The Character Of Montag In Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a very interesting book for me to read. There are, sadly, many similarities from this book to our current society today. Montag's character changes a lot during the course of the book. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag starts out as an unaware citizen and becomes a person who thinks more independently without conforming to the norm.

At the beginning of the book Montag acts without thinking about what he is doing. It is only when Clarisse McClellan starts talking to Montag that he starts thinking about what he is doing and why he is doing some of those things. For example, one of the biggest concerns he has is why is he a fireman. When the book begins, Montag is not thinking about what he doing for his profession. It is in the job description to burn books and the houses that came along with them and he goes about his job conscientiously. His job is also a legacy in his family. As the book progresses and his consciousness grows he begins to draw different conclusions about what being a firefighter really is. His growing questioning begins to make him a bit crazy and leads him to make poor and irrational decisions.

Ironically, he kills him using the weapon that he is fighting himself--fire. Montag does not feel like he has much alternative other than torching his boss. One way that this relates to our current world is there continues to be many murders and deaths. The same thing applies to Fahrenheit 451. At one point Clarisse says "I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks.”(Bradbury 30) Clarisse is dazed and confused by the actions of her peers and why things like that were