A Hero's Journey In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Imagine a world with no books. Everyone just gets the answers they need with the tap of a button. Sounds like our world a little bit. If you didn’t have to take English would you read at all? This is what Guy Montag is experiencing in his society. His society is dumbed-down because they aren’t knowledgeable about their past from not being able to read. Montag is a fireman who instead of puts out fires, starts them. He burns books for a living. But thanks to help along the way, Montag realizes what’s wrong with the world they’re living in. They aren’t allowed to think for themselves on a deeper level. So, Montag throughout the book has to face many challenges to complete his goal of fixing the society.
A hero’s journey consists of a separation,

He does this with the help of Clarisse who ends up being an inspiration to Montag because she understands how to comprehend books and nature. Clarisse McClellan is Montag’s seventeen year old neighbor who foils with Mildred (Montag’s wife) because she finds all the purposes of life. Clarisse explains how she feels about the way people are learning today by stating, “‘It’s a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it’s wine when it’s not’” (27). When Clarisse says “poured” she is inferring that everyone is wasting or “pouring” out all of their knowledge to get things done quicker with less thought. Later on Montag tries to explain the real reason why books are so useful because Clarisse has influenced him. Montag explains to Mildred how books are attached to people and that books are more thoughtful than you may think. He explains this by saying, “‘And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books’” (49). Bradbury uses the word “each” to demonstrate how every book is unique in its own way, depending on how the author writes his concepts. Clarisse and Montag are enlightened role models because they inform us that it is good to be different because this means you can interpret things in a new perspective than everyone

With the help of Faber and the hobos who are old english professors, Montag is able to understand the true importance of books and how to interpret them. For example, Granger (the leader of the hobos) explains to Montag, “‘And someday we’ll remember so much that we’ll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them’” (157). The word “mirror” stands out because this word emphasizes Granger’s main point in this quote which is that everyone in their society needs to think for themselves. In other words, they need to understand why it is so essential to observe and understand their own emotions and thoughts. Montag takes this quote to heart which is exceptional because the hobos are helping Montag comprehend what he needs to do in order to accomplish his main goal, which is to think on an enlightened level. In the end, Montag returns with a new look towards life by understanding that the true quality of life comes from