In “Fahrenheit 451”, Bradbury creates a futuristic community that depends on technology to take care of simple responsibilities. Bradbury uses exposition to give his readers a background on this futuristic society in order to understand how things work. He introduces Montag as a conformist for the government. Montag is a Fireman. Firemen, in this futuristic society, duties are to start fires in people homes that possess books, these people are considered criminals. To readers this is a confliction because a real fireman puts out fires and save lives and people possessions. However, Montag starts fires and burn people possessions, while feeling honorable and prideful about his actions. Bradbury describes Montag’s career and mentality to expose that this futuristic society’s government did not want people thinking on their own. Because of Montag’s unthinkingly loyalty to his job and the government, his conversation with free spirited Clarisse was life changing and the start of Bradbury’s rising action. Bradbury created Clarisse as a thinker, which Montag and others would consider a radical. Because Clarisse was opinionated and seemed very happy, Montag was enthralled by her. Bradbury placed Clarisse in this setting as his transition and Montag’s challenger. Clarisse asked Montag a simple question “Are you happy?” This question made Montag curious about his life and realizes that he was not happy.
