Essay on Fahrenheit 451: Critical Analysis of Characters

During the 1950s technology began to make a stand on the world. Computers were being created to make communication easier and planes were being made which significantly helped with transport around the world. People love learning and being surrounded by things that are unknown but yet so interesting. Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, depicts a society barely able to function due to technology “taking over”, making people who can barely be considered humans. Bradbury uses Montag to make people realize that technology is taking over people’s lives. By including characters such as Clarisse, the old lady from the fire, and Granger to help Montag develop throughout the story, Bradbury is able to argue that censorship blinds society to move away from the truth.

Clarisse McClellan, a minor character, is the main reason for Montag’s development throughout the novel. Montag’s primary job as a fireman in this society is to burn down houses that contain books. Montag feels a “pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 3) books until he meets his 17-year-old neighbor, Clarisse McClellan. As they conversate with one another Montag begins to realize how strange this lady is because of the unusual activities she engages in such as going for walks, spending time with nature, or having conversations. Montag then begins to think that she is absolutely insane because of the questions that she asks and her unorthodox lifestyle. He then begins to think that “she is a mirror” (Bradbury 17) and he sees himself inside her. Clarisse then begins to ask him probing questions such as whether or not he is happy. Clarisse then gets Montag to start questioning everything in his life. Clarisse goes into her house leaving Montag to think about if he is really happy. He begins to think about the life around him. He then realizes that he is not happy at all and he does care about anyone, including his wife Mildred. He is able to realize that people in his society don’t think about others’ feelings when acting. He begins to realize that the society he lives in is just an unlivable dystopia. From this point Montag “questions his role and seeks to learn why books are considered dangerous” (Sisario). Clarisse is able to captivate him about the world he lives in. From this point on, it begins Montag’s journey of trying to figure out why he burns books and what is so bad about them that they must not exist. Originally, Montag was just someone who burned books and cared about nothing else. Clarisse was able to transform him and begin to make him see that there is truly something wrong with the world. Montag is able to act upon what he has so long waited for. Montag steals a book from a burning house which his “hand has done, with a brain of its own” (Bradbury 35). Without Clarisse filling his head with all of these questions he never would have stolen a book and he would still have been unhappy. Montag starts as a follower to the society and ends up becoming an independent thinking man who goes out to reveal why these books are so censored. Just by sparking Montag’s curiosity Clarisse was able to lead him in the right direction in what the society should be like, as well as build up his confidence in life.

Another minor character that’s interactions with Montag to help him grow throughout the novel is the old lady in the fire. After Montag begins to open his eyes up about the terrible society he lives in, he thinks about taking action. There is a call at the fire station indicating that it is time to burn a house down with books in it. Once he arrives at the scene there is an old lady that refuses to leave her books. She is unlike people in the utopian society she lives in the sense of she sees something in these censored books as well. The old lady is persistent about not leaving her home for the firemen to destroy her precious and extensive book collection, her efforts are futile. Montag insists that she leaves but she has such a bond with her books that she refuses to do such a thing. They end up burning the home with the lady inside, accepting her death along with her books. Her final words are a quote from the sixteenth century English Protestant Hugh Latimer. However, prior to leaving the home to burn the house down Montag snatches a book implying that he is truly curious and beginning to be free minded and wants to figure out why all these books are censored. Unlike the other firemen, Montag is quite disturbed with her death. However, through her death, he is able to realize that if she was willing to have her own life taken for the sake of “preventing” the destruction of her books then there must be something truly special and eye-opening about them. He is so confused about what is going on in this world that he decides to consult with Mildred, his wife, about his feelings. Because of this incident, he not only skips work but builds up massive courage and has the audacity to tell Mildred about the book he took. Mildred cares little about his actual feelings and is more concerned about the book. Later Captain Beatty comes over and explains to Montag why books are useless and have no meaning which Montag is far from believing. He begins to contradict the world around him and his job as a fireman and which shows that he’s becoming more like Clarisse and the old woman. By the old lady showing her defiance in the face of censorship, she is able to make Montag realize that there is so much more in life that is being taken away from people just to live in an unlivable dystopian society.

The final character that’s interactions with Montag to help him grow throughout the novel is Granger. At the end of the novel, Montag ultimately decides to leave the city because he is being hunted for having books. He is cast out by society because he rejects the values of censorship. He ends up with a bunch of homeless people, one of the homeless people is Granger, leader of the “Book People” amongst all the people. Granger gives Montag a drink so that he can no longer be tracked by the mechanical hound. Granger and his colleagues are much more important than they appear. They all ultimately decided to be homeless because society would outcast them for rejecting what they censor. However, Granger makes it clear that everyone who is here “all made the right kind of mistakes” (Bradbury 228). Because possessing books are illegal Granger and his “book people” memorize all the books they read. However, without being able to realize it Granger group is what Montag has been searching for throughout his journey. He gives Montag a new purpose of protecting books instead of destroying them. Granger’s presence gives Montag the opportunity to continue reading to completely transform Montag into a free-minded self-thinking human. Granger is able to show that even though he was outlawed for having books and does not own any memory of a book cannot be killed nor can its censorship last.

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury includes characters such as Clarisse, the old lady from the fire, and Granger to help Montag develop throughout the story, and is able to argue that censorship blinds society to move away from the truth. He is able to manifest this idea by making these characters different from how the society is living by going against “proper behavior”. Clarisse is able to open Montag’s eyes about how the society is just an unlivable dystopia with no morals whatsoever. She lets Montag begin to make himself free minded by asking questions. When he encounters the old lady in the fire he is able to open his eyes even more that there is some super special secret about books that the world must be known about. At the end Granger is able to truly open Montag’s eyes about what society really is because he is what Montag has been seeking the entire novel. Not only is Bradbury able to show how censored the world really is in this society but it also shows that when people censor things it means that they hide a deeper truth that is tried to be hidden from others to try and protect them. If Montag had not encountered Clarisee then he would never have questioned anything about the society and continued to live the way he previously did.