An In-depth Philosophical Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 and Guy Montag

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451,' focusing on the central character Guy Montag and the dystopian themes presented in the novel. Montag, a fireman in a futuristic American metropolis, grapples with internal and external conflicts as he questions the values of his society, which prioritizes pleasure and conformity over intellectual pursuits and individual thought. His encounters with Clarisse McClellan and the disturbing events surrounding his wife and others lead him to seek refuge in books, ultimately causing him to clash with his fire chief, Captain Beatty. The essay explores Montag's transformation, his escape from a technologically oppressive society, and his quest to rebuild civilization with like-minded survivors, highlighting Bradbury's portrayal of human vulnerability and the importance of independent thought.

Running head: AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
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Author Notes

1AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
Fahrenheit 451 can be considered a dark themed novel that visualizes a dystopian theme
and philosophy (Ames). It was authored by the American writer Ray Bradbury and was
published in 1953. The central theme of the novel depicts the life of a person, Guy Montag and
the ordeals he goes throughout the novel. He is a fireman, and both his personal as well as
professional lives suffered due to his internal and external conflicts. The assignment is dealing
with the novel Fahrenheit 451 and analyzes the central character and the theme of the novel from
a philosophical perspective. The novel and the underlying theme can be understood by
attempting to answer the fundamental questions which arises in person’s mind after they read the
novel.
Guy Montag is a fireman from a futuristic American metropolis. He lives by the thought
that the job of a fireman is to start a fire, instead of putting it out. The civilians of this society are
mechanical, they do not enjoy the company of books, and they have become so mechanical that
they do not enjoy the beauty of nature or even give time to themselves. According to Montag,
they spend a lot of time on watching television and driving too fast. He is basically a person who
does not accept the reality as his ideology does not match with that of the society. He believes
that people have stopped thinking and turned into beings whose mentality is only to seek
pleasure (Kotlyakov et al.). Montag’s eyes were opened for a time when he meets a charming 17
year old girl, Clarisse McClellan. He understands the emptiness of life when he gets surprised by
her innocent questions and rather unusual affection for nature and people. However a few days
later, he undergoes through some disturbing events when his wife tries to kill herself by
swallowing a lot of sleeping pills, he encounters an old woman who commits suicide herself by
burning along with her stash of books and when he finds out that Clarisse was overrun by a

2AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
speeding car. These series of disturbing events made Montag depressed and he starts looking for
satisfaction from a stash of books he had stolen (Thakur and Divya).
After getting overwhelmed with the task of reading, Montag approaches his wife for
support but just like the other people of the society, she does not want to go through the terrible
phase of reading books and prefers to watch television rather than giving company to her
husband (Dolan). One day at the park, he met an English professor named Faber who tries to
explain him that the government was not responsible for this course of action, and it is the people
who have stopped reading according to their own will.
When Montag does not show up for work, the fire-chief, Captain Beatty goes out to get
him. He knew that he has been taking books, and he planned to set him up for the day that he
would burn his house down. However, when that day finally arrives, Montag took the flame gun
and aimed it at him instead (Patai). Beatty even went to the lengths to provoke him to do so;
Montag did not hesitate and burned him to death. After that, people started to chase him. He
escaped from man, hounds and helicopters. In this novel, the hound is pictured as a piece of
technology. It has the function to seek out those who are hiding books. These mechanical hounds
objective was to track down Montage. It picks up Montage’s scent right after Betty leaves and
also attacks him after Betty dies. Though Montag was successfully able to kill the mechanical
beast but soon thereafter, another hound was brought from another district to hunt him. This
leads to chaos and jets appear and completely destroy the city with bombs. Montag moves on to
search for like-minded survivors and looks to rebuild civilization from scratch (Urtubey and
Alba).

3AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
From the above analysis, it can be understood that Fahrenheit 451 is an attempt by Ray
Bradbury to portray the vulnerability of human beings. The central character Guy Montag, being
a disillusioned person due to the ordeals he goes through in his daily life, finds himself
juxtaposed in the most extreme of situations. The toll his hardships take on his life can be figured
out from the fact that he became detached from society and started taking refuge in books and
literary works. The author has written the novel in such a profound style such that the human
emotions of Guy Montag can be related by all the readers.

4AN ANALYSIS ON FAHRENHEIT 451
References
Ames, Melissa. "Engaging" apolitical" adolescents: Analyzing the popularity and educational
potential of dystopian literature post-9/11." The High School Journal 97.1 (2013): 3-20.
Dolan, Kelcy. "Bradbury's Guy Montag: An Ontology of Conflict and Fire." (2015).
Kotlyakov, V. M., et al. "Flooding of July 6–7, 2012, in the town of Krymsk." Regional
Research of Russia 3.1 (2013): 32-39.
Patai, Daphne. "Ray Bradbury and the assault on free thought." Society 50.1 (2013): 41-47.
Thakur, Rajita, and Dr KV Divya. "Symbolism And The Dystopian Tradition In Ray Bradbury’s
Fahrenheit 451." English Studies International Research Journal 3.2 (2015): 237-241.
Urtubey, Luis A., and Alba Massolo. "Applying CHC Models to Reasoning in Fictions."
International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in
Knowledge-Based Systems. Springer, Cham, 2014.