Compare And Contrast Montag And Winston Smith In Fahrenheit 451

Smith and Montag

In the dystopian novels Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 written by Ray Bradbury and

George Orwell, one character from each book, Montag in Fahrenheit 451, and

Winston in 1984, are rebelling against their society. These characters have a lot in

common with each other. Outside of just being the main characters in their books,

Winston Smith and Guy Montag have a very high amount of similarities. Although

there are some ways these two are different, their similarities seem to outweigh their

differences, making the two character’s main purpose closely related.

To start off, Smith and Montag have identical purposes in their novels. Smith,

in his novel, starts

to become aware of how bad his society really is. Of course, this

is no different than what Montag’s thoughts are. So then, these two start to act

against what their beliefs used to be, and protesting against the way they are forced

to live their life. Their purpose is simply to be the one who can stand up for what they

believe and what is best for the people they live with.

Also, these two characters have an eye opener to force them to rethink their

life. In Montag’s case, a friendly girl he meets is the one to make him come to his

realization. In Smith’s case, a person he falls in love with, Julia, makes him come to

his senses. So these two characters end up being the cause for Montag and Smith

to decide to turn against their beliefs, and the two men would not have decided to

rebel against the societies they lived in.

Of course, these two do have their differences. They both have quite a bit in

common, but they have ways that they aren't similar. For example, Montag is allowed

to be married in 451, but in 1984, Smith is not even allowed to love anybody at all.

But the greatest difference in these two characters is what there final thoughts were

in the end. Montag stayed loyal to his rebellious ways until the end of the story, but

Smith decided to through his ideas away. On page 298 of Orwell’s novel, Winston

Smith makes the decision to abandon his beliefs and come to “Love Big Brother,” as

the novel said.

So in conclusion, outside of being the main character in their novels, these

two share the exact same purpose of rebelling against their society that they live in,

and they both had a reality check that made them see how bad their way of life really

was, making them decide to protest against the way things worked. Although Guy

Montag and Winston Smith had some differences, they essentially had the same

beliefs and their similarities were greater than their differences.