Guy Montag Character Analysis

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Some say the most important thing in life is knowledge. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the protagonist is Guy Montag, who is a firefighter that burns books. Montag is faced with enormity and the complexity of books for the first time, he is often confused, frustrated, and overwhelmed. At times he is not even aware of why he does things, feeling his hands are acting by themselves. Montag has certain physiological, sociological, and psychological traits that make him so unique. Montag’s physiological traits are pretty simple but to figure out what he looks like, how he acts, and just all around physical characteristics you have to really pay attention reading this book. Ray Bradbury doesn’t tell you straight up what Montag’s …show more content…

Befor Montag meets Clarisse, Montag sees himself as someone who has the power to manipulate the things around him and gets tremendous satisfaction from this, which is inferred in the quotation “his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning”.(3). Montag is a man divided against himself. He often experiences contradictory emotions and thoughts but Clarisse makes him feel safe and appreciated. The quote “he saw himself in her eyes … as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact”. infers that Clarisse has a calming effect on Montag. Clarisse helps Montag reflect on his life and prompts him to search for meaning and purpose in his life which is shown in the quotation “he wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” This quotation infers that Clarisse forces Montag to see the truth he has been hiding away from: the fact that he is in fact very unhappy with his life. A mask is something you wear to hide your identity; in Montag’s case, he has been hiding his unhappiness from himself. I conclude that Montag is such a unique character because of the certain physiological, sociological, and psychological traits that he has. Montag at the end of Fahrenheit 451 is a thinker. Montag well spread knowledge