Said best by Joseph Campbell, “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 closely relates to this quote in the sense that Guy Montag stumbles upon a woman who treasures her books more than life itself, literally. After several years of working as a firefighter in this dystopian society, he runs into Clarisse who then questions his happiness. Confused and angered he begins to wonder why she would ask him such a question. After analyzing, he comes to the conclusion that he is not happy. That’s where his heroic journey begins, which follows Joseph Campbell’s hero cycle, including the departure and initiation. Although, Montag may not be the …show more content…
With the idea of books being illegal, it leads to more obstacles. Montag’s wife can be considered one of these trials; she wants nothing to do with books. “You’ve got to hand it back tonight, don’t you? Captain Beatty knows you got it, doesn’t he?” (Bradbury 74). Asking this question, she puts a lot of tension on Guy. Not only does he have the road of trials to overcome, he also has the journey to take. This so called journey leads him to a group of survivors who have dedicated their lives to memorizing novels. “I’ve heard there are still hobo camps all across the country, here and there; walking camps call them, and if you keep walking far enough and keep an eye peeled, they say there’s lots of old Harvard degrees on the tracks between here and Los Angeles. Most of them are hunted in the cities. They survive, I guess.” (Bradbury 126). This isn’t the most pleasing idea, but Montag doesn’t have the choice. At one point in the story, Montag kills his captain with a flamethrower. This leads to his call to action. “The captain’s dead. He found the audio-capsule, head heard your voice, he was going to trace it. I killed him with the flamethrower.” (Bradbury 124). Shocked at what he had done, he came to the realization that he has to disappear, and disappear