“Well,” she said, “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane….” (Bradbury 7).
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel by Ray Bradbury about a dystopian future where people are not allowed to have individual thoughts. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman whose job includes burning books in this censored society. Montag meets a young woman who completely changes his perspective on life. He then starts keeping books instead of burning them and becomes a rebel fleeing the ruined city to join a group of gypsy professors. As the protagonist, Montag undergoes many changes throughout the book due to many characters serving as catalysts: primarily one girl,
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Her family was not like the other families on the street. They would stay up all night laughing and talking. Clarisse’s uncle would tell her of how things used to be. They meet for a second time on a rainy night. She says she loves walking in the rain and tasting it. Montag asks her if she goes around trying everything and she replies yes sometimes even twice. She has a dandelion in her hand and asks Montag if he’s ever heard about rubbing it under his chin to see if he’s truly in love. After this encounter Montag truly feels changed. “And then, very slowly, as he walked, he tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth…” (Bradbury 24). Montag is finally peeking through the threshold of an extraordinary …show more content…
This kickstarts Montag’s massive change in his life. He reads poetry to Mildred and her friends that have come to watch “the parlor”. Her friends freak out and leave. Mildred calls the fireman on her own husband. Montag’s fire chief, Beatty comes to confront Montag who has a moment of moral conflict. Guy then proceeds to set his chief on fire. “And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering mannikin no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him” (Bradbury 119). This is Montag’s final leap into changing his life