The Discovery
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel from the perspective of a firefighter named Guy Montag. In this novel, books are being burned for the way that they inspire people to think and have their own opinions. A series of events lead Guy Montag, a firefighter that is in charge of burning books, to discovering that his society is cruel and twisted. The first event that causes Montag to question his society is his wife’s suicide attempt. When the men that operate the machines treat his wife Mildred, it seems impersonal to Guy Montag. “The entire operation was not unlike digging a trench in one’s yard. The women on the bed was no more than a hard stratum of marble”(12). The men smoke cigarettes over Mildred's unconscious body and say light hearted phrases such as “gotta clean em’ out both ways,” and “someone else just jumped off the cap of a pillbox”(12). These men are not certified doctors, and they are acting uncompassionate towards Mildred. The way that the men treat her is not the way anyone should treat or act around an unconscious human. This causes Montag to see that his society is cruel and twisted.
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The doctors no longer operate on those who attempt suicide. They built a machine that can do everything quickly and efficiently. Montag was not initially aware of this, so when strange men arrive in workers uniforms he becomes upset. However, when the men begin to talk about how suicide attempts occur nine to ten times a night (13), he begins to understand why the machine is necessary. Instead of them trying to make everyone happier, they decide to temporarily fix the issue by building a machine that makes it impossible for them to kill themselves. The suicide rate increasing shows Montag that his society is cruel and