One of the most distinctive aspects of our society is that everyone is entitled to personal, individualistic thoughts and expressions. What might our world be like if no one emerged from the crowd? How would our society change if individualism no longer existed as a facet of humanity? In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, individual thinking is suppressed by the government. Guy Montag, the main character, is a self-confident firefighter who sets fire to homes which contained books that would help a person to think on his own. Montag believes his life is ordinary until he meets a unique young lady, Clarisse McClellan, who makes Montag reexamine his empty life. He betrays his intolerable government and escapes the city to join a resistance group, committed to retaining books to save knowledge from them in future civilization. …show more content…
“He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked, in the mirror. Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered” (2). Montag would dependably go home from work and take a gander at himself, as though he was the main individual in the society. Montag believed that he felt elated, being mentally programmed by his supposedly satisfied civilization. Feeling convinced with himself, Montag felt pleased from burning