Fahrenheit 451 Quote Analysis

Fahrenheit 451 is a story of the man Guy Montag and his journey through knowledge and change in an anti-intellectual world. In this society, books are outlawed. Montag is a long-time firefighter, but a firefighter in our society is not the same as the one in author Ray Bradbury’s society. A firefighter’s purpose here is to seek out books and burn them. In the beginning Montag seems deeply invested in his job, finding bliss in burning the books of others. However throughout the story we see him grow curious and slowly involve into this rebellious intellectual. Throughout this story, Ray Bradbury communicates the idea that giving in to ignorance is tempting, but dangerous. In the beginning we can clearly see that Montag has no desire to become an intellectual. He loves his job as a fireman and never wants it to end. Within the first lines of the book we can see Montag’s feelings towards burning books. “It was a pleasure to watch them burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” (Page 3) We can also tell he’s been in this business for a while when he is sitting with his fellow firemen and it says “...these men whose faces were sunburnt by a thousand real and ten thousand imaginary fires…” …show more content…
He starts to question the way things are and why, and start to become curious as to what’s in books that affects people so much. You can really see how sheltered Montag’s society is when Beatty is talking to Montag about his idea of happiness and how to maintain it. He says “‘Someone’s written a book about tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag.’” (Page 59) This quote really captures the essence of this society, their motto may as well be “Ignorance is bliss” in bold. Happiness seems to be a consistent goal for the people in this book and this is only one of many ways they try to reach