Guy Montag's Motivation In Fahrenheit 451

Motivation is the stated or implied reason behind a behavior. In specific, firemen are motivated to incinerate books since they threaten the social order. Books stimulate imagination and creativity in the readers. Firemen’s jobs are to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. In Fahrenheit 451, in the futuristic society Montag’s job, “consists of burning books and the possessions of book owners” (Lichtenstein 2). Firefighters have evolved from putting out fires to initiating them. In fact, this culture is not one that celebrates or even tolerates a range of self-expression. Without self-expression, everyone is mirror images of each other, “We must all be alike. Not everyone,

Meeting her makes him realize his dissatisfaction with his job, marriage, and the conformed society he lives in. When Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy, he questions if he really is. After she asks this, he thinks to himself, “of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (Bradbury 8). He first denies it but later realizes he is not satisfied with multiple things in his life. One of these things include, Montags wife, Mildred, who has memory issues and talks to the walls as if they are her relatives. For example Mildred overdosed on pills and the next day when Montag asked about the night before she had no idea. Mildred’s mental state frustrates Montag and affects their marriage. At this time, Montag was a firefighter who had to burn books, but as the years went by his interest in them grew. He begun to secretly steal the books from his job and started to create a collection in his attic. Later he pulled them out and went ahead to reading them. Montag becomes aware of his hate towards his job. Clarisse questioning Montag’s happiness resulted in the realization of the issues in his love life, career, and the society all