“While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning” (Bradbury, Ray 3). Montag is a fireman that does not put out fires, he starts them. Montag lives in a dystopian society where books are illegal to have and read. Books make people think and question things which can give them opposite sides to choose from which can make people become unhappy and worried.
“Did you know that once billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly they had to stretch the advertising out so it would last” (pg.7, ch.1 The Hearth And The Salamander). I find this quote significant because it perfectly explains the lives of the people in this novel. Moving fast, not paying attention and for what? To die in a car crash at only 17?
Mildred says, “Look who’s here. Captain Beatty,” (Bradbury 52). Montag realized what Beatty was doing and what role he played in his little plan to turn Montag and Montag did not want anything to do with Beatty and the firehouse and rebelled against it. Beatty, finally towards the end of the book, pushed montag over the edge. Montag burned Beatty and killed him making him a criminal and having to go into hiding.
In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the protagonist and book burner, battles between the light and dark sides of society, first with Beatty, his boss, and the government and then with Clarisse, a neighbor girl and Faber, an English professor. Montag is stuck in the dark burning books and is ignorant to the world around him. He moves towards greater awareness when he meets Clarisse and is awakened to the wonders of deep thought and books. Finally, he risks his life by trying to save the books.
In this part of the book, all of the firemen including Montag received a call to burn a house with the books in there. Here became the turning point for Montag as he saw the woman, who already had made her decision to die rather than live in a world of oppression and restricted freedom of thought which books symbolize in this part, burns with the illegal books in the burning house, refusing to go out without the assurance of the safety of the books. We can suppose that his perception is gradually changing through the phrase showing that Montag felt a huge guilt over this, unlike the other firemen or Beatty. Furthermore, during the conversation with his wife, Mildred, Montag says, “We burn a thousand books. We burnt a woman.
(MIP-2) From certain experiences, Montag comes to realize that he’s not actually happy with his life because he discovers that it lacks genuine, valuable, or humane relationships, eventually driving him to find the truth about his society by making him think about and question it. (SIP-A) Montag realizes from his experiences with Clarisse that his relationships in his life lack genuity, value, or humanity. (STEWE-1)
After the incident, Montag thought about the suicidal woman and he is confused as to why she would sacrifices her own life for some mere books. Since he’ve been told that books are evil, a spark of curiosity blooms within him. In part two, Montag is desperate for help. After his boss, Beatty, talks to him about the history of firemen and books, Montag is afraid that Beatty knows that he stole a book.
This “fire” in represents as books made illegal to stop the spread of knowledge due to the people of this future society becoming disinterested, and more interested in things such as speeding, talking to wall, that those people begin to believe in a false reality and show false emotions. There is also the totalitarian government of this future society that fears the sharing of knowledge because it would loosen the power that the government has created to overpower the people. Montag akin to the detainees of the cave begin to leave the cave to see the realities of their
The first point that needs to be addressed is the fact that the book makes people think. In the book firemen are the government censors and they burn any and all books. This makes the people in the story fear both books and opposing the government. As a result,
Beatty even explains to Montag, a fireman with growing inquiry, about “what traitors books can be” in attempts to deter him from reading. By traitors, Beatty means to express his coming away lost due to authors “all of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun.” He argues that rather than challenging people with discovering truth themselves, it is in their best interest to not “give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.” Rather, “Any man who can take a TV wall apart and put it back together again, and most men can nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to slide rule,
The book follows Guy Montag, a fireman who sets things on fire instead of put out fires. He enjoys his job until on one job an old woman decides to burn with her books rather than evacuate. Haunted by her death, Montag becomes confused on why books would mean so much to anyone. He then decides to find out for himself by reading books from a personal stash of stolen books. Montag has a personal revolution; he realizes the dangers of restricting information and intellectual thought.
Beatty, the firehouse captain, had been suspicious of Montag being in possession of literature. His dubious thoughts are found to be correct when Mildred turned Montag in. Montag is forced to go on the run, leaving the city for the countryside, where he finds other outcasted intellectuals. The city is bombed, leaving it completely destroyed and the society in ruins. The society Ray Bradbury creates in Fahrenheit 451 showcases how censorship is a threat to free thinking, society’s humanity, and human relationships through the use of imagery, symbolism and motifs.
Moreover the fire also resembles the purging of Montag. Montag’ burning of his house and the TV signifies his rebellion and rejection of the vales of his society. Through burning his own house Montag like a phoenix destroys his old self by fire to be reborn from the ashes as a new person once again. Killing captain Beatty symbolizes the destruction of the system, because by doing so he frees himself from the influence of his society which give him the chance to think and choose freely for first time in his life. Also, another side of fire is also revealed to Montag ay the end of the novel when he meets the rebel group.
Captain Beatty is a fireman. Firemen used to put out fires, but after every house became fireproof, they act as the government’s official censor to prohibit literary works. This transition is known because of Beatty’s lecture to Montag, including the quote, “They (firemen) were given a new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread to be inferior.” (Bradbury 56) This also explains the need for firemen.
Beatty understands the way the world works in retrospect to the events leading up to the current situation of their government. As a fireman you must know what you are doing and how it benefits your society. Beatty explains the reason that books are banned to Montag, and doing so helps us understand the most important factor in the story. You must not offend anyone whatsoever. To maintain peace you must cease from reading or writing anything that could slightly be taken out of context.
