Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451, and his duality.

Essay by bananapeeeelJunior High, 9th gradeA+, November 2002

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Guy Montag, the main character in Fahrenheit 451, goes through a huge change. He starts out to be a fireman; someone who burns banned books (a book that is illegal to have or read because it is thought to be "inappropriate" by some group or organization, or the like). In the book, you were said to be a criminal if you owned a banned book, or even if you read it. Montag changed a great deal, from a fireman who burns books, to a criminal who reads, and owns books. He does this to try and change society. To make the people actually enjoy books, and look at their good aspects, rather than their bad aspects. There are many reasons for the change in Montag's life.

The book has several subtle hints to what causes the change. First of all, I think that Clarisse, the sixteen-year-old girl (going on seventeen), influenced Montag a lot.

After they met, they became really good friends, and they began to talk seriously to each other, and not just talk playfully. Clarisse continued to tell Montag things the way she saw them, and she talked to him a lot about things her uncle told her. She always told him about how her uncle kept telling her how firemen were in the many years before, and how they would put out fires, rather than make them. When Montag was informed that Clarisse was hit by a car and killed, he got really depressed, and everything that Clarisse had ever told him, or done with him, stayed with him, and he never forgot it. After her death, the things that Clarisse told Montag influenced him more and he really paid attention to what she had been telling him all along. I think that Clarisse had...