Montag's Fahrenheit 451

(SIP-A) Montag questions his own happiness and the society around him. (STEWE-1) Montag is questioned about his own happiness, “Are you happy?” (7), causing him to start questioning the society he lives in. “He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs”(9). He realizes that he is not as happy like the rest of the people in the society believe they are, he knows something is missing. “When did we meet and where?” (40) Montag questioned his wife Mildred when they met and they both could not remember. (STEWE-2) Montag now knows that something in his life is missing but he just does not know what forcing him to ask questions. “Well wasn’t there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just one wall but, so far, three! And expensive too” (41). He needs someone to hear him out and listen to what he has to say because at the moment he has nobody that he can talk to. “Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say”(78). Montag resorts to his old friend Faber that he can talk to about everything. (SIP-B) Montag knows what is missing in the society. (STEWE-1) Montag eventually finds out that the happiness/knowledge factor is missing in their society, that everyone is being

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

pleasure for Montag to see things as he saw the world. Also in the novel, it says, “ Even now he

Clarisse Mclellan and Mrs. Montag, otherwise known as Mildred, are the two strongest and most prominent female characters in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. They are both extremely vital and important to the story in the different ways that they influence the main character of the novel, Guy Montag. Clarisse however, is labeled as a threat t the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451. She is questioning and curious. Mildred is the society’s ideal and perfect citizen. She has been molded, conformed, and brainwashed into the character she is in the novel. These two important characters are wildly different, although they do share some similarities. In this essay, I will be observing, comparing, and contrasting the differences between Clarisse Mclellan and Mildred Montag.

Page 104, “Silence. Montag sat like a carved white stone. The echo of the final hammer on his skull died slowly away into the black cavern where Faber waited for the echoes to subside.”

“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” It’s thousands of years later, and there’s not a single book in sight. If you hide a book, you’ll be arrested, and your books will be burned. Guy Montag is a fireman, and his job to burn the books. However, he begins to question the system, after working this job for years.

Montag found who he was as a person just by opening up his eyes to the world. Clarisse McClellan was a brief but significant character within Fahrenheit 451; she allows Guy Montag to discover what his true values are and helps him realize what he was missing in life, which was books. Books give people a sense of intelligence, but we humans tend to miss out on the importance of written literature because we are too focused on what the world chooses to believe. Clarisse has a significant impact on Montag’s life and how he views society. Even if he doesn’t realize it, she challenges his views of himself and the way he sees the world.

Throughout the entire book, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag went through a series of changes. Guy’s job as a fireman isn’t what you would think. Instead of fighting fires, he starts them. Some of the changes he went through changed him for the better and others maybe not so much. In the story, things changed Montag such as, Clarisse McClellan, finding his new love of books, and Captain Beatty.

running alone in the night city, the only man proving his legs...he felt the city rise… he felt the city turn to its thousands of doors… the people sleepwalking in their hallways… he felt their hands on doorknobs… he ran out away from the last row of houses, on a slope leading down to a solid moving blackness” (132). This scene makes it obvious that Montag is encountering the most unforeseeable, uncharted state of runaway fugitive. Bradbury is almost trying to inform the reader that is Montag experiencing the “abyss” as the narrator specifically claims that Montag ran down a row of houses and, lacking any option, was forced to go into “the darkness”. Acknowledging that it would be impossible for him to remain in the city, considering not

What was Montag thinking, reading books? How could he read books when his his whole life involved burning books? Montag, the fireman was good at his job, not only was he good but he was outstanding. He never disobeyed his orders he just did what he was told, he was like every other fireman. Montag started reading, he told no one because it was against the law, why would he? It wasn't smart, he couldn't stop reading it was a habit he saw that there were people in those books with problems and he was intrigued by that. The thought of Montag got more open and read these books was dangerous but it was also against the law.

Well, now I’ve done both.” When it comes to this quote Montag is referring to Beatty and how he always told him that if he had a problem that he should burn it and eventually Beatty became Montag’s problem so he decided to face it by burning him and killing him in the process. Ultimately, Montag killed Beatty because of all the events that led up to the final showdown between the two.

People can alter someone’s life in many ways: good and bad. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag has been greatly influenced by Clarisse and Mildred. Both characters enable Montag to look at his life with a new perspective. Mildred and Clarisse McClellan have very different personalities yet they’re both significant in Guy Montag’s life by affecting and influencing his values and behaviors in negative and positive ways.

As the reader is more introduced to her they can see her manipulation become more evident. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (23) she tells this to the other girls. This adds a fear element as well as eludes how she can manipulate people into doing what she tells them. This helps to not only prove to the reader the truth of this theme but develop the plot and her role in the

Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in future America. The people in future America don’t read books, having meaningful conversations, or enjoy the moment. They all listen to the radio or watch t.v . soon montag meets Clairsse who opens his world to the nothingness of his life with her love for people and nature. The next few days his wife Mildred attempts suicide by swallowing sleeping pills later on a elderly women decides to burn with her books then Clarisse is hit by a car and killed. Montag soons becomes dissatisfied with his life and begins to look for an answer in his secret stash of books he has hidden. His chief later visits his house explaining why books were banned in the first place. His chief later gives him 24 hours to read

The expression of ideas is an irrefutable facet of human nature that cannot be stripped