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How Does Montag Change In Fahrenheit 451

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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

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