Fahrenheit 451 consists of multiple diverse characters, including a significant man named Guy Montag. Montag plays the main character strongly and effectively and has an immense impact on the story, and has one of the most vital parts of the story. Through Montag's actions, ideas, and feelings, he forms into a new person and changes throughout the story from fitting into what seems to be a utopian society in the beginning, but then later fitting into a dystopian society in reality. A third-generation fireman with a salamander on his arm, a phoenix-disc on his chest, and a helmet numbered 451, Guy Montag fits into the stereotypical role with his scorched black eyebrows and hair, fiery face, and a striking shaved but unshaved look. Montag is …show more content…
Displayed in the quote, "Beatty flopped over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent. The other two firemen did not move. Montag kept his sickness down long enough to aim the flame thrower. 'Turn around!'" (Bradbury 113), Montag kills Beatty. This means that his ideas about changing the society he lives in caused him to carry out the action of even going to the extent of killing a person he used to call a friend, in an attempt to make his ideas come to life. Also, the other characters in the story have a huge impact on how Montag's actions and ideas are created. As Montag's thoughts change, the other characters thoughts on Montag change as well. Mildred in the beginning of the story thought that Montag was the perfect husband in her eyes. "Mildred's mouth twitched. 'See what you're doing? You'll ruin us! Who's more important, me or that Bible?'" (Bradbury 72). She soon becomes infuriated with Montag and his needs to change things that, to her, will change her life for the worst. Another example could be Faber, the old English professor Montag met before the story started. When they meet up again for the first time in the story, Faber is cautious and afraid of him because he thinks Montag is a fireman who will burn him and all of his precious belongings because Montag knows he has books because of Faber's recent career. However, Faber soon finds out that Montag has changed, and
In conclusion, Montag has the qualities of a hero. He teaches us to do the right things in life even when everyone is against it. He also teaches us that sometimes in order to achieve a few things in life you may have to give up a few things in life. Guy Montag clearly shows heroism in Fahrenheit 451 and is ready to get it to the next step. We all can make a difference in society. Heroes are not born, they
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a very interesting and unusual character. Not only is Montag a curious character, the story itself is also far from traditional. While the storyline of the novel does follow the typical Hero’s Journey path, Montag himself does not possess the qualities and characteristics of a hero. The contrast between the way the story is a monomyth, while Montag is not, can be seen throughout the book and makes for a captivating, sometimes confusing read.
Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of Guy Montag, a weary fireman who was initially satisfied with blindly following his orders to
Montag On Montag’s page, each object represents him in some manner. For example, the red hand resembles Montag’s actions. He continuously blamed his hands for actions that he did. He thought he had no control over them because they “were hands that acted on their own” (Bradbury, Ray 105).
Bradbury’s Novel Fahrenheit 451, the main character named Guy Montag is a firefighter for over 10 years now, and has been “hypnotized” by the salamander and has occasional flashbacks about it. In the beginning of the novel, he meets this girl named Clarisse McClellan who is 17 and a little bit sassy because of the way she is towards Guy’s answers to her questions. Clarisse raised her eyebrows and said “Your a fireman?!” She thought it was really odd for a 30 year old man to be a firefighter talking to a 17 year old girl. She smelled this huge disturbing fragrance of Kerosene which was basically a normal scent that he always has.
Guy Montag, a prominent and respected man in his community, suddenly becomes unhappy with his life devoted to the burning of books as a fireman. Though he struggles to find his way, he becomes obsessed with rebelling against the system he had worked so hard to protect. Mildred Montag, Guy’s wife, is a lifeless woman with no touch to reality. She spends her days glued to television screens, suicidal and disconnected from those around her.
Fahrenheit 451 is about a fireman by the name of Guy Montag beginning to see that the sheltered world he lives in is not all that it seems. Montag slowly begins to see the cracks in society and begins to defy society and its norms. Ray Bradbury uses figurative language such as symbolism and metaphors to convey the theme of censorship.
Guy Montag- Guy is rebellious and irrational. When Guy meets the observant teen, Clarisse. She opens up a whole new outlook for Guy. In this futuristic story, books are illegal and need to be burned. Guy decides to take a book from one of the houses he needed to burn. Hiding books in his house is a dangerous and rebellious thing to do for him, being a fireman. An irrational thing Montag did was set his boss, Beatty, on fire when he was about to be arrested. Monatg did not want to kill anyone. At the end of the book, Montag escapes the hound on foot and heads toward the city. Guy Montag coud be described as a hero or a rebel. A passage that would reinforce Montag’s description would be… “Monatg sat up. Lets get out of here. Come on, get up,
Guy Montag is a fireman who takes pride in burning books. He experiences pleasure when handling fire and tends to think of himself as being greater than others. In the text, it states, “With the brass nozzle in his fists…his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal of ruins history” (Bradbury 1). This illustrates that Montag enjoys burning books and using his hands to control fire. This is because fire gives him a sense of greatness over others, which enables him to control and change history.
Montag is different from all the other firemen do. Montag starts fires alternative of putting them out. Books in Montag community is banned to read and if caught reading a book the books would be set on fire. The community watches television instead of reading books. Clarissa was a usual teen girl that opened Montag’s thoughts. She asked him about his work and how did he become a fireman. One of the question
The characters Guy Montag and Clarisse McClellan in Fahrenheit 451 are interesting because they both possess traits of extreme curiosity and rebellious nature, which is against the structure of the society they live in. Specifically, Guy Montag demonstrates the most personal growth and change, which is apparent throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Guy is initially proud of his job because he is a fireman who burns books and houses for a living. One day at his job, Guy hears the fire alarm sound and sees an old woman with books at her house. By procedure and law, the firemen are required to burn down the house because the books in the house are illegal. Despite this substantial pressure of breaking the law, the old woman refuses to leave the house and
The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag, who has spent his life in a state of ignorance, like most people in his society. In fact, he works as a fireman, a feared member of the government whose main job is to burn books.
Guy Montag: Montag is the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, but by no means is he a “good” one. Montag is a third generation fireman, who all of a sudden finds out how meaningless and empty his existence really is. When faced with the complexity of the forbidden books that he is supposed to be burning, he realizes what state their world is in and he tries to fix it. Montag often acts rashly or rather inarticulately and sometimes finds himself not knowing what he’s is doing; almost as if his hands were acting by themselves. Unfortunately in doing so, he sometimes acts without any conscious realization of what he is doing and that turns sour for him after murdering the fire-chief in an attempt to overthrow the “firemen”. Even though he can blindly and lucidly take extreme and even dark actions, he also attempts to reclaim his own humanity and can converse and live compassionately (such is the case with Clarisse). Often times his approaches are clumsy or chaotic, but nonetheless, at least he tries. Montag’s character is the most dynamic in the novel but he also is somewhat of a static one also. His role in the book is very
As a third generation fireman, he makes his living by burning books and the “fireproof” houses they are hidden in. Montag believes himself happy and fulfilled with his job until a seventeen year old girl named Clarissa starts making him question his role in life. His wife has grown to love the TV’s in his living room more than him. He goes to work, eats dinner, and goes to bed in an endless cycle with no promising conclusion or resolution. The facade he carefully constructed for himself was like a matchstick house and quickly went up in smoke once he realized the lunacy of his situation and the world’s plight. His new found individualism and curiosity grows even more when he is confronted by a women’s suicide and Clarisse’s sudden death. He revolts, reads the books he has secretly been hoarding, and ends up being forced to burn his home to the ground along with most of his collected books. He ends up losing his wife, murdering his mentor, and running for his life from a mechanized hound with a lethal injection syringe in in
The obvious assumption is that Guy Montag is the protagonist. However, in response to the assertion that the books could be the protagonist, requires a hard look at what exactly a protagonist is supposed to do. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines “protagonist” as “the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text,” or “an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea.” If we apply that definition to both Montag’s role and the role books play in Fahrenheit 451, it is clear that Montag fits the definition more fully. Montag is the leading character, as well as an advocate for