If you had been told your entire life that books are evil, it would be hard to change your views without experiencing it for yourself. When Beatty talks to Montag, he tries to convince him that he should not be curious about books. Beatty tells him the truth about their society. By sharing this with Montag, Beatty makes Montag rethink everything that he thought that he knew about life. Beatty enabled Montag to see how terrible their society is and how unhappy he is; even though that had not been Beatty’s intention. Captain Beatty wants to keep everyone the same and make sure that no one changes the way they were taught to think. I think Beatty is the antagonist because he takes knowledge away from the people, he does not trust Montag, seems to be against Montag’s decisions, and keeps secrets. One of the reasons Captain Beatty gave for books being banned was that they make people unequal. In his mind, books are …show more content…
He claimed he did not know anything about Clarisse’s death, but he does mention that he kept a record on her and that, “The poor girl is better off dead.” (Bradbury, 58) If he was keeping such a close record on her, it would be easy for him to find a way to kill her. He did not want her around any more because they were suspicious that she had been reading. It is impossible to know for certain if Beatty was involved in Clarisse’s death, but it is certain that Beatty would not have been able to make the speech to Montag without being intelligent. From what he said, he knows quite a lot about books. The only way he could figure so much out about them is by actually reading them. I think Beatty is keeping secrets. Being a fireman, he is around many books. He said that if a fireman is curious about a book, they can keep it for 24 hours, but then they have to return it. Beatty is the one in charge of making sure that no one keeps books, so who is to say that he does not keep them