Theme Of Individual In Fahrenheit 451

Bradbury deploys the conflict of individual versus individual within his novel, Fahrenheit 451, which accurately demonstrates the lack of cooperation between people in society. This conflict emanates from the novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, and chief of his department, Captain Beatty. Captain Beatty constantly provokes Montag because he can sense something different about him. Montag enjoys books. As soon as Montag returns to the firehouse from his phony sickness, Beatty immediately begins attacking him with quotes such as “sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge” by Sir Philip Sidney or “ words are like leaves and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found” by Alexander Pope (Bradbury 102). Since Beatty happens to know so many quotes, the audience can infer that he possesses knowledge and that he once appreciated

reading. So if this characterization accurately describes him, why does he fear books to such an extent? In reality, he does not fear them, Montag’s ability to stand up for books vastly intimidated him. According to Bradbury, “Montag knew it for the truth,” he knew that Beatty’s shame made him “[want] to die” (116). Montag could not wrap his mind around that fact and it made him question why society had gone so far from its past.

The conflict of individual versus self appears even more prominent in Fahrenheit 451 to reveal that if one cannot think for themselves, then turmoil will ensue for that person and anyone else involved.

Montag’s inner struggles appear the night the firemen go to burn the house of the old woman. At first, he cannot believe that the woman would willingly burn herself with all of her books considering he has only ever known the impression that books exist as wicked items of society. Later that night as Montag talks to his wife, Mildred, he has a revelation that “there must be something in books, things [he] can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house” because he knows “[one would not] stay for nothing” (Bradbury 48). Later on that night Montag asks Mildred: how long had it been since she had felt disturbed? Disturbed by something that mattered? (Bradbury 49). Since this talk, one can visually see Montag’s mental state slowly declining. As the story goes on, he feels that burden dragging him down and it takes his wife and fire department down with him because he cannot come to terms with his new impression on

life.
Bradbury also harnesses the motif of mirrors in his novel Fahrenheit 451 to essentially emphasize the need for one to examine themselves in order to attain self awareness in one's own society. At the beginning of the novel, one can infer that Montag does not fall under the category of self-aware; he does not possess the capability to look at himself and others and see that society contains flaws. Montag begins to reflect on his life once he meets Clarisse. On their walk he states that “he saw himself in her eyes,” almost like the reflection that he saw appeared to him as not the person he lives as currently, but the one he wanted to be (Bradbury 5). He could not believe how much her face, too, functioned “like a mirror,” and how she had “refracted [his] own light to [him] (Bradbury 8). Clarisse stands as the beacon of light in Montag’s messed up world, so when she dies, his whole world comes crumbling down around him.