Being able to express oneself is a quality that makes a person who they are and determines what role they play in society. In the beginning of the book Montag lacks individual self-expression which is why he is clearly unhappy. Bradbury writes “Nobody listens anymore. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me, I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough it'll make sense” (Bradbury).
People are not happy in this government controlled society, they want a way out and in Fahrenheit 451 Montag is the power of the proletariats that strives to achieve change. He began to open his eyes to change when he meet Clarisse, someone who really began to help Montag see the life he has been living because of her free and independent attitude. She came into Montag’s life and made an immediate impact, as she questioned him about his career and his happiness. She asked Montag “Are you happy?”, he thought it was a stupid question until he got home and processed their conversation. He realizes that he is not happy at all and becomes more self-aware about the pointlessness of his current society. As their conversation carried on Montag realizes that he lives in a world where people only care for themselves. People in his society don’t care about other’s feelings when acting and this can be resembled by the burning of books.
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The lack of freedom of thought is causing the society to fall apart and in order to maintain this freedom, people must prevent government suppression of expression. All people should have the right to be curious, if thoughts were not controlled there would be fewer problems and a stronger society. Individual self-expression is one of the main purposes of Montag’s drive to change his society. From this, Montag began to learn the meaning of caring, as he realized what a terrible place he lived in. Bradbury paints an image for the reader and he lives in nothing more than a futuristic world filled with technology, violence, and mind control. However, this only changes Montag for the better and this is when Montag along with other firemen go to a ladies home because she had books hidden in it. The lady was determined to stay with her books, and was not concerned with the fact that she would burn alive. Montag is shocked with her decision to stay with her books, but concerned with her safety “Montag placed his hand on the women’s elbow. ‘You can come with me’” (Bradbury 39). This can be seen as a turning point for Montag as he starts to take control after realizing the importance of caring for others and their feelings.
It is important to see that people in society are much like books, so in other words books can be seen as a symbol of people. A book has qualities that makes it different, just like a person is different by their own uniqueness. This means that “there must be something in the books, something we can’t imagine, to make a women stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” Montag is seen being controlled by his own curiosity throughout the novel and shows a more rebellious attitude where he faces consequences. The author writes “every fireman sooner or later hits this”(Bradbury 83), they all get curious about books and the meaning to freely express oneself. Even when Montag realizes that his questions against the government can have consequences, he continues to search for answers because he believes that it is the right thing to do for himself and in general the best idea for his entire city. Montag goes against order and begins to secretly hide books taken from fires, as he is building his future with books. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, illustrates the devastating effects on society when freedom Is lost. Montag rebels against his controlling government and goes on the run and finds people who are strong believers in expressing oneself and those who want to change society to its once diverse self. Montag repeats a passage from the Bible “And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Montag memorized this line, and it is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, the fruit on the tree of life represents new beginnings. This is because Montag and his friends have seen the city become destructed and are now starting to rebuild their society from nothing.
Furthermore, the tree that bears fruit can be seen as a symbol of hope which indicates that Montag and his friends will be successful on their journey. Lastly, the healing of nations is suggesting that Montag's society will go through a makeover, taking what has been done in the past away and making a new liberated society. Those who didn’t survive to see the new society didn’t realize the importance of self-expression and died when the bomb hit.
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