These people adore fire, adore the reason for a lack of confrontation, because, “its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences” (Bradbury 115). The society of the future turns to easy alternatives for simple tasks out of laziness and looses sight of reality more often then not using the Parlor Walls. Due to the fact that the people forgot how to use their brains efficiently, they use fire to
Beatty and Montag have a talk after Montag calls in “sick”. When Montag was reviewing the conversation to his wife, he states, “[Beatty’s] right. Happiness is important. Fun is everything. And yet I kept sitting there saying to myself, I’m not happy, I’m not happy.” (page 62) In the future of a time when “firemen put fires out instead of going to start them”, Guy Montag, a fireman in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, starts to question the importance of intellectual freedom.
Bank accounts, dry cleaning, shopping and doing the dishes become small sparks that result in a devastating fire to their hearts and souls. While Caleb enjoys the role of community hero and somewhat of a savior, he finds it impossible to contain the inferno of his own marriage. Catherine sees no hero here, but rather finds him disappointing as husband, provider, and friend. As the movie progresses, we continue to enjoy the excitement of Caleb’s job as fire chief. Fires are fought, people are saved and heroes receive their accolades.
Essay The Warnings of Fahrenheit 451 In the book Fahrenheit 451 many warnings are given by the author. One warning is to never let technology replace human interactions. In this reading Mildred watches her parlor family on TV more than talking to Montag. In this futuristic setting portrayed communication is replaced by technology. Although Montag and Mildred are married they have no real relationship.
In the current day and age, people rarely pick up a book before they fall asleep, and most people probably could not explain what Aldous Huxley wrote. The way of life in Bradbury’s dystopia was to employ firemen to burn intelligence and promote mass ignorance in an act to create an equilibrium of knowledge. Montag’s wife, who was hospitalized after their house was bombed, was scrutinized by robots and robot-like humans to extract every bit of knowledge (human blood) inside of Mildred and replace it with mechanically administered blood. (Bradbury 17). This act showed society’s need for ignorance and a “don’t ask questions, that’s just the way it is” type of system.
Montag is an humble character that has to deal with people with suicidal problems, and self-righteous people preventing others from receiving the knowledge from books. The dynamic character is stuck in a life that was chosen by ignorance, and is determined to find a new life through books. In addition, the phoenix that appears often in the novel signifies that Montag's life is finally purified and reborn by the very fire he has been spewing for years. During the course of the plot, Montag evolves from an apathetic, conformist fireman, the very essence of socially acceptable stagnancy, to a new man filled with strong ideals and beliefs. He has a new purpose in life, to preserve books and the knowledge they contain.
Reevaluation By definition, the antagonist, opposes the protagonist, barring or complicating his or her success. Guy Montag, the protagonist, takes great pride in his work at the fire department. For a living, he burns books and the houses where the books are illegally hidden. At the beginning of the novel, Montag is portrayed as an ideal fireman in his society, enjoying his job and the smell of the kerosene, and believes he is truly happy. However, soon after meeting Clarisse, Montag starts to realize how unhappy he really is.
Is it possible to survive to such an attack, and if so, what kind of world will it be then? The tensions between the countries, United States and Russia, at that time, and the fear of the Atomic Bomb are very much like the world we live in today, with
(57) Then Beatty asks Montag, “What do we want in this country, above all?” To be happy and Montag agrees with Beatty. That is why we burn books such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because white people don’t feel good about it. (59) Everything Beatty just got done telling Montag made him wonder how Beatty knows all this. Does Beatty read books? Does he have books?
Literature and the Human Experience In the history of humankind, books have been an essential tool to carry knowledge across time and space to different parts of the world. Sometimes the spread of knowledge has been sentenced as a dangerous act by oppressive governments as it happens in the case of the novel “Fahrenheit 451”. The title itself comes from the scientific reference that paper ignites at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950’s, the story is set in a future American world where the main role of a fireman is to destroy books by burning them for the protection of society. This is a futuristic vision made up of a conformist country set in an artificial world where human feelings are numbed by the media.