The story of a time when firemen created fires instead of putting them out. A time when people didn’t have personal connections anymore and when their true personalities were hidden. When books became illegal… In the book, Fahrenheit 451, a man named Guy Montag shows us that he is a complex man because of his growing curiosity, head-strong attitude, and his very intelligent mind.
Guy Montag shows his curiosity in multiple ways throughout the text. One instance he shows this quality is when he says, “ You weren’t there, you didn’t see,” he said. “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing” (54-55). This makes his growing curiosity very apparent to the reader. He tells us how there has to be something deeper in books and how he wanted to know what it was. He wanted to feel what the woman felt, the love, the passion, for something that mattered. Montag has many different personality
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Montag says to Mildred, “Let you alone! That’s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be left alone. We need to be bothered once in awhile. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”(55-56). His head-strong attitude and stubbornness shine through with this quote. He wants people to get bothered, he wants them to have a reaction. If that is what he wants, he will stop at nothing to get that. He brings up controversial topics throughout the book just to get a reaction from people because he thinks that is what should happen for the world to be right. We wants to stand for something and wants everyone else to as well. Montag’s head-strong attitude is very important throughout the story with how he makes his decisions, but also his intelligence is what makes him aware of what is right and how he makes the
His personality is different from other firefighters. He isn’t intimidating and doesn’t necessarily think that burning books is good. I do like Montag, but I’m waiting for him to make up his mind about whose side he’s on.
Many people talk about how the world is slowly caving in as people are desensitized emotionally. Opposers suggest that it is technology’s fault for sucking a person’s mind into oblivion twenty four hours a day. However, it is the people themselves who are going to bring about their own destruction. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the actions of the public perfectly exemplifies a worst-case scenario of the future coming to mayhem. In this world, books not accepted by the law are burned by “firefighters” so that everyone is taught the same information. Nobody strays from the “truth”, and this way, everyone is treated equally. There is no nerd and there is no bully. The public is encouraged to listen to live streams of people talking in headphone devices called seashells. Yet for one man in particular, Guy Montag, he struggled between fitting in with the public or pursuing an “itch” he has always had. These feelings started when he had a short talk with his neighbor, Clarisse McClellan. In school, Clarisse has always been seen as an outcast, yet by Montag, her strange facts of realization intrigued him. She knew curious information that he did not, and this made him angry. It was not until she mysteriously disappeared that he really started to understand the depth to her words. She knew more about life, and he was determined to find the same information in the forbidden books. Ironically, Montag was a firefighter, but he
One thing that is crucial to understanding the main character, Guy Montag, is that he doesn’t wish pain on those who don't deserve it. In this passage where Montag is talking about his wife he says that he won’t feel sad if she dies, but he still does not want her to die in the bombing. Even though she was an awful wife who put Guy through hell, he does not want her to be in pain. The fact that he was hurting a woman who had never done anything wrong but own a book is the turning point for Montag’s change of opinions about books. If this woman had not felt strongly enough about her books to die with them, then Montag wouldn’t have believed that they had valuable information in them.Without this quality, Montag would not have killed Beatty, and he would have died in the bombing. In summary, Guy Montag would not hurt anyone who he didn’t think deserved it. Because of this quality he is alive today.
Another incident that stayed in Montag 's mind is the old women who set her self and her books on fire. However, Montag tried stopping her by telling her that the books were not worth her life. Before she burned herself, Montag took one of her books and kept it. At that time Montag did not think about what did the old lady burned herself with the books, he did not think about it might be the value and morals that books hold to teach is. The old lady knew the importance of these books and what do they have, so she preferred to burn herself with them, and not watch the firemen burn them, who do not even know the importance of books. But they do know that books are unreal and there is so importance of them, plus they are against the law!
In Montag 's case, he understands that he is unhappy with the way he is living, and he begins to rethink his ways of destruction. In like manner, a literary criticist, Rafeeq McGiveron, gives a good analysis of the character of Montag when he says that Montag has a “blithely clear and pathetically blank conscience” towards burning books until he relives his childhood through walks with Clarisse (p.6). Clearly, Clarisse tugged and Montag 's heart and helped him understand the heartlessness of burning books. Most definitely, it was Montag 's hand and not his brain or mind that was the true monster. In another example, the reader sees Montag 's private life during a conversation between he and Mildred, his wife, when she says, “when can we have a fourth wall television put in? It 's only two thousand dollars” and Montag responds by saying that two thousand dollars is one-third of his yearly pay (Bradbury 33). The example presented adds more depth to the grim life of the main character because Montag is married to a woman that is selfish and has no interest for any part of Montag 's life. Similarly, because Montag is faced with unhappiness in both his professional and private life, he is quick to accept the words of Clarisse that there is a better and brighter life possible for him. Overall, Bradbury successfully acomplishes a sense of sympathy for Guy Montag by revealing the
Dynamic characters undergo inner change. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, a fireman, whose job involves finding “forbidden” books and burning them, along with the house, and residents if necessary. This futuristic society has given way to ignorance and hatred of literature. They freely gave it up for the quick fix of simpler technological entertainment. Through Montag’s interactions with other characters, he learns and grows from a close minded worker who enjoys burning books, into an open minded intellectual. Clarisse, an old woman, and Faber help Montag’s character change over the course of this novel. Montag's personal growth as a dynamic character comes in the form of an awakening.While walking to work, Montag meets Clarisse, a nature loving, seventeen year old.
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.
At first, Montag has a strong dislike for books and doesn’t mind destroying knowledge, but over the course of the book, his dislike changes into a love for knowledge and books. Later, he finds the true meaning of books and how important they are to our world. The quote sets
The first main character of Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag. He is a 30 year old fireman, who has black hair and smelled of kerosene, and at first wasn’t an individual or a thinker, but developed into one as the story progressed. He is a dynamic character who was very angry and confused about his life, and the life his society tells him to live. Montag is the protagonist, and he goes against the government to change the society for the better. His goal is to preserve knowledge and literature for future generations. Montag said, “‘I realized that a man was behind each one of those books’” (49). This shows that he acknowledged that books were written by real people, with their real thoughts in them; that they had details and meaning to them. This was something most people in this society did not realize.
Mildred is so brainwashed by their society that she prefers not to and even refuses to think about it. This fact is shown when Mildred simply tells him to go away: “Let me alone,’ said Mildred. “I didn’t do anything.” (BradBury, 49). This unnatural relationship begins to create a type of void between her and Montag.
The first character in the novel Fahrenheit 451 who influences Guy Montag is seventeen year-old Clarisse McClellan. The first time Guy and Clarisse cross paths occurs when Guy is walking home from work close to midnight. They meet on an empty sidewalk and quickly begin conversation. As they continue talking, Guy notices that Clarisse is not an average teenager because of the deep questions and thoughts she has. Clarisse questions Guy’s contentment and makes him realize the absence of love and pleasure in his life. Clarisse acts as a goad to push Guy towards a much needed self-examination that later helps him overcome his fear of bringing out the books he has collected over the years and start to look for the meaning in them. Because of Clarisse, Guy is able to transform into a more self-aware man who can now decode his feelings and realize what he needs to have a flourishing life. The second character I chose who impacts Guy Montag is Professor Faber. Guy met Faber in a park a year before this novel takes place when Guy suspected Faber of having a book. When Guy finally builds up his interest in wanting to know more about his secret books, he calls Faber for aid. With Faber’s knowledge, Guy is able to understand viewpoints from different authors and eventually escape the city after he is reported for having books. Alongside Clarisse, Faber is able to help Montag from being completely molded into an average city citizen who is isolated from the knowledge that books are,
Guy Montag is a round character because he changes from a fireman who burns books to stopping others from burning books. He goes to Faber’s house so he can help him understand what’s in books. They talk about helping others understand books because they don’t like the society they live in. “I don’t know. We have everything we need but aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I’ve looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burn in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help” (78). This quote shows that Guy Montag wants to change and learn
Guy Montag is one of the firefighters in his communities that start fires by burning books instead of putting them out. The firefighters have people turn in others who may be hiding books in their houses or other areas. In Fahrenheit 451, the government believes that books encourage creativity which separates people from one another. They want everyone to be equal, so they send out firefighters to homes where there may be hidden books. The firefighters are trained to find the stories that the book people hide in things like old vases, inside TV sets, in vents and multiple other things. If there is an outrageous amount of books in the house, the firefighters may just burn down the whole house. The firefighters were just doing their assignment present to them by the Government to try and keep all people equal. Montag and the other firefighters are one of the main reasons that the world was so simple and vague.
As the plot of the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Montag does not fit into society. One way he is different is the fact that he likes real knowledge, as supposed to the artificial knowledge the rest of the characters know. An example of this is when Mildred and her friends start to talk about politics. Mrs. Bowles tells Montag that voting for Winston Noble was an easy choice because of the competition. His challenger was short and she tells Montag “You just don't go running a little short man like that against a tall man”(93), conveying the idea that Mrs. Bowles thought she cast an informed vote. However, Montag strongly disagrees with her reasoning, as he prefers real knowledge. He opposingly believes that political positions should be elected based on more than just superficial traits. Montag is furious and leaves the room, but then returns to combat the ignorance “with a book in his hand.”(94) Though this decision was senseless and ironic in that way, Montag shows himself to be different from Mrs. Bowles who “voted last election, same as everyone [else].”(93) Montag is also incomparable to society as a whole because of his animosity towards
Guy Montag lives a normal lifestyle in a futuristic world working as a fireman. However in this time period, books are burned and as a fireman, Montag contributes to that. One day, his new neighbor, Clarisse, a curious girl filled with wonder, opened his eyes. After their conversation, Montag determined that he is unsatisfied with his life. In search of happiness as well as curiosity, Montag, decides to read books, a practice tat is illegal in this corrupt society. When Montag cannot understand the information give in books, he turns to a friend/former professor, Faber. After meeting with Faber, Montag becomes a changed man. They devised a plan to stop the book-burning system, but things take a wrong turn when Montags fire-chief, gets a call