Just As We Do On Our World Montag By F. Scott Fitzgerald

But he never realized that he was not happy until Clarisse asked him if he was happy. Clarisse not only shows him into another reality that could exist, but that shows him the reality that had existed and what should exist. Like reading books should be legal and so should stay up late at night talking or watching TV as a family. Clarisse shows and gives Montag the ability to interpret his own world. Once Montag starts to interpret the world he lives, he begins to take little steps toward books and has a couple of sudden urges of wanting to rescue the book. He slowly starts to realize that a man is behind every book and has put hard work behind it. By destroying a book, Montag is destroying history created by another man, especially when he put so much work into the book. Montag notices that many people care for their television families instead of caring for their actual families, like Montag’s wife or even Mrs. (). Montag even notices that all the firemen look similar, like dark-hair and unshaven, mirror images of Montag. She influences Montag so much that Montag ends up becoming a human being who can think, feel, and analyze from the automan he used to

In the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag is a fireman-a person who burns books. He decides to go against what he has been told and reads a book, and his perspective completely changes. Montag lives in a dystopian society where everyone is alike, and people who differ from them are shunned. He plots against all who were like him, the firemen. After a failed attempt to gather intel from his ex-colleagues, Montag flees from the city and after many years of being alike to everyone else, as he escapes he sees the world from a different view and finally feels like an individual. Bradbury explores the dangers of refusing to widen one's perspective with the use of indirect characterization of society and dynamic characterization of Montag,

Right now it is as simple as that” (Bradbury 123). This excerpt demonstrates Montag’s mindset of “every man for themselves”. He knows those of law enforcement are after him as he had fled the city as a wanted criminal. Fire is his new tool for survival, without it he is left hopeless.

One of the major changes in this new society is depersonalization, the loss of self and intimacy. After an alarm is sent to the firehouse for a home possessing books, Montag travels to the location with the other firemen. He then discovers that this is his own house, and his wife Mildred turned him in to the firemen. Then, Beatty, the head fireman and Montag’s acquaintance, forces him to burn it down himself. After doing so, he stands outside and watches his house burn. He ruminates, “A great earthquake had come with fire and leveled the house and Mildred was under there somewhere and his entire life was under there…” (112). Despite some of these things that are a part of Montag’s life not being the most pleasant, they are still a large part of who he was. As the house is being burnt down, Montag realizes that everything about him is being destroyed with it. Without his house, Montag has nothing familiar left, and registers that his whole life is essentially gone. After killing Beatty as revenge for forcing him to destroy his home, Montag starts his escape. He stops at the house of Faber, an ex-professor he met prior to the events of the story, for help. In shock, Montag voices his wonder about how he ended up in this situation. He

Before this understanding, Montag is ‘happy’ and feels that nothing is wrong with his life. He loves his job. He is just like everyone else. Blank and empty inside, Montag wears a mask of happiness on the outside. In the very beginning, he loves to burn books. Afterall, he is a fireman, whose job is to burn the horrible books. For him “it was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things blackened and changed” (1). Montag was just another person brainwashed by television and the lies of government. Montag would have never suspected that Clarisse is the person who takes off his blindfold. After she asks Montag if he is happy, he starts to notice the world. At first, he assures himself that he is happy. When he’s home, he realizes “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…” (9). The mask of happiness that the leaders and government force the people to wear has been torn from Montag’s face and he is shocked as he sees the truth for the first time. Clarisse has started the first step in a transformation that will lead Montag on a path towards true

Montag's attempts to rectify the damage his distorted society has cast upon humanity parallels with the prisoner’s return to the cave, where his newfound beliefs are rejected out of fear. Despite Montag's intentions, the public only attacks him, berates him and labels him a criminal for acting out and rebelling against the society’s wishes. Montag’s attempts to “sear all their faces and wake them up” only result in failure (Bradbury 128), as after all, the public is too afraid. Any threat to the fragile peace the society holds is automatically fought against. The members themselves protect the status quo by isolating outsiders who think differently, as Clarisse explains to Montag, “The others would walk off and leave me talking. Or threaten

Montag’s entire system of beliefs changes when Guy meets a couple of people with unique perspectives, Clarisse McClellan and Professor Faber. Clarisse McClellan is a seventeen year old girl who Montag met while walking down the street one night. She claims she is crazy and always seeks out the answers to questions that nobody else thinks to ask. Faber is an ex-professor who is old enough to have watched the decline of intellectual life in his country. Montag once met Faber in the park carrying a book of poetry on his person and quoting it. Nevertheless, Guy does not turn Faber in to the authorities for possession of a forbidden book, but keeps Faber’s personal information. These two people alter Montag’s perspective on the world and the stories concealed in it by the media and government. By the ending of the story, Montag transforms into a completely different person who, desiring more out of his life, discovers that he can save his burning society by bringing back books and poetry. Therefore, Montag changes throughout the course of the story by beginning to question authority and doubt the ways of his life and society. From the beginning to the ending, Montag transforms through the influence of the people in his life.

Montag forms a connection with anyone who receptive to true friendship. Professor Faber, a former English professor, confesses that the current state of society, is due to the cowardice. Faber still has some rare books but considers that could put him in danger. “Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back.” (Bradbury, 78). Captain Beatty, chief of the firemen hates books, but previously had a passion for them. “Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths.” (Bradbury, 51) Many tones of irony are set throughout Fahrenheit 451. An example of ironic style is where Montag is introduced as a fireman. As the reader, we naturally think of firemen putting out fires, however Bradbury generates Montag as a fireman who starts fires. As the novel goes on, we see that several characters go against the law. Without books, distinctiveness is lost in the characters. This happens to be relevant to today’s society because books are becoming less popular, while technology is taking over. Books can be used as a helping tool, however our society today has become very lazy. Through over usage of technology it is easy to forget the true value that books

No apparent conflict with Montag and his cultural upbringing was introduced in the opening of the novel. Montag lives in a futuristic society so advanced that all houses are fireproof and house fires are not an issue. Montag laughed as his inquisitive neighbor, Clarisse, began telling him that she once heard that a long time ago "they needed fireman to stop the flames" (6). The reader knows it to be true that firefighters did, in fact, stop fires. Along the line of advancement in society, firefighters were in need of a new purpose, so they were given what was seen as one of the highest honors. They were to protect their society from nihilism and free-thinking; to burn all books, manuscripts and written information. Not knowing what a book is or the reason anyone would value one, gave the protagonist the illusion that he was only doing what was best for his society. In chapter 1 Bradbury announces that "It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed"(1). Towards the beginning of the novel Montag favored his job as a firefighter above all else; he loved to burn things. Books and their

Montage struggles with himself to abide with his government. Even though Guy is a fireman who burns books, he has a mental desire to save them from being burned. Montag wants to be an intellectual person who will discover and uncover realities of his society. Although, he fears being discovered and getting killed for his mistakes. Montag fears moving forward and feels stuck to the ground “

Montag job is to burn books and by burning these knowledgeable books, he takes away knowledge from the society therefore ignoring all the knowledge that can be given to the society. Montag's first sense of knowledge came from McClellan when she asked, "Do you ever read the books that you burn?" When Montag got home he thought about the question. Montag ignored the fact of what could be in books, he was just doing his job until he realized that books have power. Montag finally realized when he burned a library with a woman inside protecting her books. For the first time Montag actually thought of what he was doing. Montag had a curiosity of why the woman would stay in a burning library to protect her books. This is what sparked Montag to quit his job as a firefighter.

Montag is living an average, happy life, going to work and coming home to his wife, but when he meets Clarisse, he had his eyes opened up about his society. Near the beginning of the story, Montag has enjoyment while doing his job, “While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning. Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame” (2). Inside these quotes, it represents how happy Guy Montag is. Nothing is bothering him and he is enjoying going to work every day and burning books. Although, when Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse, she gives Guy a different perspective on his happiness as he questions himself, “Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (8) Accordingly, Clarisse has given Montag a new perspective and now he is curious and wants to research deeper in the dystopia and his

In Montag’s society, the government is manipulative of its citizens. At first, it seems Montag wants to burn books, but later he questions himself. After he sees a woman willing to burn with her book, it makes him sick. Beatty visits him that inspire him to be a better man. “Burn the book.

Each fireman has “black hair, black brows, a fiery face and a blue-steel shaved but unshaved look,” which makes Montag realize how his society is so censored(33). The firefighters and Montag burn books and are content doing so, but between each fire Montag’s interaction with McClellan creates an internal change for Montag. He smuggles a book from a house fire after catching a glimpse of some words and becoming even more curious. Because the society has censored the reading of books from society Montag’s physical action is extremely risky. The rule of society are broken when Montag takes the book and expresses his interest in it by reading. Such restrained societal rules push Montag to read and discover a plethora of knowledge in each book. Montag believes that if one is willing to die for books, then a greater meaning lies within. Thus, he strives even more to understand why the society is conformed and censored and wants to earn the knowledge that the society has censored out for so many years prior, and these actions define him as a deviant, rebellious protagonist toward

Meanwhile Montag is strolling down the street he runs into seventeen-year-old Clarisse, a new neighbor who recently moved in. They have a conversation and Montag is deeply interested by what Clarisse has to say about modern society, she utterly rejects any laws of authority and blatantly shames upon any form of civic obedience. She mentions how in the old world firefighters put out fires opposed to the modern world where firefighters create them. She then introduces a scenario where her uncle was jailed for driving too slow on a highway and flat out shames law enforcement. Clarisse inevitably taught Montag the skill of questioning every aspect of life after questioning his