F451 - Question Four

The protagonist of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag.  He is the clear hero within the novel.  This man, starts out as the burning man, burning important literature taking it away from lives that need it most.  As he becomes this better person and starts to read this literature, searching for his happiness and completeness, Guy Montag begins to preserve these stories.  That is a heroic quality in itself because saving these important artifacts will help the human race in the future.  All the explanations of their lives are found within these books, novels, poems, and plays.  Their life should not be controlled by this government and the laws that they establish.  Montag is established as this rebel by the government, but from Bradbury's point of view, Guy Montag is this hero.  He will save the lives of many.  The people within this society are so unhappy and brainwashed, that they can not even understand why or what caused this unhappiness.  They even deny the fact that they even tried to commit suicide.  They cannot comprehend the meaning behind almost any thoughts or emotions besides the ones provided by the laws.  Montag shows courage and represents the goodness in man. He sacrifices himself to save such important things for the human race.  He did something that Professor Faber could never do.  He stood up for what was right and that is such an important quality to have.


"Well, Montag, take my word for it, I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. they're about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they're fiction. And if they're nonfiction, it's worse, one professor caling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another's gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost (Bradbury 62)." 



This is what the average person would be forced to believe.  Who could live like that?  If they only knew what they were missing they would care enough to change it.  And that was Montag's mission. That is why he is a hero.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print.