How Did Montag Change In Fahrenheit 451

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“It was a pleasure to burn''(Bradbury 1). In this quote Montag is burning books, yet he is finding pleasure in doing that. Montag is a fireman, but instead of putting out fires, he is starting them. Montag loves his job and finds it completely normal to burn books. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Guys Montag evolves as a character because he started out by despising and loathing books to believing books are necessary and realizing he needs books. There were two events that changed Montag’s point of view on books. Montag was assigned to burn down a house, in that house was a woman, and that woman refused to leave the house along with the books in it. Montag begged for this woman to leave, but she stayed in the house as it was burned to the ground. This made Montag wonder, what was so special about the books she had? Why would she rather die, then live without books? The second event was when Montag met Clarrise, this changed his view because Clarrise mentioned things that Montag never thought about. She assumed …show more content…

Montag ponders this question for days, until he comes to the conclusion that he is unhappy. This changes Montags thoughts because it makes him wonder if he needs books to truly be happy. Something else that is important happens in Part one, Montag finds out that Clarrise was killed in a car crash. This makes Montag curious about books,but it also makes Montag question his society's intake on death. This conversation with Montag and Mildred contributes to his questioning , “But I think she is dead. You’re not sure of it! No, not sure. Pretty sure. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Forgot. Four days ago! I forgot all about it ” (Bradbury 45). Clarrise’s death leads Montag to believe that books have secrets about his society and this makes Montag want to read books so he can save his society. So in this part, Montag is slowly starting to realize how important books