Are you truly satisfied with your life? In the science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, no one could have ever began to answer the question above. In a society where no one ever questions government, society, authority, or even themselves, the vast majority resorts to leading simple-minded discussions and emulating robots in their everyday routines. Mildred Montag falls under the society’s vast majority. Her husband, Guy Montag, a fireman who makes a living at burning books because any thinking causes controversy, begins to question everything around him, and he grows very troubled by what he discovers. Bradbury’s contrasting characterization in Fahrenheit 451 proves one must be bothered with life’s complexities now and then
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As the book progresses, he discovers a conflicted sense of self through the questioning of authority, government and his emotions towards Mildred, by the end of the book, Montag finds happiness much more plentiful than in the beginning. While engaging in a rather one-sided discussion with Mildred, Guy responds to her plea of being left alone with "Let you alone! That 's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" (52). Montag claims he cannot stop feeling bothered and that one needs some level of discontentment which indicates his care in reaching true happiness and the realization that some, like his wife, will never reach happiness because of the inability to experience sadness. Love, one of life’s complexities in any society, highlights Mildred and Guy’s unusual relationship for man and wife. …show more content…
The fire captain states "If you don 't want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don 't want a man unhappy politically, don 't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (62). The claiming of “hide the nails and wood” and “don’t give him two sides” Texactly what Montag T bothered about. The lack of choices Beatty believes in. Beatty believes anything people could debate over, anything confusing, should be eliminated in society. Emulating Mildred’s simple-mindedness, then, is the only other option, which leaves one dissatisfied with life. Beatty dies in the novel in a “shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling, no longer human or known” (119). While his death scene holds irony in the fact he burns to death, through syntax, Bradbury emphasizes the last line “no longer human or known”. Captain Beatty was against reading books, never mind creating anything, which relates to Beatty “no longer” being known because nothing else in the world will ever remind anyone of Beatty again. Not bothering to create or ponder life’s complexities resulted in Beatty living in, and dying without memoriam, in a dissatisfied
As the book progresses, he discovers a conflicted sense of self through the questioning of authority, government and his emotions towards Mildred, by the end of the book, Montag finds happiness much more plentiful than in the beginning. While engaging in a rather one-sided discussion with Mildred, Guy responds to her plea of being left alone with "Let you alone! That 's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" (52). Montag claims he cannot stop feeling bothered and that one needs some level of discontentment which indicates his care in reaching true happiness and the realization that some, like his wife, will never reach happiness because of the inability to experience sadness. Love, one of life’s complexities in any society, highlights Mildred and Guy’s unusual relationship for man and wife. …show more content…
The fire captain states "If you don 't want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don 't want a man unhappy politically, don 't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (62). The claiming of “hide the nails and wood” and “don’t give him two sides” Texactly what Montag T bothered about. The lack of choices Beatty believes in. Beatty believes anything people could debate over, anything confusing, should be eliminated in society. Emulating Mildred’s simple-mindedness, then, is the only other option, which leaves one dissatisfied with life. Beatty dies in the novel in a “shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling, no longer human or known” (119). While his death scene holds irony in the fact he burns to death, through syntax, Bradbury emphasizes the last line “no longer human or known”. Captain Beatty was against reading books, never mind creating anything, which relates to Beatty “no longer” being known because nothing else in the world will ever remind anyone of Beatty again. Not bothering to create or ponder life’s complexities resulted in Beatty living in, and dying without memoriam, in a dissatisfied