“Montag felt the slow stir of words, the slow simmer. And when it came his turn, what would he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier? To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else. What else?” (165). In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 the main character Montag experiences many things that change his perspective on life and the world around him. Three factors that have caused Montag to change are meeting Clarisse, seeing an old lady burn, and Mildred overdosing Meeting Clarisse is one factor that caused Montag to change. In the novel Clarisse asks “Are you happy?” (7). Clarisse asking this question …show more content…
“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.” (48). The old lady caused Montag to question books and he soon looked towards them to understand why he was unhappy. Montag knew there had to be something special in books to cause people to rather die than live without them. Mildred overdosing is the third factor that caused Montag to change. “I wouldn't do a thing like that. Why Would I do a thing like that?” (17). Mildred denies her suicide attempt after being confronted by Montag, claiming that she thinks she has a hangover from a party the night before. Montag questions if Mildred denies her suicide attempt in an effort to cover up her unhappiness or if she truly did not remember. In the novel, Montag sees and experience many things that change his outlook on life and cause him to question almost everything. Montag meets a curious girl named Clarisse, who makes him think about if he is happy or not and why. He sees an old lady burn rather than give up her books which makes him question the value of books. Then his wife, Mildred overdosed on sleeping pills in a failed suicide attempt leaving him wondering why she would do such a thing. If it was not for Montag experiencing these three thing the events of the novel would of never happened and he would simply continue his everyday
Montag is realizing wrong his world really is. He wants to change it too. He says “ Im going to do something, I dont know what yet but im going t do something big.” He doesnt know what to do yet because at this point he hasnt figured out the “missing peice”. Montag says “ I dont know. we have everything we need to be happy, but we arent happy. Something is missing.” then he starts to understand that books are the key to knowladge and knowledge is what they need. he says “There must be something in books that we cant imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there, you dont stay for nothing.” And this is the turning point of the book because now montag is ready to take
His choice of becoming into an individual himself changes him into a completely different person. As the book gets closer to ending, Montag ends up meeting up with professor Faber. Professor Faber is one of the outcasts because of everything he knows. Montag asked him for help because he started to become interested in reading books. Montag explains to Faber “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”, Montag started to feel different from the others because society started to move him away from his old actions (Bradbury 78). Also in the beginning, Clarisse asks Montag about the smell of kerosine. This part started to foreshadow Montag as an individual and thinking for himself. Montag would be characterized as the protagonist of this novel. Clarisse’s way of thinking was the reason that mostly influenced Montag to change into an individualist. Her personality made him want to be like Clarisse.
The passage above is talking about how a woman burnt herself to save her books. The passage suggests how people fight for what they want. When the author included this event, he was trying to show how Montag starts to change. Guy Montag begins to doubt his job, and believes that he is not doing the correct thing, he realizes he is causing harm. Montag didn't understand why someone would sacrifice their life for a book, but the only way to figure that out was to read. The author made Montag curious of the event, and that's how he introduced his passion to books.
In a society where everyone is forced to be exactly the same, whether it be intelligence or behavior wise, Guy Montag stands out. Montag is the main character of Fahrenheit 451. Like any main character, Montag is faced with many internal and external conflicts. Unlike most main characters, Montag solves his conflicts in a strange way. After doing some soul-searching, he begins to fight for a better society than the one he currently lives in by rebelling against the government in every way possible, such as storing books, killing people, and running away from the city he lived in.
Not trusting his current knowledge and cursed with a burning curiosity, Montag begins collecting books from the fires. One by one he reads the books, but they make no sense to him and he looks to others for help. Unfortunately, Clarisse mysteriously disappeared and was later reported dead. But, Montag did not give up. He soon remembers an old retired English professor, Faber, he met one year earlier.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by author Ray Bradbury we are taken into a place of the future where books have become outlawed, technology is at its prime, life is fast, and human interaction is scarce. The novel is seen through the eyes of middle aged man Guy Montag. A firefighter, Ray Bradbury portrays the common firefighter as a personal who creates the fire rather than extinguishing them in order to accomplish the complete annihilation of books. Throughout the book we get to understand that Montag is a fire hungry man that takes pleasure in the destruction of books. It’s not until interacting with three individuals that open Montag’s eyes helping him realize the errors of his ways. Leading Montag to change his opinion about books, and more over to a new direction in life with a mission to preserve and bring back the life once sought out in books. These three individual characters Clarisse McClellan, Faber, and Granger transformed Montag through the methods of questioning, revealing, and teaching.
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
Clarisse changed montag's perspective and influenced how he saw things. When Mildred found out about Clarisse , Mildred tried to commit suicide disappeared. When clarisse disappeared months was sad that she wasn't there walking with him (Montag). Montage feels uncomfortable because he thinks he’s known her for a while. “I feel I've known you so many years?
Therefore, these three experiences or people help make Montag a dynamic character. These people or events all affect him in a different way. He learns a lot from them. Montag would have said that they made a huge impact on his life, because he feels different emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Don’t forget, Montag went from burning books to preventing books being burned. It takes a lot of courage and inspiration for the Montag from the beginning of the novel, to become the Montag he was at the end of the novel.
Montag is the protagonist in the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. His full name is Guy Montag, and he is brought up in a world where everyone is meant to believe in certain ideas and to follow certain ways. Montag is a married, middle aged fireman who has been a fireman, “Since I [he] was twenty, ten years ago,” (Bradbury 8). Before the events of this story, Montag does what he is supposed to, without ever questioning the logic behind it. He doesn’t even consider if he is happy with what he is doing or not, as shown in part of a conversation he had with his neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, “‘Are you happy?’ she said. ‘Am I what?’ he cried… ‘Happy! Of all the nonsense.’...Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (Bradbury 10).
... chin. She tells Montag that this means she is in love. When she rubs the dandelion underneath Montag's chin she has a very different result. There is no powder. “'What a shame,' she said. 'You're not in love with anyone' 'I am very much in love!' He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face 'I am!'” Montag goes home, and thinks about this. He later realizes that he isn't in love, and would not care if Mildred died.
Are you really happy? Or are you sad about something? Sad about life or money, or your job? Any of these things you can be sad of. Most likely you feel discontentment a few times a day and you still call yourself happy. These are the questions that Guy Montag asks himself in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book people are thinking they are happy with their lives. This is only because life is going so fast that they think they are but really there is things to be sad about. Montag has finally met Clarisse, the one person in his society that stops to smell the roses still. She is the one that gets him thinking about how his life really is sad and he was just moving too fast to see it. He realizes that he is sad about pretty much everything in his life and that the government tries to trick the people by listening to the parlor and the seashells. This is just to distract people from actual emotions. People are always in a hurry. They have 200 foot billboards for people driving because they are driving so fast that they need more time to see the advertisement. Now I am going to show you who are happy and not happy in the book and how our society today is also unhappy.
Beatty’s speech explains why Mildred acts the way she does, which had started to become a mystery for Montag, She acts in ways that are robotic, or self-centered, or unfeeling. Beatty’s speech explains the reason
... his argument thus leading to him questioning things more instead of accepting what life gives him. Finally Beatty teaches Montag something in his death. As Montag comes away from the incident, knowing he just committed murder, he also realizes that Beatty wanted to die and that it was no different from suicide. Beatty wished to die since his life was miserable without literature and he works as a fireman, the very people who burn the books. Although Beatty is a well read educated man, he conforms to society which forces him to do what he does not. Therefore he represents somewhat of martyr similar to the unidentified women that burned with her books earlier in the book. From him killing Beatty, Montag learns the misery of conformity and of the oppression living inside of Beatty.
Some characters like Montag did not succumb to the ignorance of society. Unlike Mildred characters like Montag believed in the power books and knowledge. Montag was once like Mildred until he met Clarisse; his neighbor. Clarisse was different from anyone Montag had ever met. She made him question his career, his happiness and even his marriage. After talking to Clarisse, Montag realizes he’s been ignorant for his whole life and begins a dangerous search for knowledge. After eventually stealing a book and reading it Montag realized that knowledge is really important. Books symbol knowledge because they provide their readers with information they did not know prior to opening the book. Montag no longer believed that ignorance was bliss “”. Through Montag’s fight for knowledge Bradbury is able to help the readers to understand that people are afraid of knowledge because they fear making mistakes. “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by” says Faber (Bradbury 104). Knowledge is gained from experience. The best and worst sides of Montag were revealed during his journey because he made mistakes and learned from them. At the end of the novel Montag like readers comes to the realization that knowledge and experiences is the true meaning of life.