for the sake of curiosity hides books in his house which is clearly an act of risking his life because in Fahrenheit 451 reading or owning a book is illegal as it promotes readers to think independently. Another point where Montag risks his life is when he tries to change the mind of Mildred and her friends by reading them a poem. This act unfortunately worsens as one of Mildred’s friends starts to cry and another friend starts to criticize books. The outcome of this act becomes clearer when Montag realizes that his wife turned him to the firemen. Montag says, “Mildred, you didn’t put in the alarm!”(114). Finally, left with no choice Montag carries out the ultimate acts of sacrifice. He chooses to flee after burning Beatty, effectively leaving his old life behind. Regardless, of the difficulties he will face, Montag decides that he will be an agent of change in the improvement of his own society. Thus, Montag is a hero because he risks his life many times.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, there are many different characters and each one plays a different role. One of the main characters, Guy Montag, is a fireman who takes pride in his work and enjoys burning books as a part of his job. His outlook about burning books changes after he meets Clarisse McClellan and Professor Faber. It’s very interesting how Montag’s way of thinking transforms overtime. He becomes very courageous about hiding books and is also curious about reading them. Throughout the novel his actions, ideas, and his feelings change as he starts to think for himself.
“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something’s missing,” writes Ray Bradbury in his novel Fahrenheit 451 (82). Fahrenheit 451 is a book set in a dystopian society where people are restricted to thinking only a certain way. There aren't any two-sided political debates or controversies among media. This is because all media considered tendentious has been banned, and in order to maintain this rule, firemen have been given the duty of burning books. Among the firemen is Guy Montag, a man who would be considered as a society norm with a house and a wife. In the beginning of the book, Montag has no worries and he accepts his life as a nondescript fireman in this unmindful world. However, after encountering his “seventeen
Set in a futuristic society, Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 revolves around Guy Montag, a fireman who is employed to burn books and arrest those who have books in their possession. Montag starts off as the average fireman, one who does not question societal norms, especially those relating to books and other sources of knowledge. However, as the story goes on, Montag begins to reevaluate his stance on this topic, especially after he witnesses a woman die during one of his fire department’s missions because she does not wish to be separated from her books as they burn. However, though Montag undergoes a large change over the course of this novel, his wife, Mildred, does not. She remains the same person
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.
When Montag first met Clarisse he could tell that she was different from other people he has met before. Clarisse was very free spirited and “her face [was] bright as snow in the moonlight”(pg. 4). She was a very innocent girl who saw the world from a different perspective than Montag. Instead of living in a world full of negativity, Clarisse aimed to explore beyond reality. She talked to Montag about a world where “they needed firemen to stop the flames,” and explained how the world was very peaceful (pg. 6). Also, Clarisse saw the true man hiding beneath the uniform. Although, her ideas may not have fell in line with the rest of society, Clarisse still remained optimistic about what the world was like before this time period. In
This shows that Mildred rarely shows that she sees and hears Montag and she usually just drowns his voice out with her
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the firemen burn the most wonderful things books. The main character Guy Montag is one of the main characters that is a fireman. Instead of putting out fires like they do today, they burn any house that has any type of evidence that you have books. They do not care who you are or what you do, they will burn your house if you have them. In the start of the book he is burning the books and just doing what he is told.
This change is dangerous for Montag, because being a fireman got him closer to books. Books were illegal, possessing them, reading them, even remembering them made other people think they were crazy. The closer he got to books, the more curious he became of them. Two things pushed him over the edge, deaths, the death of Clarisse and a random old woman who burned in her home with her books. This strengthened his curiosity and he started to steal books from the houses he burned.
Imagine, living in a society where households containing books would be burned down, and technology was the only source of knowledge. In the book Fahrenheit 451, a fireman named Montag, with a job of burning down the houses containing books. Montag begins his rebellion against the government when a woman burns inside her house because she wanted to die with her books. Whereas everyone else such as Montag's wife Mildred and Mrs.Bowles, Mrs.Phelps, and Captain who are not able to think up thoughts of their own, due to the overuse of technology. However, further on in the story, Montag meets a bright curious girl named Clarisse who sees the negativity and wrong in their society, who decide to create a difference with the alarming uses of technology.