Montag's Transformation In Fahrenheit 451

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories ” (150). No one in Montag’s world is truly alive. They all go through life like the undead, completely unaware of their surroundings. They never stop to appreciate life and everything that makes it wonderful. This is the world of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a dystopian science fiction story that takes place in a not so distant future eerily similar to our world now. Free thought and knowledge are banned. Books are burned, laughter is silenced, and walking is punished. Most terrifying of all, no one misses anything. No one realizes that they have been reduced to mere husks of human …show more content…
He is currently experiencing an identity crisis. He doesn’t know who he is or what he should so anymore. This is the most uncertain phase of his journey. Every choice is potentially dangerous. As he continues to learn and adapt, Montag will go through many challenges big and small. Perhaps the most transformative to his character is the encounter with the book woman. The job is like any other, except for one major difference; the owner of the books refuses to leave. Bradbury writes, “The woman on the porch reached out with contempt to them all, and struck the kitchen match against the railing” (37). She would rather die than live without her books. This represents a very big change in Montag’s perception of fire. He know sees fire as evil and destructive. He comments, “Always at night the alarm comes. . . Is it because the fire is prettier at night? More spectacle, a better show?” (36). This shows that he now recognizes how vapid everything in this society is. His earlier pleasure of the fire and the job is completely gone since he now recognizes the sinister purpose behind it. Montag has another defining moment at the woman’s house. He steals a book, something we later find out he has been doing for a while. The fact that he has been stealing books all this time serves to show that he had been subconsciously dissonant for a while, and Clarisse only added fuel to the flames that were already burning inside him. Only now does he begin to read, and that is because of the transformations that he has already gone through. “Let’s see what this is” (65), He says. This represents a big change in Montag. He will no longer blindly accept what he is told. He is now going to find out things for himself. He is taking an incredible risk in doing this, as his captain, Beatty, knows that he has the book. An important role in the Hero’s Journey is