Changes In Fahrenheit 451

Albert Einstein once said, “When you stop learning you start dying”. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, starts out as a fireman who burns books and becomes a changed man who wants to learn about books rather than burn them. This change was influenced by his neighbor Clarisse McClellan, Mildred, an old English professor Faber, and Captain Beatty. Bradbury uses Guy Montag's thoughts, actions, and interactions to demonstrate that a refusal to question things leads to an oblivious society.

In chapter one, “The Hearth and the Salamander”, Montag starts to question the world around him through his interactions with Clarisse, Captain Beatty, and Mildred. For example, as Montag walks home from the fire station,

Montag spends the evening reading to Mildred and trying to understand the books. Mildred gets frustrated because “books aren’t people”, her “family” are people. She knows that if Captain Beatty found out about the books he would burn their house along with her “family”, so why should she read (Bradbury 69). Montag says she should read because he had to get her stomach pumped when she took too many sleeping pills, and people are dying. She should read because there is a war going on above their heads and they don’t know why because no one ever talks about it. Montag says maybe books can “get us half out of the cave”, they might stop them “from making the same damn insane mistakes!”(Bradbury 70). Mildred’s “family” are the people in her wall-sized televisions. They pause to talk to her sometimes, and they even say her name. She spends most of her time in the parlor with the “family”. Mildred’s confused about how books can be real because she cannot see, or hear them as she can the “family”. Montag wants her to read because her accidental suicide attempt almost worked. There are so many things happening in their world because no one asks why. No one questions anything. They know there is a war going on but no one can tell them why it started. Montag thinks books would get them “half out of the cave” meaning closer to the light. Maybe books would tell them why the war is happening. If they read maybe people wouldn’t keep repeating mistakes. After Montag finishes talking to Mildred, he calls Faber, an old English professor. He had found Faber reading books in the park a year ago, but hadn’t turned him in. Montag calls him and then goes to his house. When Faber asks why he’s there, Montag says he wants Faber to “teach him to understand” what he