In the beginning of the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag was a slave to society. He seemed absorbed in the power of fire, and didn’t seem to think much else. Montag was the same mindless idiot as the rest of his society. Throughout the novel, Montag goes from a book burner to a book preserver. The other characters help Montag along in his metamorphosis, each in a different way. People change people, if you allow them. Clarisse, Faber, Granger, even Mildred and Beatty changed Montag through their actions and words.
Clarisse McClellan started to change Montag the moment she started to observe him. Sensing that someone was watching made him nervous and high strung. The more time that they talked, and spent time together, the more
…show more content…
Montag tells him, “You’re the only one I knew might help me. To see. To see… (Bradbury 81)” Montag wanted to learn how to live outside of society’s rules. Faber helped Montag through some monumental moments for Montag. For example When Montag went a bit off his rocker, when Mrs. Bowles, and Mrs. Phelps were over. Montag almost completely gave away that he was in possession of books illegally, but Faber calmed him down enough to attempt to pass it off as a game that all fire men play. This was the first dilemma Faber talked Montag out of. Up to this point in the novel Montag had trusted Faber, but now he was really willing let Faber make his decisions for him, and trust him to make the right ones: Montag had put his life in Faber’s hands. By this point in the novel Montag was drifting farther away from being a mindless citizen of society, and closer to being an individual. Faber was connected with Montag via the little green earpiece when he burned his house, but Montag was on his own when he killed Beatty. Montag killing Beatty, and burning his house, was him getting rid of his last ties with his life so he can start a new life, one with books and thoughts and emotions. Add how did he ‘prep’ him to face society and