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Modern comparisons to fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 commentary
Modern comparisons to fahrenheit 451
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Is that honestly yourself who decides to take the action that you just did? The answer should be yes, however, the main character of the book called “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury would answer no. This book is a science fiction which takes place in an unnamed futuristic city. The main character named Montag starts to doubt on the society and tries to find out the truth by going over many happenings and meeting with key people. Within this story, identity is one of the main themes, and Montag shows his importance through himself. As he makes his journey of discovery, he gradually loses his own identity such as mind, body, and even existence, and causes identity crisis as he takes of the characteristics of the people he meets. The first of all, Montag loses his control over his own mind. At the beginning of the story, he meets a beautiful girl called Clarisse. She is a peculiar girl who wonders about the society and how people live in there. She tells Montag the beauty of the nature, and also questions him about his job and life. Though he has been proud of being a fireman, Clarisse says, “I think it’s so strange you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow” (21). Montag feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (21) by her words. Everything Clarisse says is something new to him and he gradually gets influenced a lot by this mysterious girl. Actually, the impact of the girl is too significant that his mind is taken over by her when he talks with Beatty, the captain of the firemen. “Suddenly it seemed a much younger voice was speaking for him. He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McClellan saying, ‘Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?’” (31). His mind is not controlled by himself in this part. He takes of Clarisse’s mind and it causes confusion within his mind. It can be said that this happening is an introduction of him losing his entire identity. The next thing he loses is the control of his own body. When he meets with Faber, an old retired English professor, he is given a tool called green bullet.
The questioning from Clarisse has led Montag to a loss of self-esteem. Clarisse, Montag’s new neighbor, starts a conversation with him. Clarisse has a different personality than the other people Montag knows at the fire station. She is very outgoing, likes nature, and is not into socializing. When Clarisse asks about Montag’s job, she says that Montag is a fireman without the typical fireman qualities.
Not all rules are always agreed on by every individual. Oftentimes people tend to keep to themselves about their differentiating views, but others fight for what they believe in. In order to make any type of progress for a specific cause, effort and determination needs to be put into a person’s every attempt towards a positive development. Individuals who rebel against an authoritarian society are often faced with the challenges to fight for what they believe in in order to make a change.
...character Montag it is a weapon in the beginning, while deep in his thoughts it actually cleanses his mind completely, and he emerges as a new person. At the start of our story Montag is a hard-working firemen, who doesn’t really think anything to be out of the ordinary. He is comfortable with what he is doing and feels as if fire is his weapon. Upon meeting Clarisse he slowly starts to change into a new person. Stealing books and actually starting to think of the clear issues in this society, was what changed Montag into a new person. At the end of the book, we see Montag shift into his new “body.” He has become a changed man, no longer a firemen, but an outlaw to the state. Bradbury has clearly shown us that fire can be one thing in the eyes of one man and something else to another. We see how small things can push someone so far, that they can destroy everything.
Montag is different than others around him. McGiveron said “An insanity of mindlessness” (Mcgiveron 1). This is the world Montag lives in. He is not alike his peers at all. “Montag has a conscience and a curiosity” (McGiveron 1). This shows he has a special set of traits that is rare in this society. Montag moves past things much better than those around him. An example of this is “even when Montag finally kills the taunting beatty he displaces him syntactically from the center of the action.” (McGiveron 2). Here we see the relentlessness of Montag. To include Montag is special compared to the rest of his dystopian
Many times there are numerous meanings of a single thing, and Ray Bradbury effectively demonstrates the different implications of fire through the progression of Montag’s thinking. From the start Montag just knows the damaging force of fire, yet gradually comes to comprehend that fire can be comforting and reviving. It is this advancement of believing that helps Montag in turning into an individual and breaking the obligations of his mindless society. As addressed by Bradbury, while fire can result in death and devastation, the warmth, hope and solace of flame supports and replenishes through the ages, and the same fire that controlled Montag in the recent past, will now aid him in making a new city assembled from knowledge.
As the story progresses, Montag’s relationship with the fire changes through his relationships. By meeting characters such as Clarisse, Beatty, and the academics, he learns to understand the fire after his whole society has collapsed around him. In the start, Guy believes that the fire is clean, then he started to realize how destructive it was, and only later did he find out that fire can provide the crucial life that people need.
“Behind his mask of conformity, Montag gradually undergoes a change of values. Montag realized his life had been meaningless without books” (Liukkonen). In the beginning of the novel, Montag said, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). For most of his life, Montag conformed just like the other members of society. He set things on fire because it was his job and did not question whether or not it was the right thing to do. Throughout the story, however, he grew to find and voice his own opinions and resisted the conformity that his society stressed. When Montag had to decide whether or not to burn Beatty to death, he proved himself by not giving in to what was expected. He killed the captain of the police department, which was an entirely defiant act (Bradbury
First, Montag appears empathetic towards his fellow citizens, while the Captain is bent on burning literature and expects the same characteristic from his cohorts. Before the firemen could burn a woman’s collection of publications, she instead set himself - and her whole house - on fire rather than relinquish her literature. The incident sank deep into Montag’s heart and he questions the tactics of his peers. Over a game of cards, Montag confided to Beatty, “‘I’ve tried to imagine .... just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books.’ .... ‘Was─was it always like this? The
Montag is influenced by Clarisse a lot. And, her impact on him is tremendous. She questions his whole life, teaches him to appreciate the simple things, and to care about other people and their feelings. “You're peculiar, you're aggravating, yet you're easy to forgive..”(Bradbury 23) Through all Clarisse's questioning, Montag knows that she is trying to help him. Because of her help and impact on him, Montag is changed forever.
In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag never once thought of what his job really entailed or why he was burning houses and books down. Until one night, he met a girl named Clarice; the girl who changed everything. She might not have been in the book long but her character was essential. Clarice was the start of Montag slowly realizing what it exactly is that his job is making him do. “ ‘Do you mind if I ask? How long’ve you worked at being a fireman?’ ‘Since I was twenty, ten years ago.’ ‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
He realizes that he is limited to his knowledge and freedom by his government and he doesn’t want that for himself anymore. Bradbury symbolizes this when Montag says to Mildred, “ ‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stand in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’ ” (48). During this quote Montag begins to question his society, and why he burns books. He becomes eager to know why they have certain rules and hopes to find the answers in books. Montag’s curiosity also is established when he says, “ ‘I’ve heard rumors; the world is starving, but we’re well fed. Is it true the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much? I’ve heard rumors about hate, too, once in a long while, over the years. Do you know why? I don’t that’s sure. Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. The just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don’t hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it. God, Millie, don’t you see? An hour a day, two hours, with these books and maybe…’” (70). This displays that Montag is starting to open his eyes to the truth about the world around him. Montag is starting to question authority and the “true facts” that his government gives his society. Montag is becoming empowered and beginning to think for
Montag then makes his escape from the city and finds the book people, who give him refuge from the firemen and Mechanical Hound that is searching for him. The burning of his house and his Captain as well as the fire trucks symbolizes Montag's transformation from a mechanical drone that follows orders, to a thinking, feeling, emotional person, who has now broken the law and will be hunted as a criminal. He is an enemy of the state; once he turns his back on the social order and burns his bridges, so to speak, he is set free, purified and must run for his life.... ... middle of paper ...
Montag's identity crisis of being a fireman makes him question who he is. Montag notices that the firemen have the same appearance as himself which has him think about Clarisse's question . "He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McCellen saying, 'Didn't firemen prevent fires rather than stroke them up and get them going' (34)?" This isn't his thoughts, instead they are Clarisse's thoughts since she asked it first. This shows an internal conflict because Motang is questioning his identity as a fireman which makes him want to choose a side. He is siding on Clarisse's side thinking she might be right, since he ask the same question as her. He is curious to know even though he is already familiar with the fireman history but thinks he will get a different response. Perhaps Montag is thinking tha...
A chance encounter can change everything. Though the least prominent of the main characters, Clarisse McClellan of Fahrenheit 451 leaves a lasting impression. Idealistic and imaginative, her sole purpose in the tale is to contrast, to differ. In a dystopian world filled with conformity and apathetic individuals, Clarisse is a character who appreciates the little things and contests the views of those around her. After meeting Montag, Clarisse inspires the man to think differently. This teenage girl, in just one conversation, manages to change Montag forever. Clarisse McClellan from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a character who exists to contrast and challenge her surroundings; everything from her physique, personality, and position in the