Bradbury showed how Montag’s character changed entirely throughout the book by saying “Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (10). Before he met Clarisse, Montag didn’t know what happiness felt like. Faber could be thought of as a big influence on Montag, but in reality Clarisse started Montag’s curiosity. Clarisse made the biggest impact on Montag’s character because she opened his mind, and made him start thinking. Firefighters used to protect people from fires; however, now they will burn people if they own books. Clarisse said, “Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames.” (Bradbury 8) Clarisse explained to Montag that the job of a firefighter has …show more content…
After Clarisse rubbed a dandelion on Montag’s chin and it did not leave a dandelion color on his chin. She knew that Montag wasn’t in love (Bradbury 22). Montag felt that way all along, but this helped him realize he wasn't actually in love with Mildred. People in the society didn’t know what it's like to love their family because they didn’t have any feelings. The government controls all aspects of life. Clarisse asked Montag if he has ever read a book before he burned it. Since he has never read a book before, this showed he never thought about going against the laws to see what he’s actually burning (Bradbury 8). The people in this society didn’t have their own feelings or thoughts and only did what the government told them to do. Clarisse had the biggest impact on Montag because she started his curiosity. On the other hand, Faber could be known as a big influence on Montag’s character because he helped Montag with his plan. Faber said, “Now if you suggest that we print extra books and arrange to have them hidden in firemen’s houses all over the country, so that seeds suspicion would be sown among these arsonists, bravo, I’d say!” (Bradbury 85) However, Clarisse made Montag start to have emotions, and he came to the realization that everyone was brainwashed by the
The first event that results in Montag becoming a dynamic character is his conversations with Clarisse McClellan. She is seventeen, and people consider her insane and anti-social. She is considered anti-social, because she is talkative and expressive. In Bradbury’s made up world, the meaning of social is staring at the parlor walls (large TV screens), and having no thought at all. Clarisse is very different from the rest: “I rarely watch the ‘parlor walls’ or go to races or Fun Parks. So I’ve lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess. Have you seen the two-hundred-foot-long billboards in the country beyond town? Did you know that once the billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly they even had to stretch the advertising out so it would last” (pg.7).Clarisse’s enthusiastic and cheerful disposition lightens Montag’s attitude, making him a more optimistic person. He is not so closed-minded anymore, and he learns to be himself, and sometimes care free. Montag learns to see the brighter side of things and believe in him...
Firstly, Montag is influenced by Clarisse McClellan because she is the first person he has met that is not like the rest of the society. Clarisse is a young 17 year old girl that Montag quickly becomes very fond of. Clarisse influences Montag by the way she questioned Montag, the way she admires nature, and her death. Clarisse first influenced Montag by the way she began questioning him often. Her questions would make him think for himself unlike the rest of society. “Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. “Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone- running in the moonlight” (Bradbury, 10). Clarisse was one of the only people that Montag had ever met that had ever asked him that. This question that she asked him influenced him because he thinks about, and Montag asks himself tha...
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 opens with Guy Montag, a fireman, reminiscing of the pleasures of burning. As the story unfolds, we learn that Montag is a fireman who rids the world of books by burning all that are found. Walking home one night Montag meets Clarisse, his strong minded neighbor. She begins peppering him with questions. Clarisse doesn’t go along with societal norms and Montag realizes that immediately. “I rarely watch the 'parlor walls ' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I 've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.” (Bradbury 3) Clarisse uses her imagination brought by stories from books and family instead of watching television. Clarisse helps Montag realize that the government induced censorship and conformation is stifling society’s education and imagination. Montag’s wife, Mildred ,is incapable of having a personal conversation with Montag. She conforms to societal standards and is greatly
Clarisse McClellan, a unique outcast whose personality traits you could say has influenced Montag to question his life. During one night after work Montag has a little run in with this unique individual into which his transformation initiates. Montag and Clarisse share a conversation into which becomes a life changing experience for Montag, they talked about life and how it’s so different from the times long ago. However though towards the end of this fascinating conversation Clarisse asked Montag one last question right before taking off, she asked Montag this, “Are you happy?”(Bradbury 7). Montag hesitantly states that yes he was happy right when she took off. Later on that night we find out Montag’s wife Mildred had overdosed on ...
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
Clarisse is Montag’s first mentor in his journey; she is the one who first opens his eyes to the world around him, as well as asking the ultimate question “Are you happy?” (7) To which Montag cried “Am I what?” He never gave whether he was actually, truly happy a real, legitimate thought in his entire life. He just woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, ate lunch, went home, ate dinner, and went to sleep; and all with a big grin fixed on his face. But now, after a bit of consideration he came to the realization that “He was not happy…. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask a...
Books are the enemy, they are evil, they are outlawed, they are burned. At least, that is how Montag feels before meeting Clarisse. The first line of the book reads, “It was a pleasure to burn” continued with, “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1). Clearly Montag enjoys his work and seems to have no remorse for what he is doing and the damage he is
Gaining this knowledge is the very thing that ruined his life, though it gave him a sense of meaning. Through all of this Montag learns the information he finds in the books was what he needed all along. The life he was living was a lie. He was an ant to his society, and it must have come as a relief to finally realize he was no longer being controlled by his lack of intelligence.
At the beginning of the book, Clarisse acted as Montag's mirror and changed his self perspective. Clarisse challenged societal views and in turn had influenced Montag to do the same. Mildred was a mirror image of what their society had become. And she was an illustration of where Montag would end up if he had not altered his actions. Their society had driven itself to a point of brainwashed mindlessness that eventually caused it to collapse. In the rubble of what society once was is where the rebirth of the human race must start, this can only happen if society is willing to look in the mirror to see it’s flaws and move past them. Bradbury created a world of people who were not willing to look in the mirror to reflect upon themselves; a world of people who had destroyed themselves in effort to avoid disappointment in what they had become; a world that now must spend a long time looking in mirrors to be able to even attempt to make diamonds out of their
In Fahrenheit 451 the main characters are Montag, Faber, Clarisse, and Beatty. Montag is someone who knows what he wants and what he wants is change. He is a fireman who suddenly realizes the emptiness of his life and starts to search for meaning in the books he is supposed to be burning. Though he is sometimes rash and has a hard time thinking for himself, he is determined to break free from the oppression of ignorance. He quickly forms unusually strong attachments with anyone who seems receptive to true friendship. At first, Montag believes that he is happy. He thinks this because of the question that Clarisse asks him. When he views himself in the firehouse mirror after a night of burning, he grins "the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame." His biggest regret in life is not having a better relationship with his wife. Faber is a very wise and intellectual man. He readily admits that the current state of society is due to the cowardice of people like himself, who would not speak out against book burning when they still could have stopped it. He berates himself for being a coward, but he shows himself capable of acts that require great courage and place him in considerable danger. Clarisse seems to always be of in her own world. She was a beautiful seventeen-year-old who introduces Montag to the world's potential for beauty and meaning with her gentle innocence and curiosity. She is an outcast from society because of her odd habits, which include hiking, playing with flowers, and asking questions. She asks questions such as, "Are you happy?
Montag loves his job and what he does, there is nothing that can compare to it and he thinks that he has the perfect life. Montag feels that it is a special thing to burn and that it is amazing to see things changed. “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed”(Bradbury 1). He loves that he can make things change and he doesn't think otherwise because that is against the law. Montag doesn't think or question anything that he is doing because he is part of the society and he “helps” the people that are “crazy” and try to break the rules by reading literature. Montag doesn't understand why Clarisse would ask if he is happy if she can just answer it by herself by looking at him.. “‘Happy! Of all the nonsense’... Of course I'm happy. What does she think? I'm not?”(Bradbury 8). He doesn't even think about what she is asking but answers quickly and believes what his society wants him to think. He answers without thinking of what Clarisse is saying because he thinks that his society is great and that he can't possibly be unhappy when he is in such a great world. When Montag is working, he pictures himself as great figure that helps people in need and he is a mighty person because he saves lives from literature. Montag loved the way that things would burn, and that they made
...ution to his dissatisfaction. Clarisse helped Montag get to this point he has finally realized the value that lies in these illegal books he reads.
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.
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.
... 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.