Fahrenheit 451 Conflict

Guy Montag is a brainwashed member of a futuristic society. He loves his job, burning books so that no one will ever read them. To him, this depressed and gloomy life he’s living is a perfect world- until he meets Clarisse. She shows Montag how to look up from the TV and see that he is not living the life he wants to. Soon Montag is called by his boss, Beatty, to burn a lady’s house down because it contains books. She chooses to be burnt with her books, as she doesn’t want to live in a world without them. Montag realizes that he can’t turn back because of the emotional connection he had felt to the lady. Montag’s wife was confused by his sadness, as he had never been so affected by his job before. In Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury,

Montag has had some conflict with Beatty in the past and he doesn’t completely trust him. The hero collected books for a for a month before the book begins, so he isn’t innocent. He finds a mentor named Faber, who gives him an earpiece so they could always stay in contact. Reluctantly, Montag goes to his fireman job, ready to burn some books, but isn’t happy about it. Despite all of this, it’s a surprise when Beatty pulls up in front of Montag’s home. “Montag and Beatty stared, one with dry satisfaction, the other with disbelief, at the house before them, this main ring in which torches would be juggled and fire eaten.” (107). Montag is nervous and weary, but he knows that whatever happens next will determine his life. The allusion to a show represents the climax that’s about to occur, Beatty and Montag waiting for the big finale. Whatever happens next will include fire, and it will be big. It doesn’t take long until Beatty begins to taunt Montag, telling him how futile his life is. This angers Montag, and he realizes that if he doesn’t do something

Montag has escaped the city, now free but still in danger of being tracked by scent. He stops at Faber’s home to update him and change clothes. The government instructs the whole city to open their doors, so they can find Montag, an outlaw. Just in time, Montag jumps into the river, which cleanses him of the night’s events. “He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new.” (133) Montag is moving, onto a new and better life by escaping the city. While he isn’t heading back to his unsatisfying home in the beginning of the book with Mildred, he’s heading to a new home and a new family. The river cleanses Montag, baptising him and preparing him for the next chapter of his life. After emerging from the river, Guy Montag finds a group of people surrounding a fire. He is relieved and happy. As Montag walks toward the fire, he realizes something... “...a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning, it was warming.” (139) The fire is no longer the destructive weapon that Montag had always associated it with. Now it is clear that he is not the man he was in the city. Now that fire is a life source, even comforting, Montag can move on from his destructive job of burning books, and into a new and more