Guy Montag Character Analysis Essay

Quiet, empty, lonely, these are the streets of Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is a book by Ray Bradbury, that covers the idea of a dystopian society. The book is a dystopian novel about the future and how technology has entirely taken over the lives of many. A dystopian is a setting where the world is full of injustice and suffering. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel because society is censored from knowledge, they are addicted to technology, and they have a disregard for human life.

The main component of the story is society being censored from freedom of knowledge. Every couple of pages you read you will be reminded of this fact. In the book, Mildred tells Montag, “I think she's dead.” This quote supports my claim because although Clarisse had a tragic end, she was a beacon of hope for Montag. She had decided she wouldn’t be a mindless zombie like everyone else.  Montag's character developed into a man with free thought, he never saw things the same. Momtag would later be hunted down for having books and found a man named Granger, Granger would later tell Montag, “We all made the right kind of mistakes or we wouldn’t be here.” This shows us that everyone there fought for the right to keep their knowledge, as a result to this they lost everything and have to live on the train tracks. Society has no freedom to their own thoughts. If they are caught with books their whole life can be ruined. Knowledge will never be available again, unless Montag were to change that.

Montag’s society has developed an extreme addiction to technology. They spend the entirety of their day in front of the television that babbles nonsense. While Mildred is thinking about getting a new T.V and Montag doesn’t really think it necessary she says, “It’s only two thousand dollars.” This shows Mildred's addiction because she and Montag don’t have that much money, but she's willing to spend a large amount of money on something that she doesn't need. This is definitely a start to addiction because if she wants to buy newer and better technology she will have no more money left. Later in the book, Montag reads a poem to Mildred and her friends and one of her friends, Mrs. Bowels, responds with, “You’re nasty, Mr. Montag, you’re nasty.” The response was when Montag had finished reading the poem and Mrs. Phelps started crying because she heard it. Mrs. Bowles got frustrated with Mr. Montag; Mrs. Bowles showed us that she believed that Montag's reading was wrong because it was unusual and it wasn't T.V. Once these addictions start they can’t stop.

My final claim is the disregard for human life. No one is really safe in this society. After Montag reads Mrs. Bowles a poem and she gets mad Montag responds with, “Go home and think how it all happened and what you ever did to stop it.” Montag says this because Mrs. Bowels had multiple husbands that died and she doesn't seem to care. The people in her life don't really seem important to her, her kids are basically strangers because she rarely sees them. The biggest threat in this society is each other. When Montag is running from the police he almost gets hit by a car and it barely misses him he then thinks, “That wasn't the police.” Why you may ask, just for fun. Life in this world can be compared to that of a fly,  you kill them and it doesn't hurt you in the slightest.

In Montag's world, books are banned, which takes away the people’s right to knowledge. Everyone has a parlor with different shows playing; it makes no sense to have this, but to this society it seems necessary. The government pushes the idea of human life having no value; they have a speed minimum that forces them to go deadly speeds. People need to know why Fahrenheit 451 is dystopian and how a future like this would be utterly terrible if we follow in their footsteps.  The book ends with the bombing of the cities, but nothing changes. The streets still stay quiet, empty, and lonely. The men who are still alive have the responsibility to restore humanity.