Guy Montag is the main character in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Montag's job is a fireman but a different kind of fireman they are supposed to find houses with books in them, and to destroy them. The homes in which books are found are also burned and the person who has the books is sent to jail. In the beginning, Guy Montag seems to like his job Then one day he meets a girl named Clarisse McClelean, his new neighbor, a sixteen year old girl. They talk and Clarisse tells him of a past when people were allowed to read books and were not afraid of firemen burning their houses. She asks Montag if there was ever a time when firemen put out fires. Montag tells her no. Montag realizes that he is not happy in his work.
When Montag goes home, he sees his wife lying watching television. Though Mildred would never admit it, she was unhappy also.
Oskar Werner as Guy Montag in the 1966 film versio...
Jerzy Montag, German Green Party politician
Jerzy Montag, German Green Party politicianShe also takes sleeping pills, and Montag notices she took an overdose. It seems as though Millie always ignores Montag by watching her "family" on her three wall television. These are the indicators to Montag that their marriage is falling apart. Montag doesn't know of his unhappiness until his first encounters with the mechanical hound (a robotic dog that is programmed to find books). The dog growls, which are what Montag dislikes. The growling alerts him of his unhappiness. Montag thinks that the dog knows that he had snuck some books from the home of their last burning.
Montag doesn't talk to Mildred about his unhappiness with his job. But Beatty knows of Montag's unhappiness, and makes a visit to his house. He gives Montag a pep talk about his curiosity about books. He tells him that all firemen have a curiosity about books sometime. He says that books are merely stories, only fiction. He tells him that books make people unhappy, but books can be burned with fire. Montag concludes that Beatty is afraid of books. After Beatty leaves Montag tells Mildred about all the books he stole and she is later persuaded to read them. But little do they know that the Mechanical hound on their trail.
He then ends up going to an old friend's house, his name is Faber. At Faber's house, Faber tells Montag that he is devoted to the ideas contained in books, and concerned with the common good of man.
Immediately Montag tells Faber of his unhappiness and curiosity. Faber tells Montag that books need to be read, and that it should not be illegal. Montag has an idea to plant books in firemen's house. Faber dislikes the idea, but later agrees. Faber and Montag conspire to make the plan work.
Mildred ended up turning her own Husband in for having books illegally and Montag has to burn his own house. While Montag is burning his house, he seems to be enjoying it. Burning the three walled TV and all the unhappy memories to ashes feel good. Montag now realizes how much he hates Beatty, and points the flamethrower at him. Beatty tells him to shoot. He burns Beatty to ashes. Meanwhile, the mechanical dog has been chasing him since he killed Beatty, biting him on the leg, making his leg like a "burnt piece of pine wood".
While Montag is at Faber's they turn the sprinklers on to wash his scent off the grass, and he gets new clothes and a bottle of alcohol to wash the scent from his body. Faber tells him to cross the river and go on the railroad tracks for ten miles. There he will find a group of people.
When he arrives, he finds a group of people, all of whom have had their houses, burned down because they had books. They ran away to avoid jail, and formed a society which preserves the information in books by memorizing them, and passing them on to the next generations.
Deutsch: Kirchdorf an der Iller Rathaus
English: Montag Center at Willamette University in...
Jerzy Montag, German Green Party politician