Fahrenheit 451 - Character Question
Throughout the book Montag notices that he is very different than the people he is around in his society. He is much more developed and aware about the world around him. Why do you think he is so different? What do you think has made Montag so special in this book?
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ReplyDeleteI agree, Montag is different, but he is still as normal as everyone else in the book. He met the teenage girl, Clarisse, who changed his view on his life and everything he has ever known. He doesn’t have any super powers or mind blowing skills. The reason he was illustrated as the main character, the protagonist, in the novel, is because he was capable of making the change and be accepting of who he was evolving into, and trying to protect books. (Which everyone else wanted to burn so badly.) These are the reasons he was made distinctive in this novel. No one else in the story had an occupation of burning books, and then wound up fighting to protect them. His transition was easily the greatest.
Delete-Mason
I believe that Montag sees himself as different from the rest of the people in the society because he has his own opinions. The book opens the door into a world without individualism: People are taught to think certain things, and anyone who does not is seen as crazy and sent to an asylum. For example, Clarisse was a free-thinker, someone the government opposed, and she was killed. It is not known if it was an accident, or if it was on purpose, but the moral is: She was a free thinker, and she was killed. This is shown again on page 31, “About the man whose library we fixed. What happened to him?’ ‘They took him screaming off to the asylum.’ ‘He wasn’t insane.’ Beatty arranged his cards quietly. ‘Any man’s insane who thinks he can fool the government and us.” This proves that when someone goes against the government and does or thinks things they are not supposed to, they are taken away. Montag was able to retain his freedom and his free thought thanks to being secretive. He has become special in this book because he started on one side, the Firemen, the government, the enemies of knowledge, but then quickly changed into someone who relishes books and will do anything to keep them. These ideals allowed Montag’s eyes to open up to the truth about their society. He learned that his differences were strengths, and that knowledge would prevail, while the citizens inside the cities only followed what their parlors or TV shows said. He had individualism, unlike most others in the book. Page 88 exemplifies this theory: “I don’t want to change sides and just be told what to do. There’s no reason to change if I do that.” Montag only wants to be his own person, do what he wants, and have no one giving him orders. This is what makes him different from the people of the cities and the modern society.
ReplyDeleteI think Montag does view himself different than others in the society. Montag had a passion to read books and learn about new things that many others in the society did not understand including his own wife Mildred. On page 68 when Montag and Mildred are reading the books Mildred says “What does it mean? It doesn’t mean anything. The captain was right!” (Bradbury 68). This shows Mildred unlike Montag who said they should reread the passage, did not care for the meaning of books. Also the author used Mildred’s friend Mrs. Bowel’s to show how the others felt about books. After Montag had read a meaningful poem, Mrs. Bowel’s reaction was full of anger. “I knew this would happen poetry and tears, poetry and suicide, crying and all that mush. Now I’ve had it prove to me, you are nasty Mr. Montag, you are nasty” (Bradbury 101). Instead of looking at the poem and realizing the emotions and significance of the poem, she just saw it made people feel something which she thought caused harm. Montag on the other hand enjoyed reading and all of the emotions and thinking that came with them. The rest of the society felt the emotions you feel from reading were evil, but Montag saw them as beauty which made him different from the rest of the society's residents.
ReplyDeleteWell I agree with everyone else’s opinion, Montag is different from most of the people in this society. He questioned the close minded society he was living in and had the courage to share his opinions with the rest of the people around him (although this wasn’t the best idea). This book showed how society can send a message that may not be correct but can be argued if you are willing to make your opinion clear and fight for what is right. I believe Montag is so special because he was not afraid to stand out from the rest of the people around him. For example Beatty came to Montags house and said, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book about on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity Montag.” 99 Yet burning books did not bring Montag serenity and he chose to keep his books even after getting a speech from Beatty. Montag is so different because he was willing to have his own opinion when everyone around him followed the crowd and didn’t make their own opinions.
ReplyDeleteAfter analyzing this question in my own opinion, and noticing the opinions of those who have also analyzed my question, I can come up with a general idea of what the best response is. In this book Montag has noticed that he is very different from the people around him and the question is why? The best answer to this question is that the author needed to make a character that would be able to change as much as Montag could. For instance, the dystopian society that was crafted in the story is not very diverse, and Montag was made to be the diverse one. Kevin Johnston and Mason Hager were two of the commenters and painted a perfect picture of this society and why Montag was different:
ReplyDelete“The book opens the door into a world without individualism: People are taught to think certain things…” (Johnston)
“he was capable of making the change and be accepting of who he was evolving into, and trying to protect books. (Which everyone else wanted to burn so badly.) These are the reasons he was made distinctive in this novel. No one else in the story had an occupation of burning books, and then wound up fighting to protect them. His transition was easily the greatest.” (Hager)
These quotes perfectly explain how the dystopian society in this story was and possibly why Montag is so different. It would be very hard for a person living at this time to understand more that simple pleasure. This perhaps explains why the author made Montag who he is. He could have been made a fireman because for him to develop in the story he would have to have some exposure to books. This would have allowed him to learn more than how books were bad, but also to see books in physical form and have the chance to learn what they are all about. There are also perhaps other intentional attributes of Montag that not only explain why Montag is different, but also why these differences make him a protagonist and a good main character in the story. I noticed that the comments from Hermon Sandhu and Marshall Hickey included such factors for Montag:
“Montag had a passion to read books and learn about new things that many others in the society did not understand including his own wife Mildred.” (Sandhu)
“He questioned the close minded society he was living in and had the courage to share his opinions with the rest of the people around him…” (Hickey)
Both of these comments suggest that Montag had both courage and passion. This can also explain why he is a fireman and why he was able to be the protagonist he was. His courage and passion for books and understanding would make him able to question the world around him and have a sense of individualism. Overall, I can see that after analyzing the question and the comments from others I can conclude that Montag is special because he is a courageous, book passionate, fireman; these attributes have allowed him to be special in the non-individualistic world he lives in. This truly explains why the author would choose Montag as the protagonist.