Montag In Fahrenheit 451

Words: 651
Pages: 3

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman that incinerates works of literature for a living. At the beginning of the novel, he is a rule follower that enjoys his job and believes he is the happiest man in the world until future events occur. As these events occur, Montag’s views of society change throughout the novel based on the events and people that he encounters.
Montag is walking home from work after a long day of burning books when he comes into contact with a 17 year old girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is one of the greatest influences on Montag’s development as he slowly starts to think more and more as a result of meeting her. One way Clarisse influenced him is when she asked him “are you happy?” (Bradbury 6). He begins to wonder if he is happy or not, he thought that he was, but then comes to the realization that he is not. As a result of meeting her, other people start to notice Montag’s change such as
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While they were burning the lady's books, she refused to exit her home while Beatty was threatening to burn her alive. She chose suicide over losing her books, “You can stop counting, she said. She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of the hand was a single slander object” (Bradbury 36). This caused Montag to steal a book to see what was worth dying for, and at this moment Montag started his major transformation. He soon came down with a fever as a result of stealing the book and called in sick for work, this made Beatty suspicious and brought unwanted attention to Montag. Beatty’s visit made Montag very nervous, but Beatty treated it like it was normal “Every fireman sooner or later, hits this” (Bradbury 51). After this Montag began to read the books with his wife, Mildred, and began to gain knowledge as to why books are illegal in this