Fahrenheit 451 A secret friend, a lunatic of a wife, a rival foe, and a life full of lies. Guy Montag is a fireman living in a dystopian world where book burning is a custom and innovative idealism is rejected. Montag endures countless fires and hopeless companions to realize the corruption that is his civilization and the beauty of the natural and independant world. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury reveals the ideas that a person known is a person loved and there is always good in something bad. This becomes clear with Montag’s interaction with his people and his perception of the meaning of fire. Throughout the story, Montag realizes that whether or not he liked his acquaintances, he still cared for them and thought of them in …show more content…
When Montag is sent out with his brigade to burn down a book owner’s house, Montag sees that the owner stayed in the house and burned down with it. “There must be something in books… to make a woman stay in a burning house ” (51). Montag realizes that there must be something - something important, something worthwhile - to cause a person to commit suicide and die with that knowledge. At the start of the story, Montag sees fire as just a way to clean up, a way to keep things in line, a way to turn white pages into black ash. But fire develops a different meaning than that. Fire becomes a way to hide something. To destroy evidence. To shadow a bright thought in even brighter flames. Montag has been opened up to see past his own society. Later in the story, once escaping the city on the eve of war, Montag comes across a group of friends by a campfire. “A strange fire because it meant something to him… [fire] could give as much as it could take” (145-146). Away from the corrupt civilization of censorship and conflagration, Montag sees even more in fire than he had seen before. Before, fire had been a way to shut down life and shadow the natural mind and rational world. But now, Montag sees fire in the light of starting a new life. Fire becomes a way to get rid of the past and look toward the future. The development of fire
Fire was the first human necessity, capable of both causing destruction and sustaining life. It has many uses now, to some fire means damage and death but to others it can mean rebirth or renewal. Ray Bradbury comments on the various functions of fire through symbolism in Fahrenheit 451. Montag’s new perception for society and events, which have occurred, changes his understanding of fire. He goes from believing that fire is an enjoyment, than perceiving it is more of destruction, to slowly considering that it can be comforting, and noticing the other side to fire which is that it can also mean renewal.
It was not burning. It was warming.” (145). Everyone in the current society all believe what most of people believe and mostly use fire for destruction, even though fire has so many way to use it for other good reasons too. So in the end Montag found a group of people that won’t just use fire to destruction purpose and realize that books are not
Although Montag had no doubts about his line of work at the start of the book, he would begin to do so after meeting Clarisse, among other impacts on his thoughts and morality. He doesn’t feel bad for the homeowners whose house is getting burned down, the only thing he cares about is that he is doing his job just like the rest of the firemen. Montag is not used to individuals expressing their thoughts in this way, whether they are negative or positive, therefore he becomes irate with Clasrrise at times and questions her frequently. On page 21, Clarisse says, “ That's why I think it’s strange you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you somehow.” As an illustration of this.
At the outset, Montag was consumed by the darkness. He was a fireman who started fires instead of dousing them. Asked how long he has done so. He replies, “since I was twenty, 10 years ago.” (5) All the time he was, burning book after book, not knowing the full extent of his actions; he was totally unaware of all the knowledge being destroyed at his hand.
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.
Guy Montag a firefighter but instead he starts the fires. In the book Fahrenheit 451, Montag Mildred, and Beatty are impacted by the alienation. By looking at Montag, one can see he is lost which is important because he has to go to other people for help. Everyone around him was alienated from the real world and believe everything they hear.
Clarisse -the only person who appears to be alive;- and Faber -the owner of knowledge unused,- share their thoughts and feelings about how to find true meaning in life. Throughout the novel, Guy Montag appears as a dynamic, three dimensional character, because he illustrates the changes that come about through acquiring knowledge; he undergoes dramatic internal changes while presenting himself as a relatable human who struggles against his own flaws. Guy Montag proves to be a dynamic character in Fahrenheit 451 because of the momentous changes he makes in his life. An example of can be found in how his opinion about burning books changes throughout the text; at the beginning he believed that “it was a pleasure to burn...to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” (Bradbury 3)
Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag.” Fire, a dangerous tool the firemen use to control public activity, symbolizes peace to some, as it cleanses their society of what they’ve considered more dangerous than the act of destroying property and people. Montag burning Beatty to death being the most obvious example of fire being powerful within the book, yet “Fire is bright and fire is clean” (pp. 59) As Michel Foucault says, “Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.”
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.
Montag realizes the true and personal impacts of his work as a fireman watching a woman burn with her books; he observes, “The woman replied quietly ‘I want to stay here’... She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of her hand was a single slender object... The woman’s hand twitched on the single matchstick. The fumes of kerosene bloomed up about her.” (Bradbury 43).
Starting fires appeared to be his passion. However, as he considers Clarisse’s question, “Are you happy?” (Bradbury 10), his views being to change and Montag wonder if he truly is. From this point on, Montag’s life tears at the seams.
(STEWE-2) Besides asking questions about society’s relationships, Montag questions further and starts asking about society’s rules on burning books after he experiences a woman burn with her books. He says to Mildred, “'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.'" (Bradbury 48). Montag, before, had blindly followed and enforced society’s rules about burning books.
She tells him that firefighting doesn’t seem right for him. This comment causes a reaction in Montag, “He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (pg 24). His reaction shows a conflict, that is causing emotion and thought. He begins to wonder why he isn’t happy.
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.
Fahrenheit 451 Essay In our society Firemen are supposed to be heroic and put out fires. That was not what being a fireman meant for Montag. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 for Montag being a firefighter possessed a level of respect and confidence, that was hard to earn for the average person. The numbers 451 symbolize the burning of books and the law that forbids books.