Montag's Transformation: From Firestarter to Rebel

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This is the first sentence the reader hears from Guy Montag in the novel but is the last time he will feel joy in the act of burning. The guy is a firefighter whose job is to light books on fire to destroy the mindless ideas and writing they contain. He obeys all rules without giving them a second thought, including the main rule that the books are illegal. As he meets new characters and learns new information about the life he is living, this typical hard-working man becomes a menace to society.

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Clarisse, Faber, and the machines around Guy show him why books are important and change him completely. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character Guy Montag is presented as a dynamic character after his encounters with other characters.

Guy Montag is the typical working man who does what is expected of him. ¨He begins as a loyal fireman, burning what he is told to burn¨ (Johnson 17). Before his society view changed, burning books was enjoyable and a job that held high honor.

Montag would go to work and crave the feeling of lighting books on fire. ¨It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed¨ (Bradbury 1). He never thought of what was in the books that he was burning because books are illegal and portrayed as evil and a waste of time. “He walked toward the corner, thinking little at all about nothing in particular” (Bradbury 4). No one in the society had original thoughts or ideas.

If someone was to think of something on their own they were seen as idiosyncratic.

¨Are you happy?¨ (Bradbury 10). These three words said by Clarisse McClellan start the evolution of Guy Montag's change. In her short time in the novel, Clarisse was the first person who caused Guy to question their society. She was seen as an oddball compared to the other people her age. Nature and history interest her more than the violence and television that everyone else likes. Montag is drawn to her kind and insatiably curious personality. She genuinely wants to know about Guy and his life. This is a new experience for him. ¨Clarisse likes to do things most people consider crazy; walk aEnglishttheirEnglish night; talk about happiness, love, and nature; and question what is presented as normal or socially acceptable¨ (Reid 57). The way Clarisse talked about life urged Montag to become a critical thinker and wonder if books could be as bad as everyone believes. Guys start to form his questions about the past and aspire to have them answered. Clarisse spews out facts like, ¨Have you saw the two-hundred-foot-long billboards in the country beyond town? Did you know that once billboards were only twenty feet long? But cars started rushing by so quickly that they had to stretch the advertising out so it would last.¨ (Bradbury 2). This amazes Guy and he wonders how he could not have known all of this information. On Guy´s next call to burn books, he takes one because Clarisse sparked an interest in him. To answer Clarisse's initial question, no, Montag came to realize he was not happy. He learns that he knows nothing about his job, his wife Mildred, or anything in their society. His days are filled with large parlor walls constantly talking at him and nuclear warfare outside his window. ¨She stirs his dissatisfaction with his role in society¨ (Watt 22). After Guy met Clarisse there was no turning back, he needed to know more about books and the past.

Montag visits Faber, an old english professor, to ask if he could explain the things he had read. After this Faber becomes Montag's so-called mentor by teaching him lessons and sharing his wisdom. 'No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things..., The guys we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us” (Bradbury 128). Faber explains to Montag that it is not the books themselves that are important but the ideals they contain. When Guy approached Faber with questions and a desire to make change Faber was reluctant because of the personal danger. Guy persisted and ended up persuading Faber to get involved again. Faber had been trying to, ¨work out a solution to the book burning on his own¨ (Reid 58). When Guy and Faber's ideas came together it emboldened both of them to take action and become more involved. They want to make a big change and “..it recalls Faber's comment that all of civilizationit's not bookedthe It does not book must be melted down and reshaped” (Watt 27). Montag devises a plan to do this by infiltrating the firemen from the inside. 'It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books....The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through radios and televisors, but are not' (Bradbury 79). All in all Faber demonstrated to Guy that to be successful in their plan he should not worry about the physical book, but the valuable information they hold.

While it sounds strange, the people in Fahrenheit 451 are comfortable with the machines that run their society. Guy was notacceptedold-time acception, but he soon began to form concerns. The mechanical hound was, “ ..a striking and sinister gadget” (Watt 27). This menacing metal mutt targeted Guy and caused him to feel apprehensive about the machines in his life. When his wife overdosed Montag was appalled at the sight of the machines pumping her stomach. “One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered them...the other machine pumped all of the blood from the body and replaced it with fresh blood and serum. 'Got to clean 'em out both ways,' said the operator, standing over the silent womanbooked theexceptioncivilizationwoman booked it's.