Character Analysis Of Guy Montag In Fahrenheit 451

Throughout the Star Wars saga, Anakin Skywalker undergoes a major personality change. He transforms from an aspiring youth into the Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi, finally becoming a Sith Lord. He accomplished all of this in three movies. Obi-Wan inspired the young Anakin to become a Jedi Knight and Darth Sidious convinced him to transfer loyalties to the Dark Side of the Force. Skywalker also shows how a single idea can change all of a character’s life. One of Ray Bradbury’s classics, from three-fifths of a century ago, contains a character who changes in reverse of that of Anakin. Guy Montag, from Bradbury’s revolutionary dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, experiences a character change from evil to rebellious and bon vivant. At the beginning, Montag is a saturnine antihero, he learns to support deeper thinking in conversations with Clarisse, Faber, and Beatty, and ultimately wages a battle to prove his support for rhetorical thinking.

At the start of the book, Montag boasts the personality of a saturnine, antiheroic protagonist who only cares about pleasure and work. Montag is a “fireman” that incinerates works of literature as a

profession at the start of the book and has been working such a profession for a decade. He states that “it was a pleasure to burn” (3) and that it was quite more an opportunity “to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (3), for he thoroughly enjoys his work as an incinerator of literary works. Bradbury, an accomplished profound ponderer, demonstrates that Montag is a saturnine antihero because he incinerates the expression of thoughts found in literature. Bradbury expands his thoughts by mentioning that Montag has been undergoing his profession for an entire decade. As he has been incinerating the expressions of others’ thoughts for an extensive period of time and enjoys such a profession, he is demonstrating his negative qualities as a fireman. Also, Montag is also scornful of the actions of the characters by whom he is surrounded because he detests Clarisse’s thoughts and the actions of nearly every other citizen. Therefore, he says that Clarisse, an adolescent female, is “an odd one” (8) and has thoughts regarding “too many things” (9). Interacting with Clarisse was a relatively unusual encounter in his dimension compared to the majority of the general public who cherish antisociality, about which he is offensively scornful. Upon viewing a variety of other residents of his district, he ponders a deep thought:
“There are billions of us and that’s too many. Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take your blood” (16).
He is scornful of these actions because he notices the inactivity of his society and believes it to be overly extreme. Bradbury later proves the personality of Montag as a saturnine antihero by showing his scornful thoughts towards Clarisse and the rest of his society. Montag detests his society and the methods of other people, for Clarisse is a high extreme of thinkers in his society and the rest are relaxed thinkers. As Montag detests both heavy ponderers and relaxed ponderers, he is an antihero because he believes that thinking is morally wrong. Therefore, Montag is a thorough saturnine antihero at the start of the book.
Montag had made poor choices at the start of the book prior to becoming a full rebel. After he has lectures with Beatty and Faber, he is convinced to learn to think rhetorically. Fifty pages after he first encounters Clarisse, Montag had a lecture with Beatty, who taught him the reasons why all works of literature are incinerated in their society. He said that all books must appeal to the entirety of society, for “colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo” (59) and “white people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (59). Beatty believes that incineration is the correct solution to these problems and Montag simply disagrees with the captain’s claim by asking Faber how many copies were left of some famous pieces of literature. Here Bradbury demonstrates that since Montag did not agree with his boss that all books should be incinerated due to their inherent imperfections, Montag develops a rebellious personality because he knows that all humans should be able to express thoughts. Montag knew that no literature appeals to every person regardless of personal details, and discovers that taking action was compulsory to his society. As Beatty, with whom Montag disagrees, is the most authoritative of firemen, Montag was inspired to create a difference in his homeland and create yet more a character change from his former saturnine. Shortly after his seminar with Beatty, he encounters Faber, a former university English professor, who states that books are important because “they have quality” (83), which is texture to Faber, who also thinks that books have pores, for “the more pores, the more ‘literary’ you are” (83). Upon Montag’s acquaintance of Faber, Bradbury demonstrates that even firemen can create a difference and that books are important in all society. Montag later shows his affinity for books by molding in his brain that deep thoughts are essential and later leads a rebellion. He steals a piece of sacred literature, analyzes it deeply, and later has a seminar with Faber that books are important due to their flaws. As he is then willing to rebel against his society for the sake of flawed expressions of thoughts, his character change alters both him and the rest of the story. All in all, Montag creates numerous changes to transform into a rebel.
Montag discovered two different viewpoints and had a miniature debate in his mind regarding literature. He finally transformed into a rebellious character that was willing to take all chances for the preservation of literature, even waging a battle. Montag hijacks numerous books and flees towards a forest, commencing a high-speed police chase. Montag escapes in plain sight with another rebel, Granger, who told him, “you are the Book of Ecclesiastes” (151). Here Bradbury includes an exemplary use of metaphor to prove that Montag is a true supporter of profound thinking and is against burning books. Bradbury presents Montag as a book, which is strictly forbidden in his society because no literary works are perfect in all ways. Also, the author illustrates that there were futuristic police cruisers traveling at high speeds to corner him and that he was in sight in a forest. As Montag flees towards a forest after he was spotted, he demonstrates his pleasure for books at the end and his massive character change. Bradbury expresses that Montag undergoes a character change once more while the novel progresses because the former saturnine antihero that was a fireman at the start of his literary work, hears, “Guy Montag. Still running. Police helicopters are up. A new Mechanical Hound has been sent from another district.” (133) He also sacrifices his own loved one and flees from his society into an unknown forest where Granger, another supporter of literature, is residing. As major police forces chase Montag down and he sacrifices Mildred for the sake of his society, his saturnine qualities are superseded by heroic and bon vivant ones, transforming him completely. Therefore, Montag is a different character at the end of 163 pages.
To conclude, Guy Montag, from Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, undergoes a personality change throughout the text from a saturnine antihero to a literary apprentice to a thorough rebel supporting literature and deep thinking.

He realizes what is morally correct and what is evil in a brisk 163 pages. Similar to Montag, Anakin Skywalker experiences a major character change throughout his pair of trilogies of blockbuster films. Obi-Wan Kenobi serves as his “Faber”, Qui-Gon Jinn as his “Clarisse”, the facade of Chancellor Palpatine his “Captain Beatty”, and Luke as his “Granger”. In six movies, Anakin transforms from an aspiring Podracer to a Jedi Padawan to a Sith Lord back to a Jedi. Maybe Montag is strong in the Force, identical to Vader, because of the way he changes as a character from Sith equivalent to Jedi

equivalent!