Sarah Barnes Mrs. Powell 26 February 2023 Guy Montag Character Analysis Ray Bradbury is an amazing author who wrote many great books, including Fahrenheit 451. The main character of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, goes through a great transformation through the duration of the story. At the start of the book Montag is shown to be loyal, brainwashed, and does not question things. He is shown to have these traits for most of the beginning of the book, and they are shown through certain quotes. The quotes that I have found to show that he is loyal is part of a conversation between Montag and Clarisse, “Do you ever read any of the books you burn?” -Clarisse, “That's against the law!” -Montag. This shows that he is loyal to his job and he follows the rules and laws without a second thought. …show more content…
The first line of the book is, “It was a pleasure to burn.” This line gives us some insight as to what Montag is like in the earlier parts of the book. As in he sees burning books as a pleasure and sees no issue with the way things are. He also tells Clarisse that she “thinks too many things” showing how he hasn’t thought about almost anything besides burning books and following orders. Then for the evidence of the trait that he does not question things I have one long quote said to Montag by Clarisse, “You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I’ve asked you.” -Clarisse. This quote from Clarisse says a lot about Montag in the earlier parts of the book, about how he doesn’t question the laws that are set in place, he doesn’t question how people around him act, or why they burn books in the first place, or pretty much anything in his
But let us take a step back to before he met Clarisse shall we? Before Montag met Clarisse he loved to burn books. He loved Kerosene and saw it as perfume in his eyes. He was just an average member of the society following the rules and doing as he was supposed to, Although he was a little suspicious
He just does what he is told. During the book his beliefs about his job changes. At the end of the book he doesn't understand why he burns books instead of reading them. In the beginning Montag doesn't realize what his job is, and how life was years ago.
Clarisse's influence on Montag is evident when he starts to notice and appreciate the little things in life, such as the
But theirs 1 question that Clarisse asks that makes Montag question himself. Clarisse asks the question of “Are you happy” (Bradbury 10).
This is a use of plot development from Ray Bradbury. He writes of Montag meeting Clarisse, and she changes his life as well as the story. He also writes about Montag wanting to give up everything including his job because his opinion is changing. When Montag first meets Clarisse, he is just like everyone else, he doesn’t have an opinion and does what he is told. He is not free nor independent.
Clarisse also shows Montag that he used to think the norm was to burn books and hate them but Clarisse changes Montag’s opinion on books. Montag, “gazed, shaken at that white hand. He held it way out, as if he were farsighted. He held it close, as if he were blind.” Clarisse had questioned Montag so much, to where he becomes curious and decides to steal a book.
Montag's mouth drying out may be a sign of his nervousness of conceivably covering up books due to Clarisse affecting that books are information and joy. Too, this effectively depicted Clarisse's will impact Montag since earlier to them meeting each other, he would burn life absent carelessly. Altogether, Montag's uncertain alter in his way of life is ascribed to his experience with a insane, youthful, 17 year ancient young
Montag is the protagonist in this novel. He is thirty years old. He is a fireman whose job is to make sure all books are burned therefore he believes strongly in what his society stands for: all books should be burned. Or so it seems. Throughout the beginning of the novel, it’s obvious that he is conflicting on what he actually believes, everyone around him thinks he believes books are bad.
In Fahrenheit 451, America becomes a dystopian community where books are outlawed and society forces conformity upon themselves. Guy Montag is a fireman, who enforces the banning of book by burning them. However, Guy quickly questions his role in society, and becomes a very dynamic character. Ray Bradbury shows the transformation of Guy Montag in his quest of self-identity with his thoughts, actions, and interaction with society.
He shares no personal information and directly avoids having any meaningful interaction with her. Contrastingly, Montag is very genuine towards Clarisse. She encourages him to question his world and everything he thinks he knows. Throughout many of their conversations, Montag has to, “pause and remember if he had previously known this, [which] made him quite irritable" her curiosity intrigues him and this is what begins his journey. Throughout the rest of the novel, Montag takes everything with a grain of salt and is skeptical of what he is told he should
— and does not seem to be able to find anything, his whole society lacks human connection and they just all blabber on about worthless topics. This flaw eventually keeps growing on Montag to the point where he develops this desire to have it and take out anything that might devoid him of it. (MIP-2): Montag experiences a few encounters where he starts to question society. (SIP-A): When Montag was walking home from work one day, he met a girl named Clarisse. (STEWE-1): Montag begins to talk to Clarisse and notices she has an odd nature.
Before Montag met Clarisse, he never thought about reading books, and he was never curious about how things were done before (history). Clarisse makes Montag question his surroundings, such as his society, and happiness. Everything started with a simple walk in the neighborhood to Clarisse’s house, followed by the question “"Are you happy?,"” introducing Montag's first internal problem, himself (7). After his first encounter with Clarisse, Montag seemed to have a crisis over his happiness, “Of course I'm happy. What does she think?
This is shown through his relationship with Clarisse. Clarisse makes him question his life in many different ways but one-way especially being with his relationship with his wife: “And suddenly she was so strange he couldn’t believe he knew her at all. He was in someone else’s house, like those other jokes people told of the gentleman, drunk, coming home late at night, entering a wrong room, and bedding with a stranger and getting up early and going to work and neither of them the wiser” (39-40). This quote shows Montag completely questioning who even is his wife. He felt this special connection with Clarisse that he doesn’t at all feel with his wife.
Montag is a fireman who lives next to young Clarisse, he finds her ways pretty odd but fascinating. Clarisse likes to make Montag think about what is actually going on in society and makes him feel really uncomfortable doing so, but he keeps coming back for more conversation. Montag is in denial about the way the world ‘used’ to be before the burning of books. He sees no value at this point to any of the knowledge that can be gained by books.
(AGG) What could possibly be so wrong to drive someone to go against the government? (BS-1) At the start of “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag was a person that had flaws and fully supported society. (BS-2) Afterwards, Montag learns the truth about what people value in his society.