In Fahrenheit 451, America becomes a dystopian community where books are outlawed and society forces conformity upon themselves. Guy Montag is a fireman, who enforces the banning of book by burning them. However, Guy quickly questions his role in society, and becomes a very dynamic character. Ray Bradbury shows the transformation of Guy Montag in his quest of self-identity with his thoughts, actions, and interaction with society.
In the beginning, Bradbury creates the character of Guy Montag, as a fireman who couldn’t see the dangers of conformity. Guy could not understand the wrongdoing of burning books he was committing, because in his society, it was the right thing to do to. Rather, Montag was proud to be the fireman as McGiveron describes
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After saying goodbye to Clarisse, she asked him a final question of if he was happy. This generally is a very open-ended question, but in this situation she targeted it towards Montag happiness with his life. Out of instinct, Guy responded, “ ‘Happy! Of all the nonsense.’ He stopped laughing. … Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not? (Bradbury 10)” Montag is experiencing denial of his happiness. He thinks to himself that he is happy and content with his life but, continuing on in the novel reveals this to be false. It is proven that he does not enjoy burning books, but rather he thinks that it is his duty to burn all of them. Later, on a routine call to burn books, the lady who was trying to defend the books did not let the firemen start the fire. Rather the old lady lit her match and set fire to the kerosene killing herself with her books. This event will forever change Montag. He vents to his wife, Mildred, that it is not just about the women who died, he thought about the kerosene destroying the books. He explains that he has been thinking about how each and every book was written by a man, who spent a lot of time to create something that he is destroying. This is the first time ever that Guy had felt remorse for burning the books. He dismisses the lady dying, however, Montag feels this regret of burning these books because, he had been burning the books that these men have been creating.Guy began to feel for books, and thought that they weren't as bad as he once thought. During this same mission, Bradbury shows Montag’s surprising