Evolution through Crucial Events: Montag's Journey

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People’s outlooks on society evolve throughout key events in their lives. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, America has become a dystopian society where knowledge and change are condemned, and a select few people fight against their oppressive government. Throughout the novel, Montag, the protagonist, becomes one of these people who seek to understand and rebuild their broken society. He is deeply affected by three incidents that mark him and allow him to evolve in both positive and negative ways. Burning an old woman, reading to his wife and her friends, and burning Beatty all affect Montag either positively or negatively.

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While at the firehouse, Montag, his fire chief growing wellBeatty, and the other firemen receive an alarm. They drive to “a flaking three-story house in the ancient part of the city” (32), where they stop a woman swaying in front of the house. When she sees the firemen, she says “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I shall trust never be put out” (33).

In response, Beatty slaps and yells at her, asking where the books are. She then tells him that the alarm was directed to her neighbor, Mrs. Blake. They go into the house to find a treasure trove of books, a veritable library. Montag tries to get into the proper mood to burn, but the “woman was spoiling the ritual” (34). Everything seems too loud to Montag, and the woman seems to be accusing him. The books turn into birds in his mind, and he reads one line from a book before it turns to ashes.

He sees the woman as “a small girl, among the bodies”, and his hand grabs a book and stuffs it under his arm. Before he can react to what happened, he is brought back to his current situation by the sound of Beatty’s screaming, and he runs downstairs to where Beatty is yelling at the woman, telling her to get out of the house. She refuses, saying “You can’t ever have my books” (35), and pulls out a kitchen match. The firemen run out of the house, and right before Beatty sparks his lighter, she strikes “the kitchen match against the railing” (37).

Witnessing the old woman die for her books affects Montag positively; he begins to understand the messed-up society that he lives in. While he runs out of the kerosene drenched house, he thinks “[a]lways at night the alarm comes. Never by day! Is it because fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show?” (36). He realizes that his society is entirely focused on spectacle and shallow pleasures. Everything is publicized and turned into a show for the entertainment-starved people. This blossoming comprehension leads him to seek out a man he had met many years before: Faber, who becomes his mentor. It affects him both negatively and positively as it opens his eyes to the way that Millie, his wife, thinks. Ray Bradbury uses Mildred as a strawman to represent the population at large in his dystopian society, so by seeing Millie in a new light for the first time, Montag is seeing and understanding the rest of the population. When he speaks to her about the woman’s suicide, she’s entirely indifferent:“ ‘We burned a thousand books. We burned a woman.’ [Montag said] ‘Well?’” (47). Mildred’s response shows that homicide does not faze her at all and to an extent is a part of everyday life. Montag is visibly upset, while Mildred, and by proxy, the rest of the world, does not care about the well being of others. This is positive as he is understanding his society, which leads Montag to seek out knowledge and someone to talk to who would understand; someone who is apart from society, which all leads up to Faber once again. In another light, this instance is negative as it pulls Montag apart from his wife and leads him to think for himself. Montag is easily irritated and when he is faced with his newfound freedom of thought and speech, he becomes careless, which leads him into trouble, such as when he reads a poem to Mildred and her friends.

Montag is affected both negatively and positively by reading the poem Dover Beach to his wife and her friends. When Millie, Montag’s wife, invites her two friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, Montag, growingwell-beinggrowsinstead of more and more irritated by the vapidity of the women’s conversation in lieu of his growing understanding and confusion at his controlling society, brings out a book of poems. He sees his old self, who loved “to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed”(1), and who didn’t see any of the problems with society, in these women who “don’t talk about anything”(28), which he finds greatly irritating. Trying to distance himself from them, he screams at Millie, saying “[d]id you hear these monsters talking about monsters?”(94). Mrs. Bowles is instantly repulsed by the anthology, but Mrs. Phelps is half-intrigued. She says “[w]hy don’t you read us one of those poems[...] I think that’d be very interesting”(94). Montag and Millie, who know that there is no way to convince her temperamental husband to not read, chose the poem Dover Beach, a poem about the ignorance of war. The reading prompts Mrs. Phelps to cry, while Mrs. Bowles's reaction is much more violent, screaming “I’ve always said, poetry and tears, poetry and suicide[...] Now I’ve had it proved to me. You’re nasty, Mr. Montag, you’re nasty!”(97).

Montag screams again and throws the women out, which leads them to call the firemen. Millie, terrified by the thought of losing her peaceful, television-filled life, calls them as well. All seems calm to Montag until he and the rest of the firemen are called to burn a house, which turns out to be his. Beatty tells him then “I want you to this job all by your lonesome, Montag. Not with kerosene and a match, but piecework, with a flamethrower. Your house, your clean-up.”(109). Montag obliges, and he starts to burn everything“ because he wanted to change everything, [...] everything that showed that he had lived here in this empty house with a strange woman who would forget him tomorrow[...] And as before, it was good to burn [...] Fire was best for everything. [...] The books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers.”(110). Montag is affected both negatively and positively by the reading. He is affected positively by the reading as he is throwing away his old life; he is burning away the remnants of his former self with the house, and he enjoys it, as stated “he wanted to change everything [...] that showed that he had lived here”(110). He is embodying the Phoenix and is rising from the ashes of his old home. By embracing his old self, “[a]nd as before, it was good to burn” (110), Montag is able to burn its remnants and be reborn a new man. His pyromaniacal state changes once he is reminded that he has to burn “[t]he books” (110), which are compared to birds, mirroring an earlier scene. By connecting books with birds, Ray Bradbury is tieing life to them, and therefore, by burning the books, Montag is destroying a mass of information as well as someone, most notably the author’s, life. This is negative as Montag is now figuratively responsible for the death of an author, and a loss of knowledge in the world. The books burned in the fire have no chance of ever existing again. Montag is also affected by the reading in a way that is both negative and positive; he and Mildred drift apart. It is negative in the way that Montag is losing his family, whom he loves and cares for, but it is positive as Mildred the one anchoring him to his former, indoctrinated life, and by shedding her, he sheds all that is left of his past. Mildred is rooted in the way of the government, TV, simplicity, and lack of empathy and she is perfectly content with her life, but Montag is always searching for more. When he finds an escape, a way to know more, she feels threatened and dislikes the way that he is changing. Montag realizes that he can not move forward while she is holding him back, so he breaks away from her, burning away everything that connected him to this “strange woman who would forget him tomorrow” (110). While Mildred will forget him soon enough, Montag is unable to forget her, and by drifting away from her he is losing the woman he loves, even if he does not want to admit it.

Montag is affected both negatively and positively by burning Beatty to death. After Montag finishes burning his house, he goes back to Beatty. He talks to his former fire chief, who berates Montag for his perceived stupidity in going against Beatty and the government. Faber screams into Montag's ear through the modified Seashell radio, berating him as well, but Beatty notices. He slaps Montag, takes the radio, and threatens to track down Faber and kill him, saying “[w]e’ll trace this and drop in on your friend” (112). Montag understands at that moment that the only way to save Faber is to kill his former mentor, Beatty. His hands act on their own once again and unlock the safety catch on the flamethrower. Beatty flinches very slightly but returns to his taunting anyways, his superiority a complex that blinds him to his mortality. He “[grins] his most charming grin”(113) at Montag before egging him on, telling him to “pull the trigger”(113). And then, Montag’s hands do just that, and Beatty becomes “a shrieking blaze, [...] no longer human or known, all writhing flame” (113). Murdering Beatty affects Montag positively. While Montag escapes from the remnants of his house, he realizes “Beatty wanted to die”(116). Since Ray Bradbury wrote Fire Captain Beatty both as a representation of the government and as a God-like figure; when Montag comprehends that even Beatty, a high ranking official in the community, would be so unhappy with his life to yearn for death, he broadens his understanding of the rest of his society. His view had already been expanded after his encounter with the old woman, but this second fiery death opens his mind even more to the corruption within the society. It sends him in a search for enlightenment. It also affects him positively in another way. After burning Beatty, he thinks to himself “[y]ou always said, don't face a problem, burn it”(115). He transforms the words of his old mentor into a weapon, and through that can surpass him. Beatty was a mountainous obstacle for Montag to overcome, and he is finally able to break free of Beatty’s control. This burning also affects Montag negatively, at least in the short term. He is forced to flee for his life, to abandon the city. He endangers Faber as well, which poses itself on his conscience as he forced his only friend to leave his home as well. In the long term though, this saves both Montag and Faber’s lives. In the end, the unnamed enemy sends jets with bombs that flatten the city where he and Faber used to live. “[the city]’s flat[...] It’s gone.” (155), and because Faber had left for Saint-Louis, he was spared from becoming “ a heap of baking powder” (155) with it.

Montag is affected both negatively and positively by witnessing the death of an old woman, reading to Mildred and her friends, and murdering Beatty. These three events allow him to evolve into a new person and change in both positive and negative ways. The protagonist, Montag changes throughout the book to become one of the few people who fight for knowledge. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a select group of people fights for their rights in a dystopian America where knowledge and change are condemned. Key events in people’s lives allow their outlooks on society to change and evolve.