Friday, March 28, 2014

How has a character changed since they were first introduced?

The character that I feel has changed since they were first introduced was Guy Montag. When Montag was first introduced in Fahrenheit 451, he was very pro-government and a good citizen who followed the laws, kept to himself, and performed his job extremely well. As the story progressed and Montag met and began to talk to Clarisse, he started to think about her along with her peculiar family and strange ideals. The more and more he thought about her, the more he questioned his dystopian society and what the government stood for. Montag's change went form subtle questioning to performing illegal actions such as reading books in a short period of time.
 
 In the beginning of the book my opinion of Montag was that he just went with the flow, he was a good citizen (in the governments eyes), and never caused any problems. To me, he wasn't a very dynamic character. Honestly, I felt Montag was very flat up until the part where Chief Beatty allowed for the woman to be burned and die in the fire with the house and the books. This was the ultimate turning point in Montag's character for me. From this point forward he starts realizing that Clarisse was correct in her statements from the beginning of the book. One such statement that he finds true about himself was that when Clarisse asked Montag if he was happy he quickly replied yes, but later in the novel he realizes that he truly isn't happy in his current position as a fireman, a citizen, and a husband.

 After Montag starts on his journey to find happiness by reading books and participating in other illegal acts that allow for a person to think for themselves, I feel that Montag has become a more dynamic character that arouses new problems in the story. In other words, he has become an individual in a society that doesn't allow for one to be themselves.

For more information on the main character, Guy Montag, it may be benefical to check out the website in the below link if you have any concerns or troubles while regarding the analyisis of Montag.

http://www.shmoop.com/fahrenheit-451/guy-montag.html