The
novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury first begins by depicting
Guy Montag, a fireman, as a person who appears to be settled in his life. Montag has a well-respected job, a wife, and
he has just recently purchased a new house.
It seems that his life is successfully progressing. However, this impression shortly fades
away. As the reader gets to know Montag
better, he/she sees his real character: the person who feels as a stranger in
his own home, the person who does not express any feelings but fear, the person
who has no friends, and, finally, the person who doubts his job, but is brave
enough to take off his mask of happiness and acknowledge the reality with a bit
of help from Clarisse, who as per Montag’s words “throw[s] back to…[him his]
own expression…[his] own innermost trembling thought” (Bradbury 11).
Montag lives with fear. He’s frightened to get caught for keeping the
books he’s supposed to burn to fulfill his duty. Bradbury uncovers Montag’s paranoia by
showing his reaction to the Mechanical Hound’s attacks. Nevertheless, when off duty, Montag doesn’t
destroy the books, but rather keeps them with the hope that the books may be
that missing piece that might make him happy.
In his conversation with Faber, he admits, “We have everything we need
to be happy, but we aren’t happy.
Something’s missing. I looked
around. The only things I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned
in ten or twelve years. So I thought the
books might help” (Bradbury 82).
Ironically, instead of viewing the books as a threat, Montag tries to
find happiness within them.
Montag also appears to be a very lonely
man. The author reveals this by showing
how he feels at home and through his relationship with his wife, Mildred. As Montag comes home, he feels as if he’s
“coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon has set”
(Bradbury 11). Not only does he feel
unwelcome in his own house, but he also feels like a stranger who “is in
someone else’s house…coming home late late at night, unlocking the wrong door,
entering a wrong room, and bedding with a stranger....” (Bradbury 42). In a few short conversations Mildred and
Montag have, they don’t express too many emotions towards each other. The two seem to exist together but live in
two different worlds, neither sharing any common history nor knowing anything
about each other. For instance, Mildred
and Montag can’t remember when or how they met.
They know so little about one another and have so little in common that
they hardly even talk. Montag is amazed
about the fact that a husband and wife have something to talk about when Clarisse
mentions that her “mother and father and uncle [are] sitting around, talking”
(Bradbury 9).
Surprisingly,
or perhaps not surprisingly, Montag doesn’t report Faber to the authorities
when they first meet at the park, in spite of the fact that he’s most certain
that the man is in possession of books.
As “Faber held his hand over his left coat pocket and spoke… Montag knew
if he reached out, he might pull a book of poetry from the man’s coat. But he did not reach out” (Bradbury 75). Montag pretends that he doesn’t know of the
old man’s secret. However, as he
eventually turns to Faber for help, it clearly indicates that Montag always
knew about Faber’s secret, but kept it to himself to protect the old man. Evidently, Montag doesn’t view Faber as a
threat to the society because of his access to the books. Again, oddly enough, Montag doubts the danger
that books may bring to the society even though his job is to destroy them for
the reason that they impose a threat.
“Are you happy?” asks Clarisse, leaving
Montag feeling like “the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now
collapsing and now blown out.
Darkness. He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of
affairs” (Bradbury 12). Even though it
is Clarisse who provokes Montag to finally take off his mask of happiness, undoubtedly,
this mask was already beginning to come off, as Montag has been questioning his
life, his job, and the society, which he is a part of. With Clarisse’s genuine wondering about his
life, Montag is able to admit to himself that he hasn’t done much neither for
his wife nor for his city. He has not
done anything to make the world better.
“Montag
turned and glanced back.
What
did you give to the city, Montag?
Ashes.
What
did the others give to each other?
Nothingness”
(Bradbury 156).
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