A fire starts out as a small match, and it moves to a roaring flame. Guy Montag is also a simple match when he is introduced in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. He starts out as a casual fireman, and he is hypnotized by society. Montag’s life sees a spark of change as the story begins. Many events influence his characteristics. When he is filling a house with kerosene and the lady inside voluntarily remains inside to burn. When the house is finally ignited, Montag suddenly ponders why a person would die over books. He fights to find a clear answer and discovers that only books can restore thought to society. Montag is a changing character throughout the novel. Like a match held to a newspaper, Montag’s mind starts searing away in thought. …show more content…
The second stage of transformation occurs when Montag spreads his flame to Faber. Faber is like a dry log sitting in the hearth. Montag is the match to release Faber’s energy and spread the heat. When Faber does not agree to join the movement, “His (Montag’s) hands, by themselves, like two men working together, began to rip the pages from the book. The hands tore the flyleaf and then the first and then the second page.” (84) Ripping these pages shows his decision to strengthen a movement or destroy society. He rips pages out of the Bible because he knows it will earn Faber’s attention and effort. After he agrees, Montag and Faber plan to print books and implant them in firemen’s houses. By joining with Faber, Montag turns his feelings of being lost and ignorant into actions to change society. He is becoming a more independent character as the effects of the dystopia disintegrate and rush away from him like smoke. As the flames grow, Beatty, the captain of Montag’s fire station, is water. Beatty knows what Montag is doing. Montag counters this resistance as he says, “You always said, don't face a problem, burn it. Well, now I've done both. Good-bye, Captain.” (115) Montag means that Beatty never actually solved problems, he just burns them and hopes they go away, so he kills his captain with the wrath of his flamethrower. These actions show Montag’s determination to do what is right. By this stage, Montag has changed from a …show more content…
“There was a silly bird called a Phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.” (156) The Phoenix is now a massive symbol in the book. As Montag walks away from his past, he has more of a purpose and sense of happiness then he ever had before in the city, just like when a Phoenix rises from its own ashes more beautiful than before. Granger mentions looking back on his past as he says, “Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them.” (157) Granger means that humanity should take a long look at itself and what is behind it. This will help it not repeat what happened in the past. Montag learns that he is only a small part of the larger picture from
Montag believes, “‘Something’s missing’ … ‘It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that were once in books...The same infinite detail awareness could be projected through radios and televisors, but are not’ (Bradbury 78). Faber informed Montag of the information that was being obscured from society. Knowledge and information meant very little to it. The society gives people random and irrelevant information. As a result, the people have a false sense of knowledge and remain ignorant. Montag gets frustrated and wants help from Faber: “‘In any event, you’re a fool. People are having fun.’ ‘Committing suicide! Murdering!’ ‘Patience Montag...Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces.’ … ‘There has to be someone ready when it blows up … Who can stop me? I’m a fireman. I can burn you!’ … ‘What do you want?’ ‘I need you to teach me’ (Bradbury 83-85). Montag is determined and has a need to fix and help society. He wants everyone to become aware of the mistakes society has made, and how it is falling apart as he became aware after meeting Faber. Faber explains to Montag, “You were so recently of them yourself. They are so confident they will run on forever. But they won’t run on … I’m with you remember that. I understand how it happened … Montag, you mustn’t go back to being a fireman. All
“’Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames’” (Bradbury 6). In the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a fireman, someone that burns books for the government to keep a firm control on what knowledge society has. However, through a series of events populated by an attempted suicide, a young girl, and an old man, Montag is shown a life where books are treasured instead of feared and hated. Armed with a vision of what the world has been, and could be like again, Montag ultimately meets up in the aftermath of a war with others that share his vision, and they begin their mission to make fire something other than a source of fear: a healing power.
One important way this epigraph ties well with the book would be the ongoing challenging of the society that the main character, Montag, does all throughout
Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of Guy Montag, a weary fireman who was initially satisfied with blindly following his orders to
In the story Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is the main character in a world where books are burned by Firemen. While Montag begins questioning the society he lives in, the element of fire is progressively present within the novel. Despite the common association between fire and destruction, the symbolism of fire changes as the story goes along as it provides a parallel to society's behaviour.
Carson Namen English 1 H Mrs. Bardin 5/1/17 Fire! It is hard to imagine firemen starting fires instead of putting them out. Yet that is what occurs in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. Writing in 1953, Bradbury warns readers about a future that could happen. Bradbury notices dehumanization in society as technology makes people become less personable and less capable of independent thought.
Firemen burn books, so why is Guy Montag trying to save them? Books are illegal everyone knows that, especially the firemen. Throughout the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(1953): a fireman named Guy Montag's perspective on books changes significantly. When the veil over his eyes gets lifted he starts to question the logic on why books are banned, and soon will do anything to save them. Montag's actions change in many ways, but the things that impacted his beliefs the most are meeting and talking to Clarisse McClellan, when Mrs. Blake would not leave her books, and when he started talking to Faber.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the main protagonist, Guy Montag works as a fireman. In his society, all books are illegal. The firemen burn any house with books in it. He takes pride in his job of burning illegal books. He enjoys the smell of kerosene that raises the fire’s temperature to the required 451 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature required to burn book paper. He wears the kerosene scent almost as a perfume (Bradbury 6). Guy Montag is in a ten-year, loveless marriage with his wife, Mildred.
The first page of “The Heart and the Salamander” introduces the main character, Guy Montag. Montag is a fireman, who enjoys his job and feels a great pleasure in watching things burn. Firemen’s job is not only to burn books, but the house with the books in it. Everything changes when he meets Clarisse McClellan, his seventeen year old neighbor, on his way home. She starts questioning Montag about his job and she tells him that the fireman used to be the one fighting the fire, not the trigger for the fire. Clarisse presents to Montag a whole new vision about life and it is different of what he used to know. She asks him if he is happy, which makes him angry but makes him think about it. When he gets home, he finds by his wife’s bed an empty bottle of sleeping pills and call the hospital.
A politician named Mary Brandbury once said, “It's never too late to do the right thing”. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character, his name being Guy Montag was a firemen. In the contrary of today's society, Firemen actually were in charge of burning, specifically burning books to prevent minorities from getting offended. Montag realized he was doing the wrong thing and came to the conclusion that it wasn't too late. Montag changed throughout the whole novel. He started by being and discontent man living an ordinary live, then he started to think more and proceeded to become thoughtful, then he stopped thinking and started acting, then finally reached his freedom and became liberated.
451 degrees fahrenheit. That is the temperature at which paper burns. Paper burning is the base of the novel Fahrenheit 451. In the publication Fahrenheit 451, fireman Guy Montag burns book as a job in a society where books are outlawed. Fireman are feared everywhere for what they do, but one night on the job perks Montag's curiosity and changes his view on books. Guy ponders why people value books so much. His trait of curiosity led the novel to the theme of identity. Montags character dynamically changes from one who enforces the law to one who questions it. While his identity is changing while he is faced with many challenges to confront. After that night that changed Montag's perspective on books, he woke up the next morning to be faced with confronting challenges. He is so stunned
Curiosity is a strange idea that can hold the mind hostage until a puzzle is solved. What a person finds can change his or her life forever. In Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, goes through numerous stages of curiosity throughout the book. He meets a man, Faber, who strikes his interest in books; then Clarisse, who began to give him a completely new perspective of the world; and when she died he made the biggest change in his life. In the end, Montag’s life has been completely made new. So, a great theme would be that curiosity has restored a person’s life.
In Fahrenheit 451, the main character is Guy Montag. Montag is a “firefighter” who burns books.Yes, I was thinking the same thing of why he was making fires and not putting them out. In this futuristic society they don’t read books or write at all. Instead, they drive very fast and watch a lot of Tv and listen to the radio on “seashell sets”. One day Montag meets a girl named Clarisse McClellan and she opens his eyes up about things. She is full of happiness and has a lot of knowledge for her age. A lot of events happen to Montag, his wife tried to commit suicide, a woman decides to be burned alive with her books, and Clarisse gets killed by a speeding car. He starts to really question things when a lady decides to be burned alive with her
When Faber comprehends the situation, he advises Montag to run away from the whole scene. At this moment, Beatty starts speaking to Montag about the beauty of fire. Beatty claims that the real beauty of fire lies in its perpetual motion, which was the thing that man wanted to invent but never did. He also thinks that fire is the solution to problems and burdens. that since Montag is a problem and a burden, then fire is the solution that will lift Montag off his shoulders. As a tool of mental torture for Montag, Beatty insists that Montag burns his own house, with his own hands, using a flame thrower. Through Montag's earpiece, Faber repeats himself, and tells Montag that he should run away. Montag responds to Faber aloud and tells him that he can't possibly run, since he is surrounded by the Hound.
In the book “Fahrenheit 451” we are introduced to our narrator Guy Montag, a firefighter. But, Guy is not like the firefighters of todays expectations. Instead of putting out fires, they would start them by burning books which were outlawed by the government. After talking to a neighbor, he starts to question his work. He sees how his life really is, with a wife who does not love him and a society that is caught up in technology and war. People were killing each other everyday but no one seemed to care.