Guy Montag, the protagonist in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, faces an immense, internal transformation by realizing the corruption in the dystopian society he lives in. Montag, a “fireman”, starts fires rather than ending fires for the safety of others. The government chooses to ban books because they allow people to feel emotion, causing them unhappiness. Instead of reading books, citizens live their lives with technology surrounding themselves. Major realizations cause Montag to think about what kind of world he lives in and what he wants to live in. Clarisse McClellan first ignites the spark for change in Montag’s mind about their society. Clarisse, Montag neighbor, thinks and acts differently than most in their society. Unlike …show more content…
When Montag works as a fireman, he burns an old lady who chooses to die with her books instead of giving them up to the firemen. Montag wonders how special books must be to make an old lady die for them, ‘“There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing’” (51). Seeing the power books can have on the few who dare disobey the government, Montag steals one book from the old lady’s house and brings it to his own. After exploring the book, he comes to a conclusion that knowledge can actually cause happiness, not unhappiness. The books cause him to see life in a whole new perspective than before. The old lady incident causes Montag to think about the value of books and explore their influence on …show more content…
He now understands the true meaning of knowledge and the power a book can have on a person. Tired of books being burned, Montag says, ‘“I'm going to do something,’ said Montag. ‘I don't even know what yet, but I'm going to do something big’” (70). Montag gets turned in from his wife who he does not love, kills his boss, Beatty, and flees to the countryside where he finds a group of people just like him. Each one of these exiles memorized a piece of literature, rather than keeping the book, in case authorities catch them. After an atomic bomb falls in their city, the runaways become the only survivors and set off to rebuild and restart the city. Montag’s perspective on life changes after reading just one book. The power of literature pushes Montag to make extreme changes to his