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.
Several people Montag meet in the book have a major influence on him. The influences those people have on Montag will set forth a change in Montag. Out of all the people to have an influence on Montag, Clarisse McClellan has the biggest affect on Montag. Clarisse McClellan is Montag’s seventeen year old neighbor. She is innocent, curious, and is full of life. She is different from other people in
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Clarisse asks Montag why he does not have any children. Montag replies to Clarisse that Mildred does not want to have any children. Clarisse apologizes to Montag for for asking the question. However, Montag stops Clarisse from apologizing any further. "No, no," he said. "It was a good question. It's been a long time since anyone cared enough to ask." (28-29). Montag is able to think on his own. He starts to ask his own questions. Montag makes connections with the world outside of his job and his house.
Clarisse is a target because she questions the world. Captain Beatty labels her as a “time bomb” (60). She suddenly disappears one day and Mildred tells Montag that she was killed in a car accident. She also informs Montag that Clarisse’s family moves However during Beatty and Montag’s conversation, Beatty hints that “The poor girl’s better off dead” (60). There is a chance that the government could be involved in Clarisse’s disappearance. The government could see her as a threat and eliminate
In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse is one of the main characters throughout the book. Although Mildred and Captain Beatty influenced Montag, Clarisse impacted him the most. In this book, Ray Bradbury kills off one of the most influential characters. Even though she is “dead”, Bradbury somehow made her a symbol. We don’t know why Bradbury killed off this important character, but it left readers wondering. She had some type of influence on Montag that made him think about things. She was interested in learning and asking questions. I believe that Clarisse has impacted Montag because she taught him that thinking was an option.
Clarisse tells Montag this, and it makes him wonder if anyone really does care. Montag realizes that he lives in a world of conceited people. He realizes that he does not really care about anyone, including his wife Mildred. People in his society don't think about others feelings when acting. From this, Montag learns the meaning of caring. He learns what a terrible place it is to live in, where no one cares about anyone but themselves. This only changes Montag for the better. At one point, Montag and the other firemen go to a house because a lady has books concealed in her home. The lady, not concerned about being burned to death, is determined to stay with her books. Montag is stunned by her decision, and cares very much about her safety. “Montag placed his hand on the woman's elbow. 'You can come with me'” (Bradbury 39) This is a turning point for Montag, in which he starts to care about everyone and their feelings.
People’s actions and their individual perceptions can influence and develop change in another person’s character. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, makes a complete metamorphosis with the help from his neighbor Clarisse, his wife Mildred, and his boss Beatty. In the beginning of the novel, he despised the whole idea of reading, had no thoughts or questions about his life, and was just going through the motions of life. He changes from a stolid character, incognizant of the activities of his surroundings, to a conscious person of. So enlightened, by the new world he is exposed to, he comes to the realization that there is more
Beatty exhibits no remorse for the woman when he mentions, “don’t worry about it” to Montag and doesn’t care. “Clarisse McClellan? We've a record on her family. We've watched them carefully. Heredity and environment are funny things. You can't rid ourselves of all the odd ducks in just a few years” (38). Beatty calls Clarisse as an ‘odd duck’ in reference to her outward thinking nature and that’s what makes her different. It’s evident here that Beatty doesn’t appreciate Clarisse as Montag does and in fact, sees her as strange and weird. As a fireman captain and nonbeliever of literature, Beatty is not deserving to be called a hero.
Clarisse is one of the characters who influenced Montag by showing her own world. Clarisse remind Montag the fireman’s real job. Clarisse said ‘”strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames”’ (pg 8). Clarisse is the one of character who read a book in conflict read society. She confused Montag on
Several times in Fahrenheit 451 it occurs that the firefighters must go and burn books. Once, the firefighters go and burn a man’s library of books. Montag later asks what happened to the man himself, and Beatty, the fire captain, answers that ‘they took him screaming off to the asylum.’ The second case is a little more disturbing. A woman’s neighbor calls the firefighters claiming that she has reason to suspect that her neighbor is hiding books in her library. When the firefighters arrive, the women has not been removed from her house and clearly has no intention of leaving. The firefighters begin to spray the house with kerosene and demand that the women leave, but before they can light the house, the women strikes a match, and she and the house are engulfed in flames. The women was so hopeless with the current society that she figured it would be better to just end her life. One of the last people caught reading books was Guy Montag. A neighbor calls the firefighters and when they arrive at the house, Guy realizes that it is his own house which they intend to burn. His fellow firefighters burn the house, and out of rage, Guy burns Beatty, the fire captain. He then escapes into nearby woods, but is chased and followed until all search teams eventually give up on finding
Have you ever read a book you enjoyed a lot? Well if not read Fahrenheit 451. The author of the book is Ray Bradbury. There are many characters, but one of the main, main ones is Montag. Montag is a person who changes quite a bit throughout the story. Montag goes from being conservative to being a rebel.
At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag enjoys burning books. According to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed”
Clarisse McClellan is a seventeen year old girl who Montag met while walking down the street one night. She claims she is crazy and always seeks out the answers to questions that nobody else thinks to ask. Faber is an ex-professor who is old enough to have watched the decline of intellectual life in his country. Montag once met Faber in the park carrying a book of poetry on his person and quoting it. Guy never turns Faber in to the authorities for possession of a forbidden book, but keeps Faber’s personal information in the case that he decides to do so. These two people alter Montag’s perspective on the world and the stories concealed in it by the media and government. Montag is so influenced that, by the ending of the story, Montag transforms into a completely different person who, desiring more out of his life, discovers that he can save his burning society by bringing back books and poetry. Montag changes throughout the course of the story by beginning to question authority and doubt the ways of his life and society. He is transformed from the beginning to the ending, through the influence of the people in his life.
When walking home from another duty as a fireman Montag stumbles upon his new neighbor, Clarisse McClellan. The two engage in philosophical conversation, mainly driven by the young, “socially ill” neighbor. Before heading into his home, Clarisse asks Montag a question. She asks if he is happy. He laughs at the question at first but after looking at Clarisse’s bright, cheerful home, Montag realizes he may not be as happy as he thinks he is while standing in his cold bedroom. A metaphor describes his feelings as Bradbury writes, “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back,” (12). Then as matters couldn't get worse, he discovers his wife has attempted suicide shortly after accidentally kicking an empty sleeping pill bottle on the floor. From that moment on he continues to refer to this incident, wondering why his wife took the pills in the first place. Even after calling for help and saving her life, Mildred continues to bother Montag with distrust and ignorance. She even reports Montag’s interest in books to the fire department, leading Montag to completely change the way he thinks about their
Clarisse helps Montag look around him and see everything, from the smallest snowflake to the biggest tree. Montag never really thinks about what is happening in his life, or why it seems he never shows much emotion towards anything. Clarisse teaches Montag to look around and to pay attention to what is really important in life, just not what his society tells him. Even though I believe Clarisse was the reason for Montag’s major metamorphosis, I believe that there were two additional individuals that had a role to play in Montag’s expedition to find answers to fill the void in his life.
She sits home all day and watches her three walls in the living room, that they had equipped with giant TV’s. Mildred bugs Montag for a fourth TV wall. She thinks it would be necessary to achieve the full effect of her TV programs, but Montag refuses knowing that it is a useless and expensive investment. Montag finds Clarisse waiting at the bus stop the next day. She then informs him that she doesn’t go to school because she’s been labeled anti-social by her teachers. Montag and Clarisse continue to carry on a conversation for a while before he eventually had to go and head off to work. Once he arrives at the fire station an alarm sounds to notify the firemen that someone is in the procession of books and that it is time to perform their duty of burning the house of books. Before the firemen begin to incinerate the house, Montag snatches two of the criminal’s books, and when the old lady who owns the houses refuses to leave her personal possessions to be burned the fireman are ordered to burn the house and its books along with her. This act dwells on Montag to the point where is makes him feel sick and very depressed about the inhumane actions he had performed.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there is a story of the character Guy Montag who is a fireman in a dystopian society, a society in which people get entertainment from giant TVs they call “Parlor Walls” and houses have been deemed fireproof. Since fireman do not need to run around and eliminate fires, they start them. The job of a fireman in this dystopian society is that they burn books and the places that contain them, all the while being the official censors of the state. But there is something different about Montag, he used to be a proud fireman, he had the look of one: “black hair, black brows... fiery face, and... blue-steel shaved but unsaved look” as it states on page 30, the feel of one: “It was
Clarisse says, “I tell them that sometimes I just sit and think”(21). Finally, Montag is made aware of this simplicity. When he is trying to find happiness himself, he remembers that Clarisse finds contenment through siting, observing and thinking. Montag begins to notice that his wife is a foil as she had never done either one of those things. Bradbury supports Jameson’s quote of happiness by showing how Mildred is suicidal and has no connection with people and her only connection is with her “Family” in the walls on Television. Montag begins to find himself and starts to realize that he really doesn’t care about Mildred, that she is an empty vessel. Later in the book Montage feels a stronger connection to a girl that he has only spoken to a handful of times versus his own wife whom he is suppose to have a strong connection. When Montage almost died by getting run over he says, “I wonder if they were the ones who killed Clarisse! He wanted to run after them yelling. His eyes watered.” (114). Montag knew Mildred for years yet he realizes that when she leaves him she will never miss him or mourn him; Montag feels closer with Clarisse as marvels at her idea of happiness. Montag starts to develop deeper feelings about thoughtful people like Clarisse. He would cry for this girl he barely knew more than he would for his own wife whom he felt no connection to.
Clarisse, the young women, impacts Montag’s life and changes his perspective on the world. When Montag first met Clarisse, he noticed she did not behave like the other citizens. Clarisse does not obsess over technology. Instead, Clarisse liked to enjoy the outside world and pay attention to it. As Montag and Clarisse interact and become friends, Clarisse says something to Montag that shocks him. For the first time Montag contemplates his life and job. While in this state of shock, Clarisse tells Montag that she finds him unique because he does not ignore her. Instead he listens and comprehends what she says, "...You're one of the few who put up with me. That's why I think it's so strange you're a fireman, it just doesn't seem right for you, somehow."(23-24). After Clarisse says this, Montag decides to do something Clarisse suggested. He stopped to feel the rain drip on his tongue, something he has never done before. Clarisse impacted Montag's life in a way that made him realize and appreciate the world around him. Until Montag met Clarisse, he never thought of the world as something to take care of and appreciate. Clarisse shaped Montag into the person he became. Other