Enlightenment In Fahrenheit 451

The novel Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury expresses several different ideas throughout the course of the story, all relating to one another. In the beginning, the main idea is that the firemen are saying that their job is rightly justified. In the middle of the book, curiosity fills the mind of the main character Guy Montag; which leads to the conclusion of the book where Montag reaches enlightenment. In the novel, Montag experiences many changes in his perspective on the fate of books. Characters such as Clarisse, Beatty, Faber and Granger contribute to Montag’s journey of transitioning from ignorance to enlightenment. In Part One of Fahrenheit 451, “The Hearth and the Salamander,” Montag is introduced as an ordinary fireman expressing a special feeling towards the beauty of fire. In the first few pages of the novel, Montag is described

After Beatty leaves Montag’s house at the end of Part One, Montag pulls out all the books he’s taken and begins reading with them, along with Mildred, “‘Books aren’t people. You read and I look all around, but there isn’t anybody!’” (Bradbury 73). Mildred is incredibly ignorant and unwilling to learn about books, which just fuels Montag’s motivation even more towards increasing knowledge and comprehension of books. Because of this motivation, Montag goes to find Faber and asks him for help. Faber then agrees to help him understand books, “‘…Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.” (Bradbury 85). Faber is one of the most influential people on Montag because of this information he conveys. This leads Montag to become even more curious about books which continues in his transformation of