Principles That Developed Montag From The Beginning Of The Novel Until The End

Living in a futuristic dystopian society blinded by what the government makes it believe what is right and what is wrong is a corrupted society. Guy Montag which is the protagonist of ‘Fahrenheit 451’ is portrayed by Bradley in the way he develops and changes as the story progresses. Montag is an individual brain-washed by society and the government, throughout the novel he continues to realize and figure himself out after a series of events which was his wake up call. Montag goes on a journey of personal growth from being a servant that was from the start of the novel told what to do to becoming enlightened with confidence to contradict a whole society on his point of view. In ‘Fahrenheit 451’, Bradley presents Montag at the start and the end as a different person using factors that consist of a blinded society, influential relationships and hypocrisy. Bradley introduces ‘Fahrenheit 451’ with a significant theme of a corrupted society.

A society where books are malevolent; books are seen destructive to humans and detain happiness. People watch television all day for the fact that they believe that valuing entertainment is what brings happiness and to escape the reality that they live in. The reality which is shows on parlor walls, driving way too fast and typical things like individuality is bizarre. Montag had contradictions and curiosity within himself, individuality looked upon as dangerous and different didn’t feel right to him. Montag is unlike the rest of his society, he does not see books as evil as the rest of the society believes. Montag is presented as a two-faced man, where he is in a state of burning books for pleasure even though he feels wrong about his actions and still being knowledgeable and open enough to see the other way of the ignorance that he's surrounded with. This quote said by Montag shows his realization of the ignorance and the wrong ways of life that are in his society. In addition, it shows his curiosity and feeling that books aren’t as bad as the outlook that they have; as he tries to convince Mildred his wife that books are helpful hoping that it makes them save their marriage. Montag was introduced as a delusional character where burning books to him were pleasurable. Montag’s inner conflict with the ‘blinded society’ that he deals with advanced him to be more knowledgeable and achieving personal growth to obtain individualism. Life in a dystopian world can be a risky and unpredictable world to live in. The lack of interaction and communication between people is heavily presented in the novel. The relationships between Montag and multiple other characters were influential to his enlightenment. These character’s individual perceptions and actions had a big impact on Montag, like the way of his thinking and awareness.

Clarisse McClellan was one of the characters that started his journey of development by asking him that was his push start of realization. Clarisse said this quote to Montag because she knew that firemen used to always put out fire rather than start them; this quote addressed to Montag was meant to make him look around and be more conscious of what he’s causing to people. However, his relationship with Clarisse was strange because she used to care about him more than his own wife and then when she got ran over by a car Montag does not show any interest. Mildred and Montag had a toxic and ‘dead’ marriage, their memories with each other are forgotten. Mildred tried to commit suicide multiple times using sleeping pills, she had love for what she’d watch on television and act like those people are her ‘family’. Montag tired to reborn his marriage by opening up to Mildred about him having books to bring them together, but Mildred was too overtaken by the televisions and the entertainment life she has no desire to understand because she is used to visually watching and not having to think. Mildred was a negative influence on Montag, showing no love, care or emotions to him. She is lost on who she is and lives in her own world escaping reality. Despite, Mildred being a negative impact on Montag’s life she made him aware of the real world and shows him that people in that dystopian world only care about themselves. As a result of, these relationships that Montag had whether they were positive or negative still had an effect on his development.

As the novel progresses, Montag begins to deal with a lot of hypocrisy which expands his internal-battle. Captain Beatty was the largest hypocrite, he is a malevolent character that’s not simply understood what he’s up to. Beatty hinted out numerous times throughout the novel that he reads books, despite the hate for books that he shows to people by becoming the firemen’s captain. This quote shows how Beatty hints out that he has read books before. Letting Montag know that burning his own books ‘lifted’ the guilt off Beatty’s shoulder. Beatty would always address quotes from books and it’ll leave Montag with voices in his head telling him that Beatty has a dark side that no one knows about. Montag feeling the hypocrisy that’s in the atmosphere he’s in makes him doubt his relationships not knowing whom to trust. All in all, These aspects portray the hypocrisy Montag experienced and how he noticed it to develop as an individual searching for the truth.

From examination, Montag experienced and dealt with numerous factors along the way which made him the unique character he became towards the end. Developing himself and having a new outlook on life were caused by certain characters and events as the novel progresses. The fake life that was created by the society, trust issues of his relationships, and made up personalities that was around him made Montag desire expanding individuality. Confidence in himself got him to where he is at the end of the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’. Therefore, Montag’s presentation of believing in himself is inspiring.