Fahrenheit 451 Pride Quotes

Fahrenheit 451 Essay

The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is placed in a setting where it is illegal to own literature. Not only is it illegal, but people who show interest in books are immediately frowned upon and practically alienated by society. In the beginning of the novel, the main character Guy Montag takes pride in his occupation as a fireman, which consists of burning illegally owned books and the house’s of their owners at a moment's notice. As the book progresses, Montag questions why he and the rest of his society have been brainwashed to view books as a negative thing, which begins when he develops a friendship with his next-door-neighbor. Montag feels inclined to better understand his neighbor, a seventeen year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. However, it wasn’t

He had done this many times before, but as he tried to drag the woman out of the burning house and to safety, she refused. “Come on, woman!’ The woman knelt among the books, touching the drenched leather and cardboard, reading the gilt titles with her fingers while her eyes accused Montag. ‘You can't ever have my books,’ she said” (Bradbury 38). The woman fathoms something in this moment that Montag will not for quite some time, and that is that the value of books does not lie in the physical copy and although they might burn her books they never really take them from her. He brings this up to his wife Mildred days later, and she doesn’t seem to understand where he’s coming from. Montag then states, “You weren't there, you didn't see," he said. "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing” (Bradbury 54). This is when he begins to realize that there must be some sort of substance or value in books, but still doesn’t understand it completely