Within the excerpt The Old Woman Burns from the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, one is portrayed the central idea of the situation regarding the old woman in possession of books. The reader is able to identify the essential theme, through the actions of the old woman, which demonstrates that one should be insurgent against a corrupt cause in order to support their individual perspectives and values. Bradbury conveys this central theme through the literary device known as conflict. Initially, the old woman encounters numerous tribulations with Captain Beatty, as she does not desire in abandoning the books in which she possesses. For example, “Come on, woman!…You can't ever have my books, she said. You know the law, said Beatty. Where's your common sense? None of those books agree with each other. You've been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come on now! She shook her head.” (Bradbury 35). Here, one is demonstrated that the old woman is emotionally, mentally, and even physically attached …show more content…
Montag internally conflicts with himself as he gradually begins to consider what books truly have to offer. For instance, “A book alighted, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim, wavering light, a page hung open… Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed in his mind for the next minute as if stamped there with fiery steel… Montag's hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with an insanity of mindlessness to his chest.” (34). Therefore, although, Montag desires in discovering the knowledge within books, the individuals who surround him in his occupation impede him from being exposed to the knowledge, which books have to offer and comprehending the true purpose and value of books within
He read an actual book an epiphany. “Montag shook his head. He looked at a blank wall. The girl’s face was there, really quite beautiful in memory: astonishing, in fact.” (8) His short time with Clarisse transformed Montag.
Montag hides some books until he finds the courage to read them. He goes from burning books to a book reader, effectively demonstrating his objection towards his society. The society forces people to watch their television instead of going outside or having meaningful conversations. They don’t even have porches“’[… but Clarisse’s] uncle say that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong kind of social life.
Bradbury portrays how Montag’s perception of fire and burning books with his personal development changes by the different choices he makes throughout the novel. In the beginning of the book, Montag has a great passion and
Due to this action, we see that the protagonist isn’t able to read books; his job [as a fireman] does the opposite. Apparently, Montag’s society does not believe in pursuing knowledge because it makes people see the faults in the world [wisdom creates a threat in the government]. As the story
All that Montag wants is to make the community realize why books are important. How books can help us. Also, how books can make us feel some type of emotion. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 states how Montag read a poem to Mrs. Phelps which she is one of Mildred’s vapid friends. As Montag was reading her that poem Mrs. Phelps began to cry.
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.
God I don’t want to go over” (66). Once he does, he starts gaining knowledge. Montag is becoming a wiser man, and “the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it” (King James Bible, Ecc. 7.12). Books are necessary for Montag to gain knowledge about the world outside the bubble he is trapped
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the struggle for freedom is shown through Montag’s perseverance to read and own books from the beginning of the novel to the end. After Montag quickly decides that his wife deserves to know that he had hidden books, “Then he reached up and pulled back the grille of the air-conditioning system and reached far back inside to the right and moved still another sliding sheet of metal and took out a book” (Bradbury 65). At the end of part one, this event occurs and it describes how serious of an issue it was if they went against the law and kept books to read.. Furthermore, this quote from the novel proves that the struggle for freedom is shown in the image it gives to a reader's mind of how skillfully he had to
Montag is extremely curious about books, and the idea of freedom that it drives him crazy. He becomes so crazy that he lies to his wife, and kills his boss. Montag will go to any extent to gain freedom, in the means of breaking laws, and hurting
Neil Gaiman once wrote, “some books exist between covers that are perfectly people-shaped” (Gaiman xvi). The idea that books can be defined as the sharing of thoughts and information between people reveals a deeper meaning in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist faces a society in which books are censored and, thus, burned. This, according to his definition, means that if books become banned, certain connections between people will, too, be destroyed. Ray Bradbury reveals the theme (the importance of books) through the protagonist’s dynamic character, which comes as a result from his conflicts with society.
This disharmony between inward thought and outward action catalyzes Montag’s desire for change, leads him to deeper introspection, and contributes to the novel’s central message that if one remains
Even though his society has said books are harmful he reads them and does not hesitate to read again, even though Beatty said to Montag books have nothing in them he still reads, he rejected his society and is not willing to believe what Beatty says is true. (STEWE-2) Montag realizes how the people of the society are so distracted from the world and sees how wrong it is. “Every hour so many damn things in the sky! How in the hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives!
At the same time what he has been looking for was what the society has restricted and has told people to not make any connection with. This was the imaginary rule that the society decided to set saying that books were not allowed to be own or read. This is were censorship appears with Montags characteristic. Montag comes along living a life where he was restricted from working and putting effort due to the government preferring total control over the society so they give them everything they need but not too much in order
But now that he sees someone’s life be taken by his enforcement, he starts putting in hard consideration about the very things that are against the laws of his own society and wonders why exactly his society would ban books. (STEWE-3) Eventually, he questions his society so much that Montag starts rebelling by reading books against the rules, now determined to find the answers to his questions about
His contact with a 17 year old girl named Clarisse McClellan, an elderly woman who was willing to die for her books, and an old professor named Faber, help Montag start to question things and begin a transformation that takes him from the rule following, book burner; to an idea challenging, book reader