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Fahrenheit 451 Research Paper

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Fahrenheit 451 By: Ray Bradbury Thematic Essay Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a story about a fireman named Guy Montag. Guy Montag wanted to find out who he really is deep down, but he couldn’t because he is a fireman. Firemen along with everyone else in the story are not allowed to question society, break any laws and especially, are not allowed to be different. Montag quits his job as a fireman because he wants to be different, he wants to be free and he wants to bring hope into the world for a better future. Montag begins to do what he wants, regardless of what people say as he begins to defy society. He wants to show that he is free and that it is okay to be yourself. Many people can’t do what he does because they’re afraid of change, …show more content…

To illustrate, Ray Bradbury writes, “‘... you must be’-she raised her eyes from his professional symbols- ‘the Fireman.’ Her voice trailed off.”(Bradbury, 4). Another example is when Ray Bradbury writes, “‘You want to give up everything? After all these years… because, one night, some woman and her books--’ ‘You should have seen her, Millie!’”(Bradbury, 52). This is a use of plot development from Ray Bradbury. He writes of Montag meeting Clarisse, and she changes his life as well as the story. He also writes about Montag wanting to give up everything including his job because his opinion is changing. When Montag first meets Clarisse, he is just like everyone else, he doesn’t have an opinion and does what he is told. He is not free nor independent. This part of the story when Montag meets Clarisse, is crucial to the plot. This is because she changes him, she gets him to try new things, and she gets him to start questioning the way things are. If this entire part of Montag meeting Clarisse was taken out of the story, the plot would be completely different. Ray Bradbury casually writes about them meeting, yet something so casual can have a massive impact on this plot. The moment Clarisse notices that Guy is a firefighter is the moment she realizes that she needs to transform him into something greater. She met him and immediately could tell …show more content…

This is because everyone is afraid of change. They just think that things should always be done the same, exact way because the people before them did it that way too, they feel that they don’t need to ask questions and that they should always take the easy way out of everything. These three reasons develop the theme because they develop different parts in the story which overall makes up this story. They didn’t believe they could or should change, but Montag was once one of them, and he proved them wrong. He didn’t care what it would take, as long as he could make a difference in the world. The craft and structure are like bricks, when put together they create something bigger, in this case, it was the theme. The theme was built entirely on these two factors. The way that Bradbury added structure and craft to Fahrenheit 451 was in a certain way that made the story what it is, everything small and large in this book had a

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Throughout this book we can see people who live their lives without asking themselves if they are doing the right thing, or why am I doing this, or what is my life goal. Some characters may conclude that they want to spend their entire lives with their TV. Others to have fun. Montag had been one of these people for many years. When he met Clarisse he slowly began surface from his shell, and transform into a true

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To begin, At first montag is the average civilian living a normal life. He does what he needs to do to survive, all the while he knows something is missing. Before he met the life changing character Clarisse, he was conformed to society just like everyone else. However, Clarisse was the spark that grew the fire of knowledge in his heart. Then when he seen a woman rather be burned alive then to live without books the spark only grew.

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She is the first person who challenges Montag and gets him to truly think. She triggers Montag’s questioning of life, what he is doing, and his relationship with his wife Mildred. Upon their first encounter Clarisse begins asking Montag questions, questions about a time when firefighters put out flames not started them, a time when life was a bit slower. She asks, “Are you happy?” once Clarisse is home Montag responds, “Of course I’m happy.

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Guy Montag, a fireman, had his world turned upside down when he met his eccentric new neighbor. She opened his eyes for the first time and made him realize what he and the rest of the world had been missing. Within a few days, he already had to make rash decisions that effected his entire life. Even though Ray Bradbury wrote a science fiction novel about a future in which people destroy themselves, the little seeds of hope and confidence he plants throughout Fahrenheit 451 by introducing the clear-minded Clarisse and her family, letting Montag realize the errors in his world, and giving him a new life in a small society of other reformers let his optimism shine through. Ray Bradbury, revealing some optimism, wrote about some quirky characters, by the future society's standards.

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(STEWE-1): In the beginning of the book, Montag thoroughly enjoys his job and does not think that there would be any problems within his society and life. He found his job as a fireman as a “pleasure to burn” (1) and it was also “a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1) in his eyes. In Montag’s life, burning books is the norm, and him being pleased with what he is doing shows that he fits in right along with the rest of his society. (STEWE-2): As well as enjoying his job, he also takes a lot of pride with what he is doing.

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Initially, Guy Montag enjoys being the quintessential fireman, and even admires his fellow firemen. He mindlessly goes through life, not once questioning his actions. To open up the novel Montag expresses the joys of being a firefighter, on page one he says: “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.

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In addition, taking after Clarisse, Montag begins to ask questions himself, and realizes that the way society functions isn't right, and he is no longer happy with his choice of profession.(STEWE-1) " ‘I've tried to imagine,’ said Montag, ‘just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books’” (Bradbury 31). Here, Montag has his first realization that being a fireman is not only wrong, but also an inaccurate, untruthful version of who he wants to be.(STEWE-2)

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Clarisse changed the way Montag thinks and helped him realize the truth about

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Montag is a normal fireman living in this society until he changes his mentality because of major events in the story, his personal experiences, and several influential characters. In the beginning of the story Montag is completely at peace with his life, his job, lifestyle and his identity. “It was the pleasure of seeing things eaten, to see things blackened and changed”(1pg.).

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(Bradbury 12). Consequently, he takes a flamethrower and starts burning Beatty all of his co-workers stare at him in a daze not wanting to believe what’s unfolding before their eyes. Montag is trying to make a point of taking out the head firefighter. He wants people to know that thinking outside the box isn't an atrocious act and it never was. As you can see, many people helped to change Montag's beliefs and actions.

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As Clarisse questions why Montag begins to think about his actions and how they affect people as well as society. The reader realizes Montag is a puppet in the dystopian society following the protocol as he is told by society. Montag’s inability to reason with what he is doing makes him gullible. Montag’s society would consider him dangerous within his society, but in reality he is escaping what is a dysfunctional.

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Montag lives with his wife, Mildred, and works as a fireman who burns books along with the houses that they belong to. For Montag, burning books was a pleasure and he convinces himself that he loves his job. But Montag’s character developed more as the story continued on. Events that caused a change in Montag’s personality was when he first talked with Clarisse, when he saw Mildred attempting suicide, when he stole a book while burning a house, when Montag goes to see Faber, and when Montag sees a woman kill herself along with her books.

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As Montag starts to experience a change in his beliefs, he begins to realize that his co-workers, who work with him in the fire department, “were mirror images of himself” (30). The fact that Montag looks exactly like the rest of the firemen means that he does not have an individuality. This ties back to how Montag’s old view of the world prevents him from seeing the bigger picture, since he only now realizes that his co-workers look like him. As Montag and the firemen converse, Clarisse suddenly starts talking through Montag’s mouth, asking if “firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?” (31).

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In the beginning, Montag is content with his life as a fireman whose job is to burn illegally owned books and the homes of the owner. Montag later meets Clarisse McClellan who enlightens him about the world. Montag soon begins to struggle with his existence and shortly after escapes his censored and oppressive society. After

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Clarisse opens up a whole new world of ideas and details that Montag has always been missing that make Montag try and realize new things. In their first encounter in the beginning of the novel, Clarisse already starts to tell him about the details he has been missing all his life. Just before she left, “She started up her

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