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. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange
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She poses introspective questions to Montag that make him realize that he is actually disgusted with himself and his society. Clarisse, who is an outcast among her peers, introduces Guy to the world’s potential beauty and meaning through her innocent questioning of the world and people around her. She uses her inquisitive and observant personality to access Montag’s true and inner self. In awakening he transforms himself, so that he may think like Clarisse too. Montag, with the help of books and Clarisse begins to question his fellow citizens and their behavior. With this he realizes just how dissatisfied he is. By the novel’s end, Montag realizes that his society is broken. He learns accepts that there is a cycle in human nature: we destroy ourselves, rebuild, flourish and then restart. Granger explained this pattern to Montag. He also learns that there is a constructive and destructive side to everything. He first realizes this when he sees the nomadic men using the fire for warmth, instead of using it to destroy things. When with Granger and the other scholars, Montag feels more like himself and alive than ever. I believe Montag also learns from the intellectual fugitives, that real wisdom is not taught in books or by people but it is intuitive. Montag first comprehends this when he finally understands the passage that he had read in the bible: “The sun burned every day. It burned Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen, and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!” –page 166. Montag is a better man for thinking for