The growth of characters in literature is crucial to making a piece of writing memorable and relatable to readers. Character growth occurs through their environment and the people they surround themselves with. Therefore, it is no surprise that Fahrenheit 451 demonstrates the change and development Montag went through after Clarisse made him think about nature and society's ways. Ray Bradbury successfully demonstrates Montag’s growth through his attitude to fire and his relationships with other characters.
Montag’s change in attitude to fire demonstrates his growth. In the beginning, Montag claims his job as a fireman burning books "was a pleasure" (1) showing that he was an ordinary person in this society. One day during Montag’s job, he
Montag began his career as a dedicated fireman. He was taught to burns books and he performed this task well, taking great joy in his life as a firemen. He loved the smell of kerosene burning the books at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. These were the books that were so vehemently hated. But this all changed when Montag met a young girl by the name of Clarisse.
Montag is a fireman who is thirty years old. He has been a fireman for ten years; he takes pride in his work with the fire department. Montag’s job is to search for books and burns them because there’re illegal. Also, enjoys burning books. Montag is an unhappy, cold hearted and emptiness person; in the story Montag is described "black hair, black brows…fiery face, and…blue-steel shaved but unshaved look.
The first example of Montag’s understanding of fire is when Montag is burning a house of books on the job. Montag is shown to like fire very early in the book. He thought “it was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1). He is shown to like his job again when
Lyra Jessica Cresido English 9 10 July 2023 Fahrenheit 451: Prompt C Throughout Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, our main character, undergoes a significant transformation from a dutiful fireman who follows society's norms due to herd behavior to a free-thinking individual who values knowledge and literature. Several key moments contributed to Montag's growth, but three stand out as the most important; meeting Clarisse, seeing the old woman die with her books, and befriending Faber. The first moment is when Montag meets Clarisse McClellan.
Like the phoenix, Montag rose from the ashes of his past and was born into someone new. Montag goes through a drastic change in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. He breaks away from the confines of his society causing him to be labeled as an outcast, a danger, and even a terrorist. He goes from being a fireman, someone who burns books, to a reader. Montag experiences an irreversible change, and it forever impacts who he is as a person.
Through the entirety of Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, nearly every rebellious thought, action, and revelation that displayed Montag's character growth can stem from his relationship with Clarisse McClellan. It was through the inspiration and prodding of the ebulliently curious teen that prompted Montag to start making changes in his life by simply allowing himself to really think about things. She was the one who truly opened his eyes to the world, causing him to loathe what his society had become, and tread the path of self-discovery. Be as it may that there were other figures of inspiration that helped guide Montag later on in the novel, such as Faber and Granger, it is all thanks to Clarisse that Montag's initially suppressed character
(STEWE-1): In the beginning of the book, Montag thoroughly enjoys his job and does not think that there would be any problems within his society and life. He found his job as a fireman as a “pleasure to burn” (1) and it was also “a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1) in his eyes. In Montag’s life, burning books is the norm, and him being pleased with what he is doing shows that he fits in right along with the rest of his society. (STEWE-2): As well as enjoying his job, he also takes a lot of pride with what he is doing.
Showing the growing awareness of what used to be the norm and how those circumstances affected the country, Montag began to understand why books are banned and the manipulation that has blinded him. An additional realization he made about his job, was given as Captain Beatty explains the purpose of their work, ¨[Firemen] were given a new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors.¨ (Bradbury, 1991, Pg. 56). This quote evoked a turning point in the text, as Montag is exposed to the true meaning of his job, he isn’t burning meaningless works that offend people. He will soon understand that he is a pawn of the government used to censor the public from information
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the author Ray Bradbury uses Montag’s character growth to showcase the importance of critical thinking and the dangers of censorship. Bradbury creates an alternate reality where everything is backward. Firemen start fires, books are banned, and people only prioritize thrilling experiences. The entirety of the novel is a warning to future generations about how ignorance can lead to a horrible future where people will have no real connections, no real emotions or feelings, and there will be an abundance of crime. A major component of Montag’s character growth is meeting his neighbor Clarisse.
After learning the truth about his job he starts to question everything he has ever done and starts to change his opinion on some of them. On the first page and first sentence he tells us “it was pleasure to burn. ”(pg.1) This makes us believe that Montag loves his job and is proud of himself as a human being but later in the book after he has made peace with himself and came to a conclusion about who he is he says to Beatty the fire captain “we never burned right”(pg.113) This shows that Montag finally understands and is no longer battling himself.
After Montag and the other firemen burn down a man’s house filled with books, he “trie[s] to imagine […] just how it would feel […] to have firemen burn [their] houses and [their] books” (Bradbury 37). Bradbury characterizes Montag as empathetic by showing that he is putting himself in another person’s shoes and wondering what they would have felt. He is becoming aware that his job isn’t as perfect as he thought it was, and realizes that hewhat he does harms people. Bradbury reveals how Montag slowly transitions into becoming someone who doesn’t conform to society . Bradbury builds on this transformation by using freedom and happiness as an example.
The government's rules of burning books was a major twist leading to a lack of empathy and dehumanization. Burning books was a law that the government of the concealed city of the United States made, so that the knowledge and the information that the books gave wouldn’t reach the citizens living in the concealed city. This would relate to the lack of empathy and lead to dehumanization because reading wouldn’t give any information and knowledge to the citizens and by this it would lead to a lack of empathy which means they won’t be able to connect and talk to people as fluently. Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451 emphasizes an important theme that a lack of empathy leads to dehumanizing everyone and a demolishing of human vitality, a theme
In addition, taking after Clarisse, Montag begins to ask questions himself, and realizes that the way society functions isn't right, and he is no longer happy with his choice of profession.(STEWE-1) " ‘I've tried to imagine,’ said Montag, ‘just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books’” (Bradbury 31). Here, Montag has his first realization that being a fireman is not only wrong, but also an inaccurate, untruthful version of who he wants to be.(STEWE-2)
In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag experiences a paradigm shift as he transforms from a disoriented fireman to a learner who wants to gain knowledge through literature. Montag struggles with his newfound fascination with what was once trivial items because of his inability to ask questions under the bonds of conformity. However, the society prohibits people from reading for fear that they would express individuality and perhaps even rebel once they gain knowledge. Through the use of characterization and diction, the Bradbury demonstrates Montag’s desire for individuality and the society’s command of conformity in order to build a suspenseful mood, which keeps the reader’s interest. First, through the use of characterization,
Bradbury portrays how Montag’s perception of fire and burning books with his personal development changes by the different choices he makes throughout the novel. In the beginning of the book, Montag has a great passion and