Guy Montag: The Burning Rebellion

Guy Montag: The Burning Rebellion

In class we read the book Fahrenheit 451. The main character Montag has several qualities that change his views and decisions throughout the book. In the beginning of the story Montag was very confirmative and just went along with everything the government and didn’t really question anything but by the end of the book he was completely different. He had changed his views completely. One reason that motivated Montag to change so drastically was his curiosity. This caused him to question things and that led to some of his other qualities such as his open-mindedness. Questioning everything and talking to new people for information allowed Montag to become more open-minded and become open to more ideas. Another quality that Montag has that lead to his in change in the story was his change over time was his childhood memories.

One of the main reasons that Montag changed so drastically over the course of the book was his curiosity. Montag spent a lot of time thinking about his job and started questioning everything he was doing. He starts wondering why books need to be burned and why things are the way that they are. Montag takes up a special interest in book and why things are this way. “Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work?” Montag asks Beatty showing his curiosity. Montag’s curiosity is what drives him to find out everything he can about books, society and the way that things used to be. It is only natural for him to begin to question everything especially because his job involves burning hundreds of books a day yet he was never told why these books need to burned. Imagine destroying an object everyday, and being told how important your job is. Naturally you would want to know why you are destroying these objects. This is what happened to Montag and Beatty tried to explain it to him and tells him he shouldn’t be too curious about it “A natural error, curiosity alone,” Beatty also asks Montag “Listen to me, Montag. Once to each fireman, at least once in his career, he just itches to know what these books are all about. He just aches to know. Isn't that so?” Curiosity is a very natural emotion and even Beatty, who tries to explain things to Montag and discourages books, even admits to looking a few books but says “I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing!” I believe that this would make Montag even more curious. If I was in Montag’s position I would be wondering if the books said nothing then why is it so important that we burn them? As the story progresses it seems Montag is becoming more and more interested in why things are the way the more information that Montag comes across the more curious he becomes about his job and about these books. Curiosity is clearly the main reason that caused Montag to change so drastically.

Through out the story Montag keeps a very open-minded perspective of things which also influences his change of character. Having an open-mind ties in very well with his curiosity, which causes him to question everything. He meets several people that he all speaks with and takes ideas from. Granger, Faber and Clarisse have a major impact on Montag. They constantly speak with Montag through out the book. Montag has a very open-mind and he listens to what these people mean and the ideas that they have. Clarisse is really the first person to open up Montag’s mind by asking him questions about his job, “But why do you burn books.” It started with simple conversation