Fahrenheit 451 Quote Analysis

This quote shows the reader that Montag is starting to feel internal conflict over his job of burning books. This internal conflict comes from the fact that he is starting to become less ignorant about the damage he is doing. Similarly, Montag tells his boss, Beatty, “I’ve tried to imagine, just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books” Harbour 1 (Bradbury 31). By trying to imagine a reality in which Montag himself owns books, he shows that he is beginning to understand that true knowledge lies outside of what his government is telling him.

69. This quote shows that Mildred is ignorant and doesn’t want to see what the books have to say. Nobody else reads either, showing that she is conformed to what others are doing. Finally Montag and Mildred can represent knowledge and individuality vs ignorance and conformity. The first quote that supports the claim is "what for!

Firemen set fire to books rather than extinguish flames in buildings in the future depicted in Fahrenheit 451

1. Mildred says these words to Guy Montag. She tells him that books aren’t people which are found in her TV parlor which she enjoys being with. She calls the people on the TV her family. She compares the books to her TV. She says that the people on the TV tell her things and make her laugh and they are full of colors, whereas the books are black and white and don’t make sense to anybody and doesn’t make her laugh instead makes her feel bad.

In the beginning of the novel Montag is a fireman who burns books, but after he meets Clarisse, he starts to question about the books and why society is the way it is now. This reveals the theme that too much knowledge can lead to the destruction of society. In the

The beginning pages of the novel describe Montag’s role in burning down a house full of books and the joy that he experiences when he sees fire. As he walks home from his day of work, he is, “Whistling, he let the escalator waft him into the still night air. He walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular” (Bradbury 2). This quote shows how Montag is going through the motions of his life without really thinking about his actions. Additionally, this demonstrates that Montag has no awareness of the consequences of burning books.

This quote really shows the power of books in Montag’s society and how they control the power of books. It also shows society's attitude towards books because of how Montag laughs at being questioned about reading the books. This quote honestly depicts how books have been manipulated to have a negative

Montag walked home one evening as he meets his neighbor Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse is a seventeen year old girl who views the society she lives in differently than everyone else does. Montag and Clarisse being to walk home as she asks him multiple questions

Despite the firemen’s efforts to force books into irrelevancy, the opposite effect happened; books became even more valuable, to the point of risking oneself’s life to not save the books, but to die with them. Bradbury’s use of books represent two contradictory significances: damnation and salvation. On Montag’s first mission in the novel, he confronts a woman that continues to confuse Montag even further than he already was about to truth of a roles of the firemen, and the value of books: “She was only standing, weaving from side to side, her eyes fixed upon a nothingness in the wall, as if they had struck her a terrible blow upon the head” (cite). It is heavily implied in the novel that Montag has never felt the emotion of passion. Witnessing a scene such as this, Montag is in disbelief at the thought of a person sacrificing their life for worthless and blasphemous things such as a books. This is essentially the turning point in Montag’s mentality, for it is also implied that the old woman’s death is the first that Montag ever witnessed in his ten years of being a fireman. For his entire life, Montag had been taught to be turned away from books, and that the possession of books leads to death. This sacrificial act towards books is Montag’s first exposure to the fiery passion of martyrdom, and it confuses him. During his conversation with Millie, he tells her that “[people] need to be really bothered once in

Early in the novel Montag walks home after burning books and bumps into Clarisse and they talk for awhile. Clarisse starts to go home, but she first asks Montag if he is happy. Montag quickly retorts that of course he’s happy; however when he gets home, he realizes that, “He was not happy” (12). This is Montag’s first moment of awareness that the society isn’t happy. The next day he goes to Fire Captain Beatty and, “He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McClellan saying, ‘didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?”

First of all, Montag faces government censorship over society’s citizens, which changes him to become a courageous character, and he learns that because the government has taught people to take what they have for

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. Guy never turns Faber in to the authorities for possession of a forbidden book, but keeps Faber’s personal information in the case that he decides to do so. These two people alter Montag’s perspective on the world and the stories concealed in it by the media and government. Montag is so influenced that, 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. Montag changes throughout the course of the story by beginning to question authority and doubt the ways of his life and society. He is transformed from the beginning to the ending, through the influence of the people in his life.

Therefore, through books, Montag becomes conscious of the monotony of his previous life, and now rebels against the very foundations of his society. Due to this intellectual illumination, Montag begins to acknowledge the details of the world around him, details he had once ignored: ‘”Bet I know something else you don’t. There’s dew on the grass this morning.”’As enlightenment dawns on Montag, he finally begins to realise the power within books (i.e. they hold the key to power through knowledge) and this is his ‘crime’ against society: ‘There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house...’ Despite his newfound interest, Montag is still struggling to understand the concept of literature. Once again however, Montag is pushed in the right direction by Professor Faber. Under Faber’s guidance, Montag recognises that ‘There is nothing magical about [books] at all. The magic is only with what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment.’ This quote exemplifies the fact that although books are the combination of mere ink and paper, it is the beliefs and the knowledge within a book that are so incredibly powerful.

“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” -Yehuda Bauer. In the book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray bradbury, Montag did not stand by and observe the corruption of the government, but instead took matters into his own hands and rebelled for what he believed in. A person is able to rebel when they cannot think their own way, when they are forced to do something, and the uneasiness of being unsafe.

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!