Montag And Beatty In Fahrenheit 451

Throughout the novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury depicts a dystopian society where citizens followed the general rules. Regardless of these rules, each character’s mannerisms and thoughts contrast one another. Their opposing views lead to conflict, creating chaos. Within the novel, the reader learns about the main character, and how he struggles to follow the existing conditions of society. Montag and Beatty differ in many ways because of their views towards the government, their beliefs concerning books, and attitude towards life. Montag and Beatty’s loyalty and thoughts towards the government vary. Montag believed the government was corrupt, and he wanted more out of life, whereas Beatty thought the government’s system was flawless. While Beatty trusted the government’s ways and methods wholeheartedly, obeying all commands, Montag began to rebel and read books. “Montag’s hand closed like a mouth, crushed the book with wild devotion, with insanity of mindlessness to his chest.” (Bradbury 34). This led Montag to see society in a different light, where books were beneficial and the destruction of them only caused harm. He wanted others to see them in the same way, whereas Beatty wanted nothing more but to completely eradicate them. Although Montag thought this, Beatty saw nothing more in life, and taunted others who thought differently, …show more content…
Montag found interest in books and enjoyed reading them. Beatty saw books as useless and only read them to make himself feel powerful as he mocked others. He enjoyed the burning of books and thought the ulterior motive behind books were only to make people sad or angry. Montag believed books were essential to mankind and tried to find ways to preserve them. He tried to present them to others as positive rather than negative and prove to society that they did nothing but benefit them. In the end, both characters tried their best to justify their conclusions about printed