Rashaun Tarrant Ms. Schlesman Contemporary Themes October, 7 2016 Montag Protag In the Novel Fahrenheit 451 the main character Montag shows several sides of him throughout the book. If you were to look into Montag’s suitcase you would find multiple items that would explain his changes throughout the novel. In the center of the suitcase, Montag packed a necklace with a bull charm. Even when Mildred screamed Montag did not listen, During the time when Mildred’s friends visited, Montag showed frustration,“Did you hear them, did you hear these monsters talking about monsters”(Bradbury 97). Stubbornness involves a relentless effort and Montag showed this while trying to show Mildred's friend the wonders of books. To the right of the necklace, Montag …show more content…
A caring person will do a number of honorable deeds, and Montag showed this through his decision to reconsider his heartless job. Underneath the pillow laid a action figure sized superman cape. When Montag begins to question his society and government he believes, “Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. They just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes”(Bradbury 74). Bravery calls for a person to take a stand against what others would not and Montag exhibits this through the idea of bringing books back to society. To the left of the pillow montag placed a pair of ripped blue jeans. “Sometime before tonight when I give the book to Beatty, I’ve got to have a duplicate made” (Bradbury 77). Recklessness occurs when a person does not think out an idea or plan, and Montag showed this with Captain Beatty regarding the book not realizing Beatty knew. Across from the jeans montag packed a dog collar.While Mildred and Montag shared their thoughts about books Montag pulled out two books, “These men have been dead along time, but I know their words point, one way or another” (Bradbury 72). Loyalty requires a consistency or continuation of a relationship
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.
Although we cannot make people listen. They have to come around in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them, it can’t last. A quote by Ray Bradbury. Meanwhile, in the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, tells a story on how montag changed by the influences of the positive people in his society. The next paragraph will show what happened from the beginning and how he changed. Although today’s technological advances haven’t caught up with Bradbury’s F451, there is a very real danger that society might end up overly relying on technology at the price of intellectual development.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury creates a world resembling our current world. This novel is about Montag, a fireman who burns books instead of preventing fires, because it is against the law to have books. Without the use of books, people are dumb, and they don’t know what they are talking about. Montag hates the idea of books, but throughout the novel he learns why they are necessary, resulting in him becoming a dynamic character. A definition of a dynamic character is a character that grows and changes throughout a story. At the end of the story, Montag changes emotionally and mentally. Three major events result in a dynamic change in Montag’s perspective.
In the novel, FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag lives in an inverted society, where firemen make fires instead of put them out, and pedestrians are used as bowling pins for cars that are excessively speeding. The people on this society are hypnotized by giant wall size televisions and seashell radios that are attached to everyone’s ears. People in Montag’s society do not think for themselves or even generate their own opinions; everything is given to them by the television stations they watch. In this society, if someone is in possession of a book, their books are burned by the firemen, but not only their books, but their entire home. Montag begins realizing that the things in this society are not right. Montag is influenced and changes over the course of the novel. The strongest influences in Montag’s life are Clarisse, the burning on 11 Elm Street and Captain Beatty.
In the end of the book we learn that the city Montag once lived in has been destroyed. It’s here where we get the end result of Montag, the man who once took special pleasure in destroying books now takes pleasure in preserving them. If not for Clarisse who opened his eyes to the truth through questioning life, or Faber who revealed the truth and magic in the books, and Granger who taught Montag how to preserve the books Montag could have very well been a victim of his cities destruction. It’s clear that Montag was heavily influenced by these three Individuals changing him from a once law abiding citizen of the futuristic government to a refugee of the law discovering reasons worth fighting for regardless of outcome.
One of the main reasons that Montag changed so drastically over the course of the book was his curiosity. Montag spent a lot of time thinking about his job and started questioning everything he was doing. He starts wondering why books need to be burned and why things are the way that they are. Montag takes up a special interest in book and why things are this way. “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work?” Montag asks Beatty showing his curiosity. Montag’s curiosity is what drives him to find out everything he can about books, society and the way that things used to be. It is only natural for him to begin to question everything especially because his job involves burning hundreds of books a day yet he was never told why these books need to burned. Imagine destroying an object everyday, and being told how important your job is. Naturally you would want to know why you are destroying these objects. This is what happened to Montag and Beatty tried to explain it to him and tells him he shouldn’t be too curious about it “A natural error, curiosity alone,” Beatty also asks Montag “Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career, he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know. Isn't that so?” Curiosity is a very natural emotion and even Beatty, who tries to explain things to Montag and discourages books, even admits to looking a few books but says “I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing!” I believe that this would make Montag even more curious.
Beatty’s beginning is of utmost importance to understanding the character as more than just a villain. In the afterword, Ray Bradbury told the story of how Beatty becomes the fire chief making him a more developed and complete character. When Montag is in the library he says, “Once you must have loved books very much.” Which Beatty beautifully replies “Touché! Below the belt. On the Chin. Through the heart. Ripping the gut. Oh, look at me, Montag. The man who loved books, no, the boy who was wild for them, insane for them, who climbed the stacks like a chimpanzee gone mad for them (171).” Beatty brought Montag into his home to display the library he has hidden there. Beatty boasts that he has never read any of them but clearly shows his love for them by hoarding them in his house. A pattern starts to emerge about Beatty, he is a paradox; he loves books enough to quote them at length and keep a hidden library in his house but blames books for all the unhappiness in the world. He hates books to the extent of taking a job where his only purpose is to burn books.
Ray Bradbury includes several allusions in his novel “Fahrenheit 451.” Captain Beatty says, “Well the crisis is the past and all is well, the sheep returns to the fold. We’re all the sheep and who have strayed at times” (Bradbury 102). That quote is very similar to the Old Testament in the Bible, “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). That Bible verse means people have gone off on their own path. They have decided to venture away from the Lord’s path to choose their own. Beatty is inevitably telling Montag that everybody tries to take their own path venturing away from “herd,” referring to his possession of the books. Montag knows he shouldn’t have them, but he chooses his own path and ventures away from the herd. The "herd" is burning books while Montag is venturing away from the herd and is instead reading them, which is prohibited.
In the book Fahrenheit 451 , Montag undergoes major character development. He started from a weak, dependant individual, who could at most think for himself. Throughout the book, he slowly found more and more flaws in the society he had blindly trusted. At the end of the book, Montag is a strong-minded, focused individual who is not afraid to stand up for his opinion, but cares for his life. Montag sacrificed everything in his life (including his life) to stand up for his opinions, which he could never have done in the beginning of the book. Everything Montag did had a reason and he changed because of those actions.
“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction” ~ John F. Kennedy. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury portrays the theme of action vs. inaction as the main character Guy Montag chooses to take action for what he believes in, while others are too afraid to express how they actually feel. Bradbury predicts a future in which the government is mostly under control, and firefighters burn the homes of people with books as a punishment for breaking the law. Montag begins to see that books are valuable, so he takes action and plots a plan to try and save his society. Coincedently, the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles corresponds with the same idea of taking action. Several lines from
While many people might think that because Guy Montag started out as a firefighter he can not be considered a ‘good guy’ or a hero, but it should be noted that his thoughts and actions are those of a person with good intentions despite starting out as a ‘bad guy’. In my first paragraph I will be stating reasons on why guy Montag should be considered a good guy or a hero. In the second paragraph I will state why his actions and thoughts do not make him a bad person. Lastly, I will state why Montag's actions and thoughts make him a good person.
To start with, in the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 Montag is oblivious to the iniquity of his job. Soon after he becomes cognizant of the beauty of literature and begins to question his faith in life and the world around him, much akin to how Matthew Arnold questions his belief in religion when the discovery made by Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution. The Theory of Evolution shook Matthew Arnold’s faith because it was telling him that his beliefs were untrue because humans evolved from “monkeys”.They both face a moral dilemma in their own way through religion or life choices, ...
He seems to be content in his life and is infatuated by his job. The opening line in the novel is from Montag’s view point and says, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” (Bradbury, 1). The reader is led to believe Montag believes whole heartedly in what he does for a living. However, when Bradbury introduces Montag’s first antagonist, Clarisse McClellan, Montag begins to question aspects of his life. Clarisse is young, full of ideas, different from the rest of society, asks a lot of questions, and has her own views of life. Clarisse was interesting and brought light to their dark world. The second antagonist is Montag’s wife, Mildred. Mildred on the other hand is not quite as interesting. She is egocentric, unhappy, and concerned only about the walls (televisions) in her home and the characters from the shows being referred to as family. Beatty, Montag’s boss, would be the third antagonist of the novel and he is portrayed as a loud over bearing man. When Clarisse McClellan dies and Montag is forced to burn books, a home, and the occupant that refuses to leave, Montag goes through a change in character. This is the point where the reader would categorize Montag as a round character. Montag begins to question his life, work, society, and all that surround him. Montag had actually been sneaking books from fires over the past year out of curiosity but had never actually read them up until this point. Montag goes against all that firefighters believe in and starts to read the banned books. Mildred filled with fear of discovery and retaliation begs Montag to not bring about such a risk. However, against his wife’s wishes, Montag chose not to listen. Montag got a professor named Faber to help him better understand the books he was reading and that is when Montag realized
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.
Fahrenheit 451 is a best-selling American novel written by Ray Bradbury. The novel is about firemen Guy Montag and his journey on discovering the importance of knowledge in an ignorant society. There are many important themes present throughout the novel. One of the most distinct and reoccurring themes is ignorance vs knowledge. Bradbury subtly reveals the advantage and disadvantages of knowledge and ignorance by the contrasting characters Montag and his wife Mildred. Montag symbolizes knowledge while Mildred on the other hand symbolizes ignorance.