Beginning with the opening line of Fahrenheit 451, it’s clear that main character Guy Montag gets a kick out of burning books; and overall the sight of fire itself. Line one, “It was a pleasure to burn”, encapsulates this. The novel depicts Montag’s love for his job, then as the plot develops and he begins to see burning books in a different light, he becomes open to questioning the world and proposing unprecedented ideas in society.
Montag’s development all starts with Clarisse McClellan – a girl with a mind unlike anyone else’s – who introduces him to a questioning and open-minded outlook on the world. When Montag is left to dwell in his thoughts, he starts to question everything around him. This becomes noticeable when he talks out loud to himself. On page 18, he quotes, “I don’t know anything anymore”. He never had to think twice about the little things – from the men who came to care for his wife after her overdose to the purpose of the colors on a football team’s jerseys – until his encounter with Clarisse. Page 33 states, “Montag looked at [the firemen] whose faces were sunburnt by a thousand… fires… These men were all mirror images of himself! Were all firemen picked for their looks as well as their proclivities?” Only after having talked with the girl once, Montag had already begun to look at similarities and differences between him and those around him. He started to question: why do we burn books, what is so wrong with them, what is society doing to our minds?
Another key point in turning is where Montag realizes that the man whose library he and the firemen burned wasn’t crazy for having books or stuck in some fantasy of a world. Montag starts to realize that burning books isn’t just his job, but that it affects other people – the authors of said books, and those who read them. He and fellow fireman Beatty discuss this on pages 33-34; “What happened to [the man]?” “They took him screaming off to the asylum.” “He wasn’t insane… I’ve tried to imagine just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books.” It’s clear now that Montag is starting to take to the way Clarisse thinks deeply and questions the meaning of everything. He begins to question his job as a man who creates fires and because of this, realizes the title of ‘fireman’ has been completely altered since the law banned books. Page 34 reads Montag asking Beatty, “Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?” This shows that Montag is coming to realize the truth about the purpose of firemen and opening his mind to thoughts that society would consider crazy. It’s then that he realizes he’s not happy with the way things are in society; he’s not happy with how he’s been living his life.
As the plot develops, Montag’s perception of his job changes drastically. Page 49 states, “[Montag] pressed at the pain in his eyes and suddenly the odor of kerosene made him vomit… “We burnt a thousand books. We burnt a woman.”” It’s clear that his job is causing him remorse and guilt. Montag can’t seem to focus on anything else, because now that he can see how robotic and awful it is to do such a job, it’s making him go crazy. Since the burning of the woman and her books happened, Montag has become aware of the people behind the books, and their efforts to create them. On page 52, he says to his wife, Mildred, “It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It’s all over.” This shows his developing rejection of fire and his profession as a fireman. Montag begins to stray away from his love for his job and for burning at the beginning of the book in favor of an open mind, and an understanding behind the authors of books.
Towards the book’s end, Montag’s enlightenment leads him to become rebellious against the burning of books and of his job. Once the firemen find out about the books Montag is keeping, they must burn his house and his books; Montag feels nothing for his ‘home’. He burns its walls with pride and determination. “He burnt… because he wanted to change everything… everything that showed that he had lived here in this empty house with a strange woman who would forget him tomorrow… And as before, it was good to burn…” (Page 116). Montag was burning another home today, but for a different reason. He wished to erase the memories made in that house; the closed up, delicate minds of those that had been there and lived; everything it stood for. When Montag was free of his burdens and walked along a path to a new life with his newfound ‘people’, one man named Granger voices to Montag; “…even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn’t use what we got out of them… We’re going to meet a lot of lonely people… and when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re remembering.” (Page 164). Montag was a new man of knowledge with a bettered perspective on life, and an opened mind. He had realized that fire could be used for good things, like symbolizing a fresh start rather than erasure of ideas in books that society doesn’t want to see. Montag’s view on creating fires had changed since he found good in doing so after burning his loveless marriage and the house that was never his home. Since this discovery, he could finally think for himself and live his life freely.
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