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Character Changes In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

Decent Essays

The novel Fahrenheit 451 (published 1951) by Ray Bradbury illustrates a dark future where people are glued to their television screens and firemen burn houses instead of saving them, just because they contain books. One of these firemen is Guy Montag. Although he starts as a mostly normal citizen who is content with his job and his life, by the end of the novel Montag has run away from the city and has joined a group that praises and memorises books should they be needed in the future. Throughout the novel, Montag is influenced by his wife Mildred’s attempted suicide, Clarisse McClellan, Faber, and the book-keepers on the edge of society. These all compound to leave a Montag that is greatly different from the one at the beginning of the book. In order to understand how Montag changes throughout the novel, it is important to know how Montag is at the start. In the beginning, Montag is mostly fine with his life as a fireman. He enjoys his job and is mostly content with burning books. However, he also has some faint doubts about what he’s doing, as he starts collecting books and hiding them in the air vent long before the events of the novel. At this point, the only thing that could cause Montag to build up the courage to read these books and shatter the veil of contentment that he has built up for himself and the world around him is a large, catastrophic event. This impactful event comes in the form of his wife, Mildred, attempting suicide by taking the entirety of her bottle

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