Fahrenheit 451 Conflict Essay

Conflict drives a story forward. Conflict is the thing that makes you want to keep reading a story. Seeing how a story ends and how the conflict is resolved is satisfying. To have conflict characters like a protagonist are an essential. A good protagonist is compelling and compliments the conflict of the story to entice the reader. Conflict is important but, without a good protagonist the conflict is meaningless. In the book Fahrenheit 451 through his ability to speak up, take control of his situation and effect positive change in his society, Guy Montag proves to be a more compelling protagonist than Ralph in the book Lord of the Flies. In Fahrenheit 451 the first thing that sets Montag apart from Ralph in Lord of the Flies is his ability

He makes a choice between believing what his society was telling him or rebel. In a conversation with his mentor Faber he says "I don't want to change sides and just be told what to do. There's no reason to change if I do that." (Fahrenheit 451, The Sieve and the Sand) If Montag is going to rebel he doesn’t want it to be because someone tells him he should. Eventually he does make the choice for himself and the only way to be free and rebel at this point was by killing others. Montag, to escape, burns his boss and co-workers, killing them. Montag is now free of those who tried to persuade him to change and now he starts effecting change is his society. Ralph yet again fails to take control of his situation. After his blunder in speaking up as chief Ralph starts to lose control of his tribe. He cannot take control of his situation and those around him. Ralph end up losing the boys to Jack, except his closest friends. At this point in his story due to failures Ralph’s character is weak and there is no possible way to go back now. Because of this ralph falls from being respected by the boys, to being hated and

Because he killed his boss and co-workers he is being hunted. The media is making Montag seem like a terrible murderer when he truly has just been freed from oppression. This doesn’t seem like change, but all it takes is a small seed. When Montag starts to question himself in the beginning of the novel all it took was one idea to change his mind. The people of the city are all watching on television sets hoping that he gets caught, but they are truly being exposed to the truth. In time it wouldn’t just be Montag rebelling. Because of the seed that was planted in people minds Montag effected change to society as whole. Ralph didn’t effect change in his society at all. At the end of his book the boys hate him and he is being hunted. He ends up doing the opposite of Montag and because of his mistakes he effects negative change in his society. The mental state of the boys on the island is crazy. They are hunting Ralph and they end up burning the island because of him. Ralph too was being hunted like Montag however because of all his previous mistakes there was no way to reverse the change his society was headed