“Fahrenheit 451” written in 1953 by American author and screenwriter, Ray Bradbury, is a dystopian novel that focuses on the internal struggle of the main character who correspondingly faces problems in his society.
The main character, Guy Montag, works as an archetypal firefighter that loves his job, but subsists in a society filled of people with tyrannical mindsets, who view the world differently than he. The novel takes place in a futuristic setting where reading is forbidden. Paradoxically, firefighter’s duties are to burn books as an alternative to putting out fires. The government partakes strict regulations which make attaining freedom absent, causing citizens to be “brainwashed”. (Bradbury 19) Montag realizes that he is different
…show more content…
Montag wants to express himself to his wife, who is supposed to be one he can confide secrets in. Confident of his new-found love, Montag reads a poem from Dover Beach to Mildred and her friends who are visiting the couple’s home. Their reaction as he commences reading has them “burning with tension”. (Bradbury 96) They thought he was psycho. He stood as a firefighter, whose main obligation was to forbid and/or burn books, yet he was reading. Without delay, Mildred tells Captain Beatty, chief of the fire department, about her husband’s disloyalty toward his society and job. Beatty, who is absolutely against encouraging literature, is distraught and frenzied. Montag, “full of disbelief”, discoveries that his wife turned him into the authorities when a 911 call to burn a house occupied full of books, pertained to his home. (Bradbury 113) Immediately when they reach the house, Montag’s heart drops and his initial reaction is to yell his wife’s name and explain that he could not stand to see literature perish. Beatty referred to the event as a “dreadful surprise” in addition to not considering his justification. (Bradbury 115) In order to save himself from the city, Montag is certain he must kill Beatty. He does this with a flamethrower while correspondingly beating two other firefighters unconsciously to escape the