Character of Guy Montag in Novel "Fahrenheit 451"

Categories: Dystopia

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Guy Montag, the protagonist in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, is a man who has no worries or cares in the world except his job. That is the way they are forced to live in their society, a society where the government has all the power over their lives. Montag’s role in the novel is a firefighter, however he doesn’t stop the fires, he helps ignite them. Within their society, they are not allowed to read books or have knowledge of the past.

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The government enforces this law rigidly because they are scared that if people become knowledgeable, they will contribute to overthrowing the powerful people. Although the government has too much power, Montag has no problems and does his job wholeheartedly until he starts questioning his life.

In the beginning of this novel, Montag was dedicated to his job, to burn books. One day when he was walking home from work, he meets a girl named Clarisse.

Clarisse is a reader, that puts Montag in a weird place because the books she reads, he has to burn. The first she asked him was, “Do you ever read any of the books you burn?” Montag laughs thinking it’s a job, but when he realizes she was serious, it changes his point of view on things he wants to know. The second question she asked was, “Are you happy?”. This question makes him think about his life and analyze it. He knows something more is out there and he wants to know about it.

Montag not knowing about the world around him is not satisfying. Although he believes there is something more, he doesn’t make any big changes within his life. It however leads him to look at things a little differently. Montag’s job also plays a big role in how Montag changes throughout the novel. The changes were mostly influenced by the pressure the other firemen and the chief gave him. The Captain believes that Montag has a book, and he tries to find clues to confirm his suspicion. Montag continues to work, even when it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. There are some parts of his work that changes his state of mind. Once they were supposed to burn down an old lady’s books, but she wouldn’t let them. She burnt her own house down along with herself. Guy Montag couldn’t understand what was so important in those books that she would die for them. He begins to take one book from each of the houses he has to burn, although he doesn’t read them, he just keeps them. This makes Captain Beatty even more suspicious of Guy Montag. He began to give Montag warnings, and even told him that after 24 hours if a fireman hadn’t burnt a book, he would burn it for them. That was a hint to Beatty that Montag had books. Montag knows that Beatty is going to come to burn his house down, but he had discovered a pride like the old lady’s. He wasn’t going to let anybody take away his new way of life. Montag feels that he has to protect what he owns, and while doing that he burns Beatty’s house down and ends up killing him.

Overall Guy Montag is a very interesting character and played an important role in the novel, and I liked that about him. I could relate to Montag because he has a man who wants to have a fulfilling life, that is something he and I share. We want to be proud of something and feel like we did something in this world. One of the other characteristics I share with Montag is how we are very excitable and that leads us to make very poor judgement and big mistakes. Montag and I are also very similar in a way because we have changed. A few years back, like Montag, I loved destruction and I was young and dumb. But I found reading and it was amazing and I felt how Guy Montag feels.

Although Montag and I share many similarities, we share a few differences. One of which includes him being older than I am, and his job is to burn books, a far greater responsibility than being a kid. Another difference is that Montag has a very rebellious nature, and does everything he has to, to save his new lifestyle. One of the other things is that Montag lives in a futuristic town where the government controls every move, I still live in a society where we can make our own choices.

Overall Guy Montag is a changed man, similar to what I was and so many other similarities. Although it might not be very positive, we saw how Guy Montag evolved throughout the novel. He came back through his marriage, his job, and himself and he became a new person with his own point of view.