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Montag Key Encounters
The
title of the book, Fahrenheit 451, is symbolic. It is the temperature at which
papers burn into ashes (Sisario, 201).
Montag is the main character in the book. He is a fireman who is proud
of his work that entails burning books and possessions of those who own them.
He thinks he is happy and has a normal life. He is married but has no children.
Montag meets with some people that make him change his way of thinking. He
realizes that he is not happy and does not love his wife as he thought. The
essay aims at looking at situations and events that changed Montag’s way of
thinking.
One
evening when going home, he meets a new neighbor. Clarisse McClellan is a
friendly teenage girl and a student (Bradbury, 20). She is a free
thinker. She says that no one like her in school because she is less concerned
with science. She thinks more about “why” instead of ‘how.' Just as he starts
to expect the evening meetings, the girl disappears without a word. After a
week, the wife tells him that Clarisse was hit by a speeding car and his family
has moved. The news makes him feel ill and sad. The encounter with this girl
makes rim realize his happiness is fake.
In
one occasion, Montag and his colleagues go to burn a store that is full of
books and belong to an elderly woman. He steals a book from her collection out
of curiosity. The lady refuses to leave her bookstore. She chooses to burn
herself by tossing a lighter to her kerosene soaked house while still inside (Bradbury, 32).
The woman’s dedication to the books makes Montag to realize they have something
special. Perhaps he can find the happiness he lacks through the books. Montag
discovers that he might be destroying the society even though he thought he has
been serving it for the last ten years. He hides the book he stole underneath
his pillow. He falls asleep thinking why books are perceived as bad and wonders
if there is something hidden in them that the government doesn’t want people to
know (Sisario, 206).
The
following day, Montag wakes up feeling sick and thus does not report to work.
He tells his wife Mildred that he considers quitting work after the incident of
the old woman. She instead commends that the woman was to blame for keeping the
books and she disapproves the idea of leaving the job (Bradbury, 89).
He tries to engage Mildred in a meaningful conversation about books and realizes
that her thoughts are different. She prefers to watch and follow television
programs just like many people in the region. She is not willing to face
reality. Media have successfully diverted people from reading books and
engaging in other leisure activities (Booth, 165). The same day, Beatty
visits Montag to see how he is doing. Beatty is the fire chief. He suspects
what is disturbing Montag and lectures him on the valueless of books and the
work of firemen. He also says that should a fireman steal a book out of
curiosity; he should burn it within twenty-four hours.
After
the chief fireman leaves, Montag confesses to his wife that he has been hiding
books for the past one year and has hidden them in their air conditioning dust
(Bradbury, 103).
Mildred is angry with him and wants to throw them in the kitchen fire. However,
Montag convinces her that they should first read and tries to discover what is
in them. He promises to burn them if there is nothing valuable in them. She agrees, and they start to explore them.
Montag tries to lament about the old woman and Mildred’s attempt to commit
suicide. He also highlights about the constant din of bombers taking part in
the war that none of them knows about. He says that maybe the books hold
information that can make the society stop the self-destruction. The
conversation is disrupted by the arrival of Mildred’s friends who have come to
watch television.
As
he tries to comprehend the books, Montag remembers Faber, a retired professor
he had met a year ago (Bradbury, 114). Faber first hangs up
on Montag but later realizes his passion for learning the meaning of books when
he visits him. He is first afraid of the task to help Montag understand books
but later agrees to help him. Faber gives him a two-way communication device
that fits in his ears so that they can be in contact without meeting physically.
When he goes home, he comes across Mildred and her friends watching television.
Montag tries to engage them in a meaningful conversation and notices they are
ignorant. He gets one of the books out of anger and reads a poem to them (Bradbury, 132).
The ladies are moved but are not willing to face reality. Faber tries to calm
him down and tell him to burn the book and apologize. He burns the book but
accuses the ladies of being ignorant. They leave in disgust, and Mildred
accuses him of embarrassing her. He hid the other books in the backyard and
headed back to work. He takes one book to Beatty to cover up for a book he
stole the previous night.
As
Beatty and Montag talk, a fire alarm rings. They reach the destination only for
Montag to realize it is his house. As he
burns his house, Beatty discovers the earpiece and takes an oath to hunt down
Faber. This makes the two to fight, and Montag burns his boss alive and flee to
Faber’s place (Bradbury,
146). He is directed to other exiled book-lovers.
He and other groups of people in exile discuss the verses they have memorized and
hope to use them in future when the society is ready for books. While in exile,
the bombers attack the city with an atomic bomb, and everyone in it dies. That
is the price they had to pay for being ignorant (Whalen, 181).
The group survives the attack ant later heads to the city to rebuild it.
Works Cited
Booth, Andrew. "Fahrenheit 451?
‘A burning question on the evidence for book withdrawal." Health
Information & Libraries Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 161-165.
Sisario,
Peter. "A Study of the Allusions in Bradbury's" Fahrenheit
451"." The English Journal, vol.59, no. 2, 1970, pp. 201-212.
Whalen, Tom. "The Consequences
of Passivity: Re-evaluating Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451." Literature/Film
Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 3, 2007, pp. 181.
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