Fahrenheit 451
Uploaded by CaseyP on Jun 14, 2017
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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...