TASK: Write a paragraph featuring 1-2 quotations from the novel in response to the prompt.
PROMPT: The ancient philosopher Heraclitus used fire as a symbol for change, which he saw as the only constant in our universe. He wrote, "This world ever was, is, and shall be a Living Fire, which rekindles in measures as it burns away" (Fragment 30). Guy Montag has a similar thought as he flees the city after burning Beatty at the novel's climax: "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" Explain the significance of Montag's revelation. How does this philosophical insight allow Montag to accept his actions and redefine his purpose in life, thus setting up the novel's ending? Pay special attention to Granger's final speech to Montag about human history and the symbol of the Phoenix. Also consider relating Montag's ideas to the death of Clarisse or the final destruction of the city. DUE: Post this assignment by FRIDAY, 7/15 @ 11;59 p.m., unless you arranged an extension with me via email.
119 Comments
7/13/2016 12:08:41 pm
Montag’s revelation occurs as he realizes his life is not “...like a land of dreams” (Bradbury 96) and is more like a “darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight” (Bradbury 96). These words come from the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold and symbolize Montag’s new realization for life. In the beginning of the novel, Montag woke up every day, went to work, and come home with a constant smile on his face - a smile he later realizes was given to him not through pure happiness or contentment but by a structured life chosen for him by society. Clarisse triggered the start of Montag’s development as a character when she showed him a part of him he never knew existed. Part of Montag’s human nature where he can have questions and opinions on life and what it consists of. These questions and opinions lead to Montag revealing new, true emotions and experiences. Montag is now eager to explore the opportunities that life has to offer.
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Brady Lynch
7/13/2016 02:58:36 pm
If the sun burns time (and, thus, burns away the years and the people) and he and the firemen continue to burn, everything will burn. These thoughts lead him to the conclusion that since the sun will not stop burning, he and the firemen must stop. Montag realizes that if he keeps burning things then the world will become a sorrowful place, "...with confused alarms of struggle..." (Bradbury 96). In these lines, Bradbury repeats the word “burning” to communicate the sense of revelation that Montag experiences as he considers this and to subtly suggest that the ex-fireman must now redefine his ingrained conceptions of fire and burning, and, therefore, his identity and purpose.
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Ashleigh Lloyd
7/13/2016 03:02:36 pm
The revelation about new ideas presented in literature that the firefighters burn gives clarity to Montag about the destruction firefighters cause. As he was natant in the river, after escaping his city, Montag discovers that these ideas oppose the way Montag and the society he was surrounded in always believed things were and had to be. Montag's new ideas change society’s meaning of happiness and purpose of life from continuous and repetitive to open minded. At the fire station, the alarm rings and a woman choses to burn with her books. On the truck ride back to the station, Montag feels a sense of emptiness and a sense that life has another purpose than what society is taught to believe. This feeling is like “hunger, as if they must look for something, anything, everything” (Bradbury 41). This feeling grows within Montag and he feels that the burning of books is ruining society. In order for montag to save their society, they “had to stop burning. - Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping” (Bradbury 141). Burning was believed to be Montag’s purpose in life, because it was believed to bring happiness. Through literature, Montag discovers this happiness was just content and satisfaction. His new purpose was to expose the truth to society and let them see the clarity that he has discovered through books about the true meaning of life.
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Christina W.
7/13/2016 05:44:49 pm
Montag revels in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, that everything in life changes similarly to the way he burns books. However, Montag reveals that we as people do change and their lives change as well, but we never forget what we have lived though, what we have done or saw in our lifetime. We remember history by reading, so therefore we never forget past generations either because we read about them. By burning books, Montag revels that he and the firemen are also burning history. How will the next generation remember what happened before they were born if there weren't any books? Through this revelation, Montag realizes that books are extremely important, and in order to help further generations to continue reading and learning about history, Montag must rebuild his life after his city is bombed. He must keep in mind that "that there [is] everything to think about and much to remember" (Bradbury 164). Therefore, he thinks about both the future and the past while trying to rebuild his world. Montag realizes that he must keep in mind that the future generation deserves to know the history of the past and the past deserves to be remembered for years to come and that books deserve to be read, not burned. Montag realizes that helping this occur is his whole purpose in life. In addition, Montag's whole world was burned down from enemy bombs, but he believes his world will be reborn and it will be rebuilt, just like a Phoenix. Montag accepts that there is "a time to break down and a time to build up" (Bradbury 165). Also, he comes to the conclusion that he must move on from his past life, his broken down world, and accept the coming time that the sun has not burned yet, in his life. Over all, Montag accepts that the sun will burn time, but people will not forget the old times, however when he burns books, eventually people will forget the words.
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Brendan Loftus
7/13/2016 07:03:38 pm
On page 141, Guy Montag mused to himself how "the sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" Montag’s revelation about Time let him rise from the ashes of his old life much in the fashion of a phoenix. Montag, like the phoenix, was completely reborn with a new outlook as he escapes the city. Before his realization on the nature of the sun and the relentless march of time, he was a creature that thrived on burning. After his epiphany, he became a force for preservation. Montag burnt himself with his destruction of his old life and emerged radically different, similar to the phoenix, which “every time he burnt himself, he got himself born all over again” (163). But as Granger, the leader of the outcast intellectuals, pointed out, the main difference between Montag (and humanity in general) and the phoenix is that humans “know the damn silly thing we just did” (163). People have the opportunity to reflect and possibly prevent their mistakes from happening again, and it is this that Granger, Montag, and company cling to in the wake of nuclear war.
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Steven White
7/13/2016 07:35:17 pm
Montag knew that the burning must stop somewhere, or at the very least slow, because time and the firemen will burn everything before change can occur. He knew time would never stop burning, and since action needed to be taken against the burning, the solution became obvious. Montag didn’t know any wiser just a few short weeks before, in fact he enjoyed burning. At the beginning of the novel, “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.” (Bradbury 4). Montag used to be proud of his job, he kept the peace, and upheld supposed happiness by unknowingly burning the words and unique ideas contained within books. Suddenly, Clarisse McClellan made him question the happiness and contentedness he believed he had felt; Clarisse made him think there was something more to the world than his regular routine. These thoughts pointed him in the direction of his revelation, that words and ideas must be saved and preserved from the burning so they can be used when needed for the rebirth of society. In order for him to escape his old life and fulfill his newfound purpose, he burns Beatty, symbolizing Montag’s personal rebirth, as well as the new space created for society’s own possible rebirth, just like the Phoenix that Granger mentions in the end of the story. These thoughts of preservation become clear to Montag while traveling down a river after escaping the Hound and the helicopters. Montag says, “Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and the keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people’s heads, any way at all so long as it was safe…” (Bradbury 141). This thought was what helped Montag justify his actions, and allows him to accept himself, as well as push him to continue on the path of his own fulfillment through his newly found purpose.
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Aidan Lyons
7/14/2016 06:58:13 am
As Guy Montag drifts along a river, feelings of freedom and of a great burden lifted from his shoulders, he sees the moon. And in the moon, he sees the sun within the light, and in that sun he cannot see, he sees the constant, perpetual motion of time, the fire that has burned for generations and will burn far longer than Montag. And in this fire, Montag sees that, "One of them would have to stop burning." (65) And time will not stop moving, which leaves people to stop. Beatty remarks on this little fact earlier, when he says, "[Fire is] perpetual motion, the thing man wanted to invent but never did." (52) And when Montag accepts his own humanity, when he realizes that he will die and everyone he has ever known will die, he understands that he must protect the books so those who burn long after him can remember all that burned before them. Montag accepts his role as a fireman once more, but this time he acts as one who puts out the fire, that is, the fire of knowledge.
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Alexa Kirkpatrick
7/14/2016 07:17:42 am
In Fahrenheit 451 the main character, Guy Montag, has a revelation about the world he was living in. He realized whilst floating down the river looking up at the sky that his life before lacked purpose and meaning. “He felt as if he had left a stage behind and many actors.” The stage in a production is an imaginary world, a world where things can be changed to the way people want it to be and the actors are who people wish they could be. He felt that people are just trying to pretend to be who they wanted to be until they become it. He realized that the only way to live a meaningful life was to be different and that is not always a safe option, but it is the way to do something great. He was different he wanted to learn and discuss and not hide everything messy and the people around him disagreed. So as he floats down the river he realized that he now can live a life of meaning and not pretend.
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Morgan Almasy
7/14/2016 07:21:10 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character Guy Montag has a revelation that proves to affect the end of the book majorly. The story takes place in a dystopian world in which firefighters burn books due to the fact that they have been deemed illegal, and people spend their days watching television and ignoring the fact that there are issues to be dealt with and life isn't perfect. Guy Montag meets a girl that makes him realize he's missing out on what life has to offer, and eventually he is caught with books in his possession, so he runs off. The significance of Montag's revelation after leaving the city causes an extreme alteration of his previous mindset and allows him to reach the conclusion that he doesn't have to give in to the way society as a whole wishes him to live; he is free to live the life he chooses. In addition, he realizes part of this wish is to keep things going and alive, rather than burn everything as he did when he had been a firefighter. Shortly before he meets a group of men that confirm his new ideals of how to live, "he knew why he must never burn again in his life. The sun burnt every day. It burnt time...So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141). If Montag has had any fraction inside him that had thought of going back to the firefighters, it has vanished completely at this thought. This idea is the base that allows him to pursue the life he wishes to lead, because all he had to do was make the realization, and that alone would free him from being pinioned by the firefighters and society. Later, following a bombing of the city he'd just run from, Montag began to wonder "how many other cities dead? And here in our country, how many? A hundred, a thousand?" (Bradbury 162). These thoughts can be taken a number of ways, the simplest of ways being Montag actually wondering how many cities have been bombed, however I believe what he really meant was "how many cities are as lifeless as ours?", meaning the city now is just as lifeless as it was before. People had been doing the jobs they were "supposed" to do, and following what was expected of them. No one enjoyed life on a real level of depth, they were simply content with what they settled for. People in the city had not pursued their dreams or stopped to look at the flowers and the life around them, they simply did as they were told and nothing more. Montag wonders to himself how many others are exactly like the one he'd run from, dull and lifeless. With this wonder comes the idea that he doesn't wish to live that way, and he's not required to. At the end of the book, Montag ventures off with the men he's met that spend time memorizing books and poetry in order to keep the literature alive, and he knows he's exactly where he desires to be. In conclusion, Montag's revelation unveils new possibilities for him and allows him the realization that he is free to live life how he chooses, whether he is to preserve things or not.
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Lauren Bonanno
7/14/2016 07:34:19 am
The signifigance of Montag's revelation was to change the way people thought in order for them to accept new and foreign ideas. Clarisse was the person who pushed Montag into believing that burning peoples books wasn't true happiness and that it wasn't making the world a better place. Once Montag came to the realization what books weren't such a horrible thing, he realized that its okay for people to have their own ideas and that knowledge is valuable. This insight allows Montag to accept his actions and redefine his purpose in life because the time when he went around burning books is destroyed. He cannot go back and fix the past when the past is burnt. Montag realized how powerful books might be when he got a call to burn the books at a woman's house. Instead of leaving her books, "the woman on the porch reached out with contempt to them all and struck the kitchen match against the railing" which killed her (Bradbury 40). This made Montag feel almost depressed about his purpose in life. The woman caused Montag to open his eyes to realize that books are doing good things and they contain important stories and beliefs. Towards the end of the novel, Montag meets some guys who have been hiding by the river. One of them named Granger began to read a story about the Phoenix to Montag. He began to tell about the Phoenix and explain that "every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again" (Bradbury 163). The story about the Phoenix opened Montag's eyes ad showed him that he has the ability to change his thoughts and actions and become a better person in the future because his actions in the past have been burnt in time. Montag's morals changed tremendously from the beginning of the novel to the end.
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Julia Schneider
7/14/2016 10:24:29 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, has a revelation about life that is significant to the book in it’s entirety. In the beginning of the book Montag is a fireman who destroys books by burning them. He seems to be happy and content with his life until he meets Clarisse who opens up a whole new world for him. She makes him realize that books aren’t bad and that he wasn’t experiencing true happiness without books, curiosity, and new ideas. This was his first revelation of the novel which made him open his eyes and his mind to read more books. He started to realize that people needed these ideas in their life in order to experience true and pure happiness. He learns that “somewhere the saving and the putting away had to begin again, and someone had to do the saving and the keeping”(Bradbury 141). Instead of burning everything: books, ideas, opinions, curiosity, you should save them so that other people can learn from them and change their way of thinking and their point of view. He also learns that time burns, it burns away moments, people, and memories so you have to save these moments, these people, these memories so they don’t get lost in the midst of your life. Another important part of Montag’s revelation is that he sees that life is not supposed to be all happiness, there needs to be ups and downs, because “to everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up”(Bradbury 165). Life isn’t all butterflies, it’s a mix of butterflies and bees. In order to see the most beautiful butterfly you need to get stung by a bee, because the bee sting is going to make the simplest butterfly seem like the most beautiful butterfly in the world. And if all you ever saw were butterflies you would get bored of them, and they wouldn’t be beautiful anymore. Montag realized this near the end of the novel and went to live with people who memorized books so he would never lose the memories and the butterflies would always stay beautiful.
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Desiree Marshall
7/14/2016 11:24:18 am
Much of Montag's life is lived almost robotically, he doesn't consciously think about what he's doing and that is very prevalent in the beginning of the book. The first few pages describe Montag actually burning a house down, and he doesn't seem aware of his actions, honestly it seems that once he lights a fire, he becomes consumed by it. What really sells the robotic nature of being a fireman in this other world is the fact that after burning a house, he couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. He says that " Later going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away as long as he remembered." (Bradbury 4) This just shows anyone reading that he just went to work everyday and burned books and houses without question. He was in this constant state of burning things, but that cycle is stopped once he begins to think. Clarisse, a teenage girl helps him realize that thinking can prove to be rewarding. She notices detail and beauty in the smallest things and she opens Montag up to that. Before Clarisse, Montag seemed to be happy with his job and his life, but he later finds out that he isn't actually content with his everyday life. Montag realizes that the books he's been burning, weren't meant to be burnt. This revelation occurs over the course of the book, and especially towards the end when he begins to live with the people who memorize books. He finally sees how much books can impact a person. Montag's revelation helps him accept what he has done in the past and move on because he can't go back in time and change things. All he can do is value these people who have books in their heads and try to learn from them. He redefines his purpose in life by ceasing to be the man that burns books, houses, and people. Montag redefines himself and becomes someone that values the words written in the pages of books. In a way Montag is like a phoenix. Just like the phoenix, he continuously burns but is reborn because "every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again." (Bradbury 163) Montag is like the phoenix who got the chance to be reborn this time, but this time he'll learn from his mistakes. Upon hearing the story about the Phoenix, I feel that Montag learned from the Phoenix's mistakes as well. Where the phoenix keep burning over and over again, Montag has come to the conclusion that he will stop the burning.He's not the phoenix, he's better.
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Helayna Ibrahim
7/14/2016 01:16:57 pm
In Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451”, Montag, the main character reveals his realization that the burning of books should be stopped and that he along with the other fireman must stop burning. Montag thinks, "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!"(Bradbury 142) This means that firemen did their job to burn things while the sun also burnt things because that is what the sun does. If nature has it’s way to burn things and firemen contribute to the burning, then eventually, everything will be burnt. Nothing that hasn’t been contaminated will be left. Montag wants to preserve this knowledge of books. Also, In this quote, the development of Montag becomes stronger and more understandable towards the end of the book. Montag realizes that either the firemen or the sun has to stop burning, and surely the sun won’t, so Montag and the other firemen must stop burning in order to achieve a new beginning of life. Montag even questions how important books could actually be, for an old women refused to leave her house with her books in it and ended up dying along with the books in a fire. Montag begins thinking of things that burn ever since he met Clarisse. Clarisse made Montag think- made Montag question himself and the things around him. Clarisse seemed to be the only real person out there to Montag, for she actually saw and heard Montag. She seemed to understand Montag in a way that no one else has. Montag felt alive and not so boring or one dimensional when he crossed paths with Clarisse that dark, cold night. Books made Montag feel the same way, in a sense: alive.
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Charlotte Jansky
7/14/2016 02:19:34 pm
The significance of Montag’s revelation after the city burns in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, is that he realizes his new purpose. Montag realizes that he must help to save and rebuild up things, rather than burn them. He redefines his purpose when he realizes that the world is actually not happy, and is in fact very bland. And, he notices that the knowledge can lead to new ideas and happiness. Montag’s old purpose was to burn the books to prevent the spread of knowledge. This is shown when the firemen burn the women with her books. After this Montag realizes that his old purpose isn’t right, but he hasn’t come up with a new one. After burning the women with her books, “[The firemen] said nothing on the way back to the firehouse. Nobody looked at anyone else”(Bradbury 40). Montag starts to realize that this is not his purpose, and he can’t go on burning things. This insight redefines his purpose as Montag realizes that he should be a preserver and not a destroyer. Towards the end of the book, Montag reflects on his purpose and says, “Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another”(Bradbury 141). Montag comes to terms with the fact that he must be the preserver as his new purpose in life. In conclusion, throughout the book Montag changes his life purpose and relates himself to a Phoenix as he has come out of the ashes with a new purpose and outlook on life.
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7/14/2016 02:47:03 pm
Montag’s revelation about how the world is burning as time passes allows him to discover a whole new purpose in life. As the protagonist, Montag is one of the only characters who questions why society has driven people so far away from emotions, interaction, and curiosity. The books that Montag secretly reads are the keys to his discovery of the flaw in society that no one else seems to see. By indulging in the knowledge that was always hidden from him, Montag discovers that the firemen are destroying the words that built up humanity, therefore destroying everything. The realization that he has done nothing but destroy things allows Montag to break free from this brainwashed society and see more clearly what it means to live. When Montag reads these books and later meets people like Granger along the river, he learns more and more about people and sees how far society has drifted from the way it used to be. Granger tells Montag about the phoenix, a bird that is reborn from its ashes each time it dies. This story helps Montag see how his own fire can be reignited and made better if he looks back on his passed mistakes. The fog has lifted and he can see now how time is "busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him" (Bradbury 141). Now, Montag realizes that humanity should not be burning away at the world because it is already being inevitably burned slowly as time passes. He finds that his purpose in life shouldn't be to destroy things, but to learn and live and create things. Now that Montag has seen more of the world, the ugly and the beautiful and in between, he is ready to stop burning and start preserving the things that are worth living for.
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Grace Winberry
7/14/2016 03:46:22 pm
In Fahrenheit 451, Montag lives his life doing what he is told to do. He is a fireman and as a fireman he must burn books. Montag is oblivious to the true value of these books he is destroying until he meets Clarisse. She opens his eyes to how the creativity and imagination of a person mixed with a good book can lead to many great experiences. He soon learns that books provoke imagination, adventure, and happiness. Farber helps Montag understand why the people hate and fear books, "Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores." (Bradbury 83). Books open up new ideas to their readers and help them understand the logic and beliefs of other people. Montag starts to enjoy things instead of destroy things. His revelation shows that one cannot always trust what they are taught by society but that they must understand and think before they act.
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Amira Ibrahim
7/14/2016 04:03:50 pm
Amira Ibrahim
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Sima Vaidya
7/14/2016 04:51:06 pm
Guy Montag is a man who has lived a simple life where he was never taught the knowledge books have to offer and burned them for a living. He undergoes a revelation about the burning of books and the preservation of knowledge. This started when Montag met Clarisse, who is very curious and has a “different” personality than others her own age. His view on society and his lifestyle drastically changes. Clarisse brings Montag outside of his comfort zone and shows him what the real world has to offer. Later, Montag finds out that Clarisse might be dead and performs his job as a fireman while burning down a house containing a lady with her books. He states, “And Clarisse you never talked to her. I talked to her. And men like Beatty are afraid of her… But I kept putting her alongside the firemen in the House last night, and I suddenly realized I didn’t like them at all, and I didn’t like myself at all anymore” (Bradbury 67). The situation with Clarisse and the burning books makes Montag question society and help him understand that what he was taught about books was wrong. He comes to a conclusion that his job is something that he wants to destroy.
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Mara Campolattaro
7/14/2016 06:14:32 pm
At the end of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the protagonist Montag has a revelation that allows him to rethink his purpose in life. Over the course of the novel, Montag rapidly comes to the realization that his world is not as happy and perfect as it appears to be. The citizens are missing out on so many vital parts of life, but don’t even realize as they’re completely unaware of what’s absent. Montag realizes that he is responsible for the ignorance of those around him because of his life’s purpose; to burn all books in order to keep the masquerade intact. His revelation allows him to block out a new path for his future to help him fulfill his new objective. On page 141, he begins to map out what he needs to do: “One of them had to stop burning...it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago. Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping” (Bradbury 141). Montag is coming to the realization that this purpose is specifically his. He needs to throw away what he thought was his life’s intention and start anew (like the Phoenix mentioned by Granger). His aim is redirected to an alternative path, on which he needs to preserve and save all of the books he would have destroyed previously.
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Ray Forbes
7/14/2016 06:26:37 pm
Before Montag's revelation he lived a normal life. He did not not question anything, After meeting Clarisse his life is changed. When exposed to the idea of thought and knowledge he starts to second guess authority and what he does. He understands that his life is actually not true happiness and is really like a “darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight” (Bradbury 96). He is a fireman and his job is to destroy books but after having a deep connection with books he realizes that his purpose in life is not too burn books anymore. He redefines his purpose in life to making an effort to stop fireman from burning houses and destroying books. This leads to the novel's ending where he goes back to his city after being chased away for killing fireman and helps out after an attack.
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Heather O'Donnell
7/14/2016 06:51:07 pm
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Montag, has a revelation about the massive destruction he and the other firefighters have done to the world by burning books. If they continue to burn books as time passes and the sun continues burning constantly, eventually there will be nothing left but ashes. Burning books isn't just dangerous to the world physically-it also poses potential mental and emotional dangers. Books contain valuable ideas that allow people to come up with their own opinions and questions. Because people are deprived of these ideas, there is no freedom, creativity, or originality in the dystopian world that Montag lives in. Montag used to be content with the world, oblivious to all the hidden problems in it, but meeting a teenage girl named Clarisse ends up changing his life forever; Clarisse teaches him to question the world around him and to conclude that he was never really content, that was just what society told him to be. Because of Clarisse, Montag is determined to preserve ideas for the future instead of destroying them. In doing so, he aspires to change the restricted world he lives in where knowledge and honesty are despised into an entirely different one, where people value knowledge and are free to live their lives the way they choose. Montag meets another intellectual named Granger at the end of the book who values literature as much as Montag is learning to. Granger tells him about a bird called the Phoenix, which "sprang out of the ashes, got himself born all over again" "every time he burnt himself" (Bradbury 163). Montag is like the Phoenix because they both learn from the mistakes they make and come back reborn, but better. All the books Montag burned in the book are huge mistakes, but Clarisse is the spark springing Montag out of the ashes surrounding him. As a result, Montag is reborn with a new outlook on life and an eagerness for change.
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Penny Hill
7/14/2016 08:17:08 pm
While fleeing from the city after killing Captain Beatty, Montag has a revelation which changes his perspective of life and the his true purpose in the world. The significance of Montag's revelation is that he realizes burning books doesn't help anyone. It only furthers the endless process of the sun burning time, time burning people, and people burning the world. By burning books he was only destroying more and more knowledge which could have been used to make the city a better place. After Montag escapes the city by floating down the river, he meets a group of outcast people, including a man named Granger. Granger shares a lot of wisdom with Montag, including what his grandfather once told him, that "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies (Bradbury 156)." This makes Montag reflect on his own life and notice that he and everyone he knew gave nothing to the world and nothing to each other. Montag never "shaped the world (Bradbury 156)" as Granger's grandfather had done with his sculptures, carvings, and jokes. Burning books would never change a thing about the world. Without books, people could never learn from their mistakes and change their ways. This lets humans continue to follow the pattern of the phoenix and how "every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up" then "he got himself born all over again (Bradbury 163)." By this Granger meant that people keep making the same mistakes throughout history. The only thing that can help stop people from doing so is books. Montag realizes that books hold the history, insight, and secerets of the world and it's people. Trying to get rid of books won't erase the problems of our past. It won't destroy genocide or war. It won't clear our conscience. It cannot stop the Phoenix from burning itself again. If people know the truth of their actions and consequences then they can be more aware in the future. While Granger tells Montag that "even when we had books on hand, a long time ago, we didn't use what we got out of them (Bradbury 164)" Montag now knows that in the long run, remembering will change the world for the better. He accepts that he used to be a perpetrator of destruction. He was trapped in a system that was trying to eliminate all the sadness, fear, and anger of the world by burning away all the bad, by burning away the past. Ignoring these problems did could not change the fact that they exist. But Montag realized it wasn't too late to start remembering. He had the ability to save words with the just the power of his mind. He could be the fireman to rescue people from the dangereous flames which had already disentegrated millions of stories. With this new purpose in life, Montag got the chance to give back to the world for all the destruction he had caused. He hopes that if more people keep remembering and passing on knowledge that after the war, his city will rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and be rebuilt.
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Tyler Schwinn
7/14/2016 09:00:52 pm
While floating downstream, Guy Montag has a revelation that changes his motives in life and gives him a different reason to continue to live. Montag notices how the sun "[burns] the years and the people"(Bradbury 141). When Montag says this, he means that as the Earth revolves around the sun. Days and months and years are going by, which means that people are slowly getting closer to "burning up", or dying. Montag realizes that as people will never stop dying, so if firemen never stop destroying history and records in the form of literature, the human race will never see the struggles and lives of the people who came before them. And as a result of this, the people who will live in the future will never be able to see the wrongdoings of the people that came before and be able to learn from their mistakes. Montag comes to the conclusion that if he does not work to help preserve history and information to pass onto future generations, the human race will end up being the same as the phoenix; time and time again they will burn themselves up and destroy themselves, only to forget their destruction and repeat the entire process over again in a few hundred years. With the destruction of the city at the end of the novel, Montag sees that it is his and the other homeless scholar's job to reeducate the next generation, so perhaps the phoenix cycle of destruction can finally come to an end. This thought of Montag's is confirmed when he says, "that's the one I'll save for noon"(Bradbury 165), showing that Montag realizes that it is his job to carry on the misdeeds and the knowledge of the past in order to create and smarter and safer future.
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Hannah Nishiura
7/15/2016 02:56:37 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Guy Montag has a revelation nearing the end of the story. His revelation is his understanding and coming to terms with his actions, and how they negatively affected others throughout his years. Montag realizes that his duties of a fireman is not only to burn books, but to diminish any memories of generations before his. Montag has no realization of what harm he is doing because of the ideas imprinted in his head, which are clarified when Beatty states, "Any man who can take a TV wall apart and put it back together again, and most men can, nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to slide-rule, measure, and equate the universe, which just won't be measured or equated without making man feel lonely." (Bradbury 61) Throughout his life, Montag thought that his actions were the right hing to do for himself and society. Montag meets a girl, Clarisse, and she opens him up to new ideas about his actions and their consequences. It almost is like Montag is in a trance of fake happiness, and just by merely asking if he is truly happy, the vision of Montags perfect life was shattered. Before Clarisse, Montag thought that what he was doing in his life was what the universe intended, but Clarisse quickly showed him that there was more to life than burning books, and living an average life, without true happiness. This revelation occurs throughout the book, and is sparked by Clarisse. Montag's change in thinking is essential to his new path in life, because he learns that he cannot go back in time, and change the fact that he has burnt thousands of books. He realizes that all he can do now is appreciate those who value books, and learn and memorize them himself. He redefines himself by becoming one who appreciates books and spreads knowledge, and grows in both character and wisdom. When learning about the phoenix at the end of the novel, Montag hears, "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like were doing the same thing" (Bradbury 163). Montag's revelation was like a rebirth, and he is the phoenix that can burn himself to the ground, and still come out stronger.
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Sinead Henderson
7/15/2016 06:45:37 am
Montag's revelation in Fahrenheit 451 has a huge impact on the end of the story in a lot of different ways. "Not every man born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy."(Bradbury 58) Montag wasn't happy though. The first couple of pages Montag seems very content with his job as a firemen, he seems to even enjoy it. " It was a pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed."(Bradbury 3) Montag would come home with a smile on his face. It wasn't until Clarisse who saw the beauty in everything when he realized he wasn't happy with what he doing to people. Montag was destroying people's homes, families, and books. Which never seemed like much to him until he started realizing that books were more than just books, they held information of a better life, and better opportunities. When Clarisse died Montag knew this was his chance to stop, and to live life like Clarisse. By the end of the book Montag is completely transformed into a new person who looks at life in a completely new, adventurous, and positive way thanks to Clarisse.
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kayleigh Murray
7/15/2016 08:13:04 am
In the Novel Fahrenheit 451 the significance of Guy Montag’s revelation is that he starts to view the world in a different way. Guy had been a fireman for ten years, he was always told that burning all the books was a happy way of living for everybody. His seventeen-year-old neighbor, Clarisse, had brought his attention to looking at the world in a different way when she had asked him a lot of questions while the met for the first time. Guy had started to second guess his job as the fireman after meeting Clarisse. After starting to think about his purpose in life, he started to think it was not the best fit for him.Within the next twenty four hours Guy got called to a job. During the job Guy had to burn the house down even though the lady refused to leave.Prior to Guy setting the house on fire he had acquired one of the books to hide in his house to see what they were about.The next day Montag was furious he did not want to go to work, he had just burned down a woman and her home and Clarisse got hit by a car, she was important to Guy because she was the only person he would talk to. Guy did not want to go back to work anymore, he had taken off many days after those incidents. “One of them had to stop burning. The sun would not certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago” Montag wanted all of the fireman to stop burning down books, he realized some people were the happiest with their books. All the fireman started to get mad at Montag for not showing up to work anymore.The Captain of the firehouse had showed up to Montag’s house to check on him, Montag because he had books hidden in his house shot the Captain. Montag wanted the fireman to stop burning down books, so he thought if he were to kill the Captain that someone different would take his place and would change the law of burning all books. Montag could not live as a fireman anymore so he had ran away, along with others that did not want books to burn.
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Jack Dee
7/15/2016 08:44:16 am
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the protagonist, Guy Montag, has a revelation that turns his life around. He was a fireman whose job was to burn books and he never really thought anything of it. Throughout the book he begins to piece together the harm he was causing by doing so. He started to realize that he was doing wrong and that "There must be something in books, things [he] can't imagine" (Bradbury 51). Montag starts to realize that he can't just stand by as everything burns. He decides that "Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again" (Bradbury 141). Since everything was burning he wanted to stop burning books so they could be kept safe and knowledge and literature could be passed town through time while everything else "burned". He wanted to start over and spread the idea that books were helpful and expanded the ways people think and helped people gain knowledge. After he left at the end of the book his city was bombed. He saw this as the perfect time to help the city rise from the ashes, like a phoenix, and rebuild a better civilization and change the way people saw books.
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Grace Noglows
7/15/2016 08:48:22 am
In the beginning of the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag loves his job. He does not find anything wrong with it. Montag had “that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered” (Bradbury 4). His job brought him happiness and he thought it brought other people happiness too. He believes that the world is perfect. Montag has a revelation by the end of the book. He realizes that what he is doing is wrong. The men wearing the helmets numbered 451 are making the world worse. Books hold important information. They can teach people many things. Montag meets a girl named Clarisse. She made him realize how good the world could be if there were books. She makes him realize what he is doing wrong. He decides to preserve the books so that people can look at them in the future. In the book, the Phoenix symbolizes Montag turning into a new person. Montag makes the world a better place for the future.
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Jack Davis
7/15/2016 07:17:31 pm
Montag’s revelation of hopelessness shows him that he and the fireman were wrong in their destructive cause. The sun burnt the years away, burnt humans away, and Beatty, Montag and the rest of the firemen were eradicating everything else. This revelation that the world would eventually just become a barren warzone opened Montag’s eyes that he and the crew had to stop carrying out their jobs and let time run its natural course. This puts Montag on a new path with his new duties alongside Granger. Montag wants to do a three-sixty on what he used to do, something that if he had done it earlier the city’s destruction may have been prevented. “Montag only said, ‘We never burned right. . .’” (Bradbury 119). This shows a deep meaning to Montag's discontent in the direction his life was heading.
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Maddie Stout
7/15/2016 09:27:40 am
Towards the end of Fahrenheight 451, Guy Montag has a major revelation that changes the way he thinks about the world. He realizes how his job of being a firemen had done so much damage to society and their ability to gain knowledge. On the other hand, he also finds his purpose in life which is to show everyone the importance of books. The reader will see that in the beginning of the novel, Guy Montag is completely influenced by the government and was taught to think the way he does about books. Then, he met Clarisse whose questions and opinions filled his mind with wonder. For example, Clarisse asked "Do you ever read any of the books you burn?"(Bradbury 5) which fascinated Montag. His curiosity made Montag more open minded about books.Eventually, Montag comes to a point where he is so frustrated and decides that it his destiny to bring books back and let others discover what they should have known before.
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Michael Dandrea
7/15/2016 10:01:18 am
Montag's revelation after leaving the city helps him realize that fire has many forms, and that everything burns. "That small motion, the white and red color, because it meant something different to him. It wasn't burning, it was warming." (Bradbury 143) This quote shows that Montag is not always harmful, but it can be helpful, like providing warmth. Montag also realizes that his place in the world is not as a fireman, but as a person that will help others escape from a fake reality. He needs to help society rebuild from the ashes, much like the story of the phoenix. "We'll pass the books on to our children, by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people." (Bradbury 150) This quote tells the reader that Montag and the scholars realize it will take a while for society to change, and that they are not afraid to ignite the spark of change.
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Katherine Smith
7/15/2016 10:14:42 am
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, set in the 24th century, describes a time when the government banned books and the job of firemen was to set fires to houses where there were books. The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman who examines his life and sets about to change. He sees the world as a living fire, changing constantly. As he flees the burning city after he kills his boss, Beatty, he finds refuge with a group of intellectuals who have been hiding in a settlement along the river and the railroad tracks. Granger, one of the intellectuals, recalls the story of Phoenix: “There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them”. In the end of the story Montag sees himself as rising from the ashes, like Phoenix. He is reborn and ready to begin a new life. His new life may be more like the life of Clarisse, a young character he meets at the beginning of the story. She found happiness in simple pleasures of life.
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Aidan Gilmartin
7/15/2016 10:15:52 am
In "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury the protagonist Montag experiences a revelation while floating down a river away from his old burnt city. The significance of Montag's revelation is that he now knows everything he did in his life before was wrong and now he knows his real purpose in life. He no longer will burn things and he knows more about the details of life from his lost friend Clarisse. Montag says, "One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly."( Bradbury 141). This means that he must stop burning and start keeping because if everything burns than life as it is would be the same. This revelation helps Montag redefine his purpose in life and he can learn from his past to help make his life and the world around him better. Granger in his final talk to Montag says, "But overtime he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again."(Bradbury 163). This means that fire is important to Montag because he knows what it can do and he can find his new purpose in life in remembering books and whats in them not burning them, setting up the end of the novel. Montag's revelation was very significant to Montag finding his new purpose in life and being reborn into a new life without fire.
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Jacob Swartz
7/15/2016 10:20:51 am
In the Novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag the main character started to experience this unknown feeling of confusion about himself and the world around him. The reason why this suspicion transpired is from his neighbor Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse, 17 years old, constantly wondered what the world was like years ago; especially when times were much simpler. Ever since Guy walked home with her in the beginning of the book, he would always think about Clarisse's powerful ideas on a much older and better life. Although Guy wasn't necessarily that close to Clarisse, he knew throughout the novel that he did have a special connection between their thoughts. "Bet I know something you don't, there's dew on the grass in the morning/ If you look up at the sky there's a man in the moon... They walked the rest of the way in silence (Bradbury 9)." After that night and many others that were very similar to this one, it changed Guy's perspective on what he imagined the world to be. It almost was as if he became crazy, but in fact the world around him was already just as crazy in all of the wrong ways. TV families and fireman that only made more fires were only two of the horrible things that destroyed this sugar coated dystopian society that Guy lived in. Guy knew he wanted more from this melancholy life in which he lived, so after meeting Professor Faber, he realized books were the only future of the world and himself.
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Ethan Christensen
7/15/2016 10:24:59 am
In the novel 'Farenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury the main character, Guy Montag has a revelation. Clarisse opens up his mind to the idea of greater knowledge and exploration. Clarisse says to Montag "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." This causes Montag's revelation and makes him start thinking of other things than burning the books. He wants to lean about this new world. He wants to know why someone would die for these things. He enters a new world of knowledge.
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Jackie Prestininzi
7/15/2016 10:30:37 am
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag experiences a revelation that changes himself and the world around him. With the help of Faber, a professor and Clarisse,a young neighbor with an interesting outlook on life, Montag realizes it's time to stop burning books and open all ideas up to society. In their society, many important books are burned because they have ideas that are different to society's beliefs. These new ideas could cause turmoil. Montag accepts his actions of fleeing and keeping the books because he believes that what he is doing is right. Montag also uses the philosophical thoughts of Heraclitus to come at ease with his actions. Heraclitus believed that fire was a symbol for change and for change to happen there needed to be fire. Montag believed that society needed to be changed and by trying to burn down the fire station, and killing Beatty and other fireman fire, that's how the town would change.
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Jordan Campanella
7/15/2016 10:48:54 am
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag has a revelation about the world. Clarisse, his seventeen year old neighbor, exposes him to the idea of thoughts and knowledge. Guy had been a fireman for ten years until he finally starts to realize how much damage they were bringing to society by burning books. He becomes intrigued by the books; he wants to spread the idea that books are important. Montag realizes that if they're burning books and the sun is constantly burning than eventually everything will burn. He decides that "somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping" (Bradbury 141). By the end of the book, Montag has a different perspective of his life. He wants to start preserving things that are meaningful and bring back thoughts and knowledge to the world. The phoenix symbolizes the rebirth of the city from its ashes.
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Page Lootsma
7/15/2016 10:57:04 am
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, fire is a symbol of the ongoing change that occurs in the world. During the climax, Guy Montag, the protagonist of the novel, has this sudden revelation as to what fire represents. Montag realizes “the sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. The world rushed in circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people away, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!” (Bradbury 141). Although this string of thoughts can be difficult for the audience to understand and interpret, in this part of the novel Montag realizes that the world is constantly consumed in the ever-burning fire of the sun. The sun “burning” time signifies the passing of time, and everything consumed by time. Montag comes to understand that so much of the world is “burning” that there is hardly anything salvaged from the flames. And it is his job to exterminate the few things that do somehow manage to escape the fiery grasp of time—books. Therefore, as a result of this realization, Montag discovers that books are one of the few objects that remain untouched by the furnace of time, and this made them essential to protect and keep safe. In essence, this is a “rebirth” for Montag, as he has left behind his former life as a firefighter, and has now accepted the job of protecting and promoting the knowledge contained by the very books he was supposed to destroy. This rebirth directly ties to the metaphor mentioned by Granger at the end of the novel, when Granger compares the cycle of the world as similar to the life and rebirth of a phoenix. Granger jokes that the phoenix “must have been the first cousin of Man… [because] every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again” (Bradbury 163). This is similar to Montag’s rebirth, because just like the phoenix, Montag quite literally burns his past life away. However, when Montag is reborn, he differs from the phoenix in one very important way. Unlike the phoenix, Montag learns from his “past life”, and can use that knowledge to better prepare himself for his rebirth. Granger touches upon this when he states that man “has one… thing the phoenix never had… we know the… silly thing we just did” (Bradbury 163). In the past, Montag committed “silly” or irrational actions as a fireman, but in light of the new knowledge he has uncovered with the help of Faber and Granger, he is better equipped for his new life. This is not only because of the ideas they have shared with him, but also from what he learned from his past mistakes as a fireman. By accepting his past and using the lessons he learned, Montag is able to forgo his past mistakes because rather than looking back at what he has done in regret, Montag instead uses this knowledge to help him advance in his new life.
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Colleen Dougan
7/15/2016 10:57:05 am
The significance of Guy Montag's revelation on his way out of civilization resulted in him realizing that once things are burnt there is room for rebirth and building. By realizing that everything he previously thought was wrong, Montag chooses to persue being happy instead of just being content. When Montag and Clarisse meet, it is the spark that causes the development of Montag exploring the happiness and excitement in the world. Towards the end of the book, Montag reflects on his purpose in life and says, “Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another”(Bradbury 141). When Montag leaves society, it is like he is being reborn. In that moment, he is like the Phoenix that Granger references during his final speech. Montag realizes this when he hears, "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like were doing the same thing" (Bradbury 163). As Montag goes through his revelation, it is like he is reborn just like the Phoenix. Every time he starts over and is reborn, he comes back stronger and wiser.
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Lisa-Marie Smitj
7/15/2016 11:00:08 am
"Fahrenheit 451" is an inspiring story about a man named Guy Montag. Montag goes through a revelation which flips his whole life all around. The significance of this revelation is to show how there are many different people out there and so many different perspectives on life, the books opened that window to new views. Not allowing these people to obtain the knowledge of these books caused them to be closed minded. " 'And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books' "- Montag (Page 49) As Montag says this to his wife he tries to explain how these books are linked to the opinions and minds of other people. He tries to open his wifes mind to the endless possabilities that books can bring to them. Knowing the meaning of these books, contain the knowledge, and seeing how closed minded the people around him are made him accept the actions and emotions he's feeling. He was once like his wife and the people that were considered normal, he walked around with a fake smile, living his fake life, and living without an opinion. The truth helped him realize who he was, these books helped him realize his purpose. Burning these books is changing everything, without these books people are lead to believe everything the society says and are told. " 'But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority' "- Faber (page 104) Fader explains to Montag that people such as Beatty are trying to stop books from opening up the minds of the people and revealing truth.
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Catherine Tierney
7/15/2016 11:10:09 am
In Farenheit 451, fire is a common theme shown throughout much of the novel showing destruction, change, and rebirth. While the damaging fires that caused cataclysmic and apocalyptic advances towards tragedy, it also showed a time for rebirth. Change. Once the fire cools, it riches the soil and prepares it for new growth. Change. The one thing that is a constant throughout the book is change. Change is inevitable and a chance for rebirth, to better ones self and its surroundings. While fleeing the city, Montag realizes that change is a necessity and burning books makes life boring; day-by-day constantly following a routine. Letting people read and explore all possibilities of life is a change Montag believes will better the society he lives in. Granger compares mankind and its ever changing presence to that of the phoenix, when he says, "every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again."(Bradbury 163). Granger and his group have found their purpose to "spring out of the ashes"(163) and spread knowledge through the reading of books. Man is programmed, hopefully, to recognize when he has made a mistake so that eventually he will learn not to repeat it, bettering himself and the world. Granger and his group have given themselves the task of NOT repeating the same mistakes of the past, as seen when Bradbury inputs that, "Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping."(141). They had to fix the mistakes the fireman have created. The amusing thing about man is, we don't realize we have made mistakes until after we have done them. They are almost unavoidable, and consequences from those mistakes can reverberate a lifetime. The best way to teach ones self is to take a good, hard look to see what a person may encompass, for instance, looking in a mirror. Mirrors are a symbol of self-understating, of seeing oneself clearly. They also multiply images, much like reading and memorizing books multiplies the identities and lives of Granger and the others in the group. While the books themselves may be burned and ruined, the stories and memories they encapsulate will forever be with the men that read them to passed on for years. A chance for man to learn, grow, and change.
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Jackie Prestininzi
7/15/2016 12:00:22 pm
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag experiences a revelation that changes himself and the world around him. With the help of Faber, a professor and Clarisse,a young neighbor with an interesting outlook on life, Montag realizes it's time to stop burning books and open all ideas up to society. In their society, many important books are burned because they have ideas that are different to what people believe in. These new ideas caused turmoil. For example Beatty says" Today thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, your allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade journals"(Bradbury 58). Beatty and society believed that the world would be happier if they weren't exposed to new ideas. Montag accepts his actions of fleeing, keeping the books, and killing firemen because he believes that what he is doing is right. Montag also uses the philosophical thoughts of Heraclitus to come at ease with his actions. Heraclitus believed that fire was a symbol for change and for change to happen there needed to be fire. Montag believed that society needed to be changed and by trying to burn down the fire station, killing Beatty and the other firemen, that's how the town would change and open up to new ideas. Montag said on page 85 " Plant the books, turn in the alarm, and see the houses burn, is that what you mean?"(Bradbury 85). Montag felt that to stop the burning of the books he would have to stop whatever was burning the books. Guy Montag left a mark of ashes on the city that will change it forever.
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Bella Ybarra
7/15/2016 12:03:39 pm
The significance of Montag’s revelation explains that yes, maybe we humans can actually do something strong enough to make the sun’s burning counterintuitive. The human race had potential to give back to the earth, and instead of enforcing that skill, they burnt along with the sun, making the burning much faster, as seen in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This philosophical insight allows Montag to realize that life is short, and how it’s a privilege to be alive, therefore the only option is to stop and smell the roses. He should take in all of the scenery and all of the life, just as Clarisse McClellan had said – “I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly” (Bradbury 9). She means that most people and firemen don’t know of the simple beauty in everyday life, nonetheless take advantage of it or enjoy it before it’s all gone and burnt away.
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Lauren Marcolus
7/15/2016 12:16:56 pm
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag's revelation after leaving the city signifies his newfound desire to preserve knowledge and stop burning books. Montag was content with his life as a fireman until a girl named Clarisse showed him the simple joys of nature and reading, making him question everything. Montag comes to realize that he is not happy and his society is restricting and filled with shallow people. After fleeing the city, Montag floats down the river and realizes that the sun burns time and the firemen burn books and "one of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with," (Bradbury 141). Montag realizes time is always wasting away and he must no longer contribute to destroying the past by burning books: he must instead help preserve them and their ideas. After Montag reaches the country and meets Granger, the city is bombed. After the first bombs hit, Montag looks up and sees "the city, instead of the bombs, in the air... rebuilt and unrecognizable, taller than it had ever hoped or strived to be, taller than man had built it, erected in the last grounds of shattered concrete..." (Bradbury 160). Montag's newfound purpose of preserving and sharing knowledge sets up the ending of the novel because Montag realizes he can help to rebuild the city that has been destroyed with new morals and the freedom to read. Throughout the novel Farenheit 451, Guy Montag begins to doubt his way of life and discovers a new purpose: to save the books he had been destroying his entire life.
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Sophie Navarro
7/15/2016 12:49:20 pm
Montag was a regular man in this new dystopian world. His views were to be ignorant of knowledge like everyone because the knowledge brought sadness. The ideal behind burning the books was to take away their knowledge; without the thoughts and ideas, there would be no negative feelings. Montag liked this idea of burning the books. In fact, at the beginning of the book he stated that “it was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). However, when he meets Clarisse, he has a revelation. His revelation is significant since it impacts how his life takes a big turn. The realization influences his actions from then on. He sees that being ignorant to his surroundings is not right. He should learn about the world instead of having a dull life. In the story, Mildred is always in her parlor, ignorant of the other things in the world unless it’s on the screens. However, she is stunned when Montag takes out his hidden stash of books. Right away she wants to burn them all in the incinerator, however Montag wants to read them. Montag doesn’t want to burn anymore. He would rather begin since he made an analogy with himself fire, time, and the sun. One of them had to stop burning, and he took it upon himself to be the one to stop.
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Amy Gardner
7/15/2016 01:09:20 pm
In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag has a revelation as he leaves the city which is important because it allows him to find his new purpose. Throughout the novel, Montag realizes things are wrong in his society. Clarisse is the first person to make Montag question his happiness. She shows him simple things he misses out on. After his first talk with Clarisse, Montag thinks to himself, “Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” (Bradbury 10). He begins to explore the world Clarisse talks about by reading the books he keeps from his work. While listening to Mildred and her friends talk about nonsense he interrupts and reads them a poem called Dover Beach. The women sob and then their sadness turns to anger at the poem about losing faith. This is when Montag learns others do not want to face another possible reality. The story goes on and Montag flees the city. While floating in the river, Montag pieces together all of his revelations to find his new purpose. He thinks to himself, “Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another…” (Bradbury 141). Throughout the book, pieces of a different world reveal themselves to Montag. He knows he needs to change his purpose, but has no idea as to what his new purpose should be. His final revelation in the book allows him to piece together what he has learned in order for him to find his new purpose, which is to save and keep and put away.
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Tamia Waddy
7/15/2016 01:18:14 pm
Fire was used in “Fahrenheit 451” as a symbol of rebirth. As a fireman, Montag’s job was to burn books. By burning books, he was burning knowledge, which people feared. Eventually, he realized that in order to truly live life, something had to change, which prompted him into killing the fire chief Beatty and fleeing the city.While fleeing the city, Guy Montag used fire as a way to say that everything changed with time, and therefore if things were always burning, it meant that things were always changing. Montag’s revelation showed that he realized that change was constant, and that things needed to change in order to get better. This thought is what allowed Montag to accept his actions at the end of the novel as he knew that in order to change society something had to go, and it had to be the firemen. “I suddenly realized that I didn’t like them at all, and that I didn’t like myself at all anymore.And I thought maybe it’d be best if the firemen itself was burned.”(Bradbury, 64) In this quote, Montag shows an understanding that nothing will change with the firemen around. He understood that change couldn’t happen unless the firemen were gone. He did not do this alone, as in the beginning of the book he met a young teenaged girl named Clarisse.”Clarisse’s favorite subject wasn’t herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I’ve really liked.”(Bradbury, 68)Upon just looking at her, he knew Clarisse was different. He went through life not exactly looking at things, but just knowing they were there. Clarisse took time to look at things, and appreciate them, which led to him seeing that books didn’t just into existence. Like Clarisse saw beauty in the most simple of things, he realized that if he actually looked, like Clarisse, that maybe he could see the beauty in books.Somebody had to have the ideas to write the books, and for that it had to be a reason to write them. Thanks to Clarisse, he realized that books weren’t just something to be feared. There was something to be learned from the books, something that people missed. This led him into protecting the books when the firemen(including himself) went to burn it down. Her way of thinking may of also led him into believing that things could be reborn. The Phoenix was also used as an example of this. “He must be cousin to man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.” This was a symbol of rebirth, saying that as long as time kept going, humans could be reborn. It gave a hope for change. It’s clear that the events taking place in “Fahrenheit 451”, changed Montag. The toll it took him led him to deciding that he wanted to experience everything, which set up the ending.
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Aidan Dougherty
7/15/2016 01:19:03 pm
In Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, experiences a revelation while floating away from the city he lived in. As he is floating away from the world in which he is wanted by the government for owning books, a new way of life is introduced in his head. This new concept was inspired by the thoughts and ways of his old neighbor Clarisse who introduced life changing ideas to Guy before she was killed. "One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago." (Bradbury 141) Montag acknowledges the fact that it is up to him to stop burning and guide the ways of life into a way with a clear and important purpose. Montag is, after his city is bombed and destroyed, the only one who can accomplish this job. This idea of renewal is repeated later in the book when Granger compares the human race with a Phoenix: after it burns, it will arise from its ashes. Granger is suggesting that a new way of life will form after the fall of the previous one. "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the phoenix never had." The "one damn thing" was the fact that the human race has the capability to recognize its mistakes and problems in the past, which means after rebirth it will be able to fix those problems and remember to not make those mistakes in the future.
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Sarah Lown
7/15/2016 01:28:29 pm
Guy Montag, protagonist in Fahrenheit 451 realizes life has much more to offer than what he is aware of. Many constants in his life begin to change after meeting a girl named Clarisse. She introduces him to a new side of the world he can view through literature. After his revelation, Montag decides he is done with the life he is living and escapes while the Mechanical Hound chases him to the water. After swimming to a different place, Guy meets fellow people interested in preserving books. Shortly after leaving the town, it goes up in flames due to bombs. Life as he knew was burnt to flames and this was disastrous. On the contrary, this destruction led to new beginnings and a chance for Guy and the others can make a change in their town. Granger said, "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again."(Bradbury 163). This quote truly exemplifies the symbolic meaning of the Pheonix. The city is reborn and because of Montag will thrive with the art of books.
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Dean Hottmann
7/15/2016 01:34:21 pm
Guy Montag's revelation while fleeing the city is significant as it enlightens him to the fact that everything he thought he knew was wrong. Before, Montag's sole purpose in life was to destroy. Through his revelation, he realizes that there are other things important in life. Clarisse is the first person to suggest this idea to him. She says that nobody stops and notices things. Clarisse tells Montag "There's dew on the grass in the morning," (Bradbury 9). Montag stops and wonders whether he actually knew that and feels irritable. This conversation is the first thing that sparks Montag's rebellious behavior and makes him question the world. His realization that there are other important things in life also gives him a new purpose in life. In his revelation he talks about how things are destroyed saying "if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141). After this he then realizes his new purpose. Montag no longer wants to destroy things. He wants to preserve and protect things. Ideas were spread when knowledge was preserved in books. However, when books were outlawed, the ideas and knowledge ceased to flow. Montag wants to go back to that time when things were saved instead of destroyed. He realizes that "One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it had to be Montag," (Bradbury 141). Montag's revelation shows him his new purpose in life of preserving instead of destroying
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Alanah Ramos
7/15/2016 01:35:29 pm
In the novel "Fahrenheit 451," authored by Ray Bradbury, protagonist Guy Montag lives his life as a fireman, one whose occupation is to burn books. Guy lives his life as to the mottoIn this dystopian world, books and writing is outlawed in order to keep civilians content, demanding that "authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters." (Bradbury, 57) Montag lives the repetitive, unquestioning life of any citizen, until a young woman, Clarisse, intrigues him with her individuality, leading him to question his place as a fireman, only fully realizing how wrong his profession is when he and his fellow firemen burn a woman to death after she refuses to leave her books. After this, he begins to hoard and read books, much to his wife's, Mildred's, dismay. Montag continues to differentiate himself and his mindset and becomes increasingly frustrated when he finds his own wife and her friends to be ignorant, as depicted when Mrs. Bowles refers to a poem ("Dover Beach") as "silly words" (Bradbury, 101). Through attempting to open his peers' minds, his attempt to help is reported to the firemen by one of the women and he is confronted by Beatty and firemen that demand that he not only burns his books, but his home entirely as punishment. In turn, Montag burns Beatty, two firemen, and a mechanical hound. While fleeing the city via river, it is then Montag is fully reborn, as if a phoenix. While enveloped in water, he comes to see that no matter the destruction fire brings, it also brings a chance for rebirth. Where something is lost, something can be found. While Montag loses a wife, a home, a job, and a social status, Montag gains a new life. In this life, Guy Montag is not Guy Montag. Guy Montag is "The Book of Ecclesiastes."
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Patrick Sullivan
7/15/2016 01:52:52 pm
The significance of Montag’s revelation is that he is noticing that everything is being thrown away or “burned”. As he notices that time and everything is being thrown away, he wants to stop the burning. For example, when he used to burn houses an old woman didn’t leave her house “the woman stood motionless”(pg.39 Bradbury).After the woman died in the fire, it really spark Montag’s doubtfulness of burning books. As everything was burning away it set up the end of the story. When Montag met Granger he explained the symbol of the phoenix, it set up the ending to the novel. Granger said that the phoenix burnt himself up, just like the humans were burning the books. Granger also said that each time, the phoenix “sprang from the ashes.”(pg163 Bradbury). The way that the phoenix sprung up from the ashes is similar to how Montag will make the world a better place at the end of the story. Therefore, Montag noticed that since everything was burning he had to stop burning books. Since he stopped burning books, when the atomic bomb blew up, he will rise from the ashes and change the world to be a better place.
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Aidan Butler
7/15/2016 02:07:44 pm
In Ray Bradbury's world famous novel "Fahrenheit 451" the character Guy Montag has a revelation that burning books is wrong when he meets a young girl named Clarisse who makes him really think about his life, when he witnesses a woman being burned alive to die with her books, and when he is fleeing the city to get away from authorities. Guy Montag first realizes that he is destroying history and humans intellectual freedom by burning the books when he meets Clarisse late at night on his way home from work. In the story Montag says to Clarisse "You think too many things"(Bradbury 9). This quote tells us a lot about how Guy thought in the beginning of the book. Most people throughout the story feel that people think too much and should just have fun. Montag begins to think more like her when he speaks to her for the first time. The moment that truly made Montag realize how important books are is when he witnessed a woman set herself on fire with the rest of her books so she didn't have to live with out them. Guy truly does not want to go though with this when he says "You're not leaving her here" and "Force her, then"(Bradbury 34). After this incident he realizes that what the fireman are dong isn't actually helping anyone. He has the final revelation at the end of the story when he is leaving the city and finally realizes the fires are actually destroying humanity and it's history. When Guy is walking along the rail road tracks he comes to the revelation that "One of them ad to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly"(Bradbury 141). He now realized that the firemen had to stop burning things because everything was burning because of them. All of these events made Guy Montag aware of the fact that they are destroying human history without knowing it. This is what allowed him t stop burning and stand up to the fireman and the law. The destruction of the city really symbolizes that the fireman burn history which makes everyone forget the past. Thus leading to massive destruction and the rebuilding of society.
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Liam Landree
7/15/2016 02:16:41 pm
Escaping the city, Guy Montag, the protagonist of Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, undergoes a revelation which sculpts him a new purpose in the novel. Montag's revelation signifies his newfound, reinvigorated way of thinking. The ignorant firefighter was part of the endless cycle of burning which society revolved round. His life growing dull, Montag begins to question actions of his duty. This change differs him from those locked in the repeating patterns of society. Pondering in the River he concludes, "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if [he] burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141). The Earth revolves around the sun as time eternally continues; with this process comes the dawn and death of countless generations. The firemen burn books depriving humanity of knowledge, the sole entity that brings life to humanity and prevents the repetition of destruction. Guy becomes conscious of the fact that he was a vital part of the cycle of destruction that will plunge society to its demise and he pledges to do different. Just like the metaphor of the phoenix that Granger discusses, Montag is re-birthed as he now protects books in order to divulge and pass on knowledge whereas prior to revelation Montag participated in the ongoing cycle of burning. Granger recalls, “There was this silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ... every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again” (Bradbury 163). However, Guy and the phoenix differ drastically. The phoenix represents a constant, it succumbs to death with each rebirth. Montag is exempt from this recurring cycle as he learns from his mistakes unlike the phoenix who is locked in the cycle of life and death, grasping no knowledge. Moving forward while accepting and learning from his wrongdoings, Montag veers onto a brighter path as he intends to aid society after experiencing his revelation.
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Jack Povey
7/15/2016 02:24:31 pm
Guy Montag has a revelation after the climax of the book when he burns Beatty. He comes to a conclusion in which he says "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141) Montag's revelation is significant because it ends his old ways in life and it is a new beginning in his way of life.This revelation allows Montag to reevaluate his purpose in because he can now think for himself and put reason behind his actions in life. He comes to a realization about society and life. Montag's revelation relates to the bird Phoenix mentioned by Granger. Granger says "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing" (Bradbury 163). This relates to Montag's revelation because Granger says that the bird burns over and over just like the world and society just like Montag says everything burns. If everything burns then society must burn just like the bird Phoenix. Montag's revelation also goes back to the words spoken to him by Clarisse. She says "I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames." (Bradbury 8). This relates to how society burns and restarts then burns itself again. The way the firemen have changed is just an example of how society changes and burns then does it all over again like the bird Phoenix. The way the firemen go in a circle is example of how time and society burns over and over again. Montag's revelation is a changing point in his life in which he starts to bring reason and thinking into his life.
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Anna Moore
7/15/2016 02:58:07 pm
The rise and fall of humankind is very similar to the life cycle of a phoenix. In the the ending speech of Fahrenheit 451 Granger explains the pattern, he says “But every time he burnt up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself burnt all over again” (Bradbury 163). This explanation makes Montag realize that everything he did was meant to happen because the world must burn before a new world could be rebirthed. Likewise all Montag could do is wait for everything to burn and preserve knowledge from books to carry on for when the new civilization rises. Montag’s new motivation in life is shown when he says, “If not we’ll just have to wait. We’ll pass the books on to our children by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people” (Bradbury 153). Montag is ready for a new culture and eager to ensure it since his home was destroyed by the atomic bombs. This new determination sets up the ending and offers hope to the reader that one day a superior world will replace the old.
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Meghan Murray
7/15/2016 03:15:36 pm
Throughout the story, Fahrenheit 451, Montag is a fireman who burns books every day. One day, he meets Clarisse who changes his outlook on his life. She makes him think about what he is doing each and every day, and soon he realizes that it isn't right. Montag realizes that he is burning knowledge and he doesn't know how to stop it. "Someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another,... Any way at all as long as it was safe, free from moths, silverfish, rust and dry-root, and men with matches (Bradbury 141). This is when he realizes that knowledge is something that has to be protected and he wants to be the one to protect it. The people who he was once taught were crazy and insane, he now realizes are the people that are needed in his world to stop it from being destroyed. This led him to rebel against the firemen and read books. In the end of the book when Montag's house is being burned, he is getting his punishment for reading and it is all because of his realization that books have to be protected.
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John Tuohy
7/15/2016 03:19:32 pm
In the book Farenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the protagnist Guy Montag has a revelation about fire after he murders his boss Beatty. Whilst he is floating along a river, Guy Montag realizes that "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141) In this quote, Montag is currently floating on a river after he has escaped the city. With a price on his head after he murdered Beatty with a flamethrower, Montag flees to the river to wash his scent off of him so the hound cannot track him. Within this revalation, Montag comes to conceive that his past actions where only helping scorch the rest of the earth and humanity. The earth revovles around the sun and time revovles around the montinous tick of the clock, and in a way they both burn things phyiscally and metaphorically. While a clock burns away every second, minute, and hour of a day, the sun burns the land and people on the earth. But Guy Montag, burns knowlege. As a firefighter who burns books for a living, Guy revolves around a cycle like a clockwork orange; on the surface he seems organic but on the inside he is almost like a machine void of much emotion and attach to the various, valuable works he incinarates. That is, until Montag begins to read the very thing he destroys. And as his brain is filled up with volumes of forgotten knowledge, Guy wants to fight the cycle he helped create. A cycle where knowledge is gained, explored, and shared but then censored and abandoned by the public only to be fought for and and taken back again. And in the end Granger, the leader of a rogue group of bibliophiles, exclaims that “There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did." (Bradbury 163) Here Granger makes comparison of the cycle of humanity to that of the phoenix. The phoenix constantly burns himself then is reborn. Humanity follows suite in a similar fashion except they know why they "burnt" themselves. In other words, humanity learns from their mistakes. With this revelation and comapriosn in his head, Montag realizes what he must now do as a "reborn" firefighter. Instead of igniting paper, Guy must ignite the spark to learn. Instead of destroy, he must revearse his intentions and create a new society. With the bombing of the the city towards the end of the book, society in a way has burned itself on a pyre. With a rag tag group of literature addicts with Montag at the helm of the group, it is their mission to rebuild civilization and culture. This way, these men can stop the cycle of destruction and learn from their mistakes. And if this new society can learn from the phoenix and the act of burning, they can build a new educated and humane future that will buirn brighter with succes greater than any kerosane blaze.
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Cristina Persico
7/15/2016 03:30:34 pm
In the novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, the world is not as happy as it seems. Guy Montag is a "fireman", but not a typical fireman. Instead of putting out fires he starts them in order to burn books. He was always taught to hate and destroy books. Until his next door neighbor Clarisse's thoughts give him a revelation on life. She changed his whole perspective on what is important and how books are important to keep in order to spread knowledge and history. Clarisse teaches Montag about thoughts and knowledge and he soon realizes life has much more than what he is aware of. Guy says "somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping" (Bradbury 141). Montage montage revelation is important because it shows how he changed and how he reevaluated his life and really realized what is important. In Grangers ending speech he says "But every time he burnt up he sprang up out of the ashes, he got himself burnt all over again"(Bradbury 163). This relates to Montag revelation because it describes how the bird burns just like Guy says everything burns. When Montag flees the town after realizing the importance of knowledge and history the mass destruction of the town allows everyone else to realize what he did and see a new prospective on life. The rebirth of the society helps them to realize what they did wrong and how to not make that mistake again in the future.
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Shea Grant
7/15/2016 03:39:34 pm
In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character Montag has a sincere revelation on life’s purpose, and how he and the society he lives in directly affect it. Montag realizes that he, as a fireman, has been burning books. Books are humans only record of history, for eventually all who lived in it pass away, and unless someone is paying attention, the entire decade could fade away completely. Montag describes how everything burns: time, the sun, even people. He also speaks about how “one of them had to stop burning” or else all would be lost (141). This revelation helps him recognize that all along he had been destroying information, history, and knowledge instead of preserving it for generations to come. After this intense realization, Montag decides he must live out the rest of his days preserving knowledge and thinking, instead of destroying books and discouraging different thinkers. Without out-of-the-box thinkers, there would no electricity or technology among many other things. Once Montag grasps this concept and declares his new purpose, he runs away from the city and finds people of like-mindedness that support independent thinkers. He then commits to the preservation of knowledge, and thus begins to memorize a classic book, full of different ideology to share with the new generation. Montag sees that once one thing stops burning, not everything must go up in flames. Therefore, the new generation has not been burned, nor has the new city he is making his way to. In the end of the novel, Montag is making his way through the war to find or create new civilization. This is set up directly by the revelation that afflicts Montag. This philosophical insight drives the book in a new direction, and puts a flame out.
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Callie Haytaian
7/15/2016 03:41:27 pm
In the book Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, the main character, has a revelation about life that is important to the entire story. The significance of it was to make people open to unusual ideas that were foreign to them. With the help of Clarise, Montag realizes that books aren't a bad thing. From this realization, he sees that it's important and okay for people to have different views, ideas, and knowledge. He knows that he can't go back to when he burned the books because it's already done. Instead of dwelling on the past, he learns to accept what he did and now help to stop destroying books. On page 83 it says books "show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, pointless, hairless, expressionless." Books were burnt in order to keep all peoples minds the same, bland without imagination. Those who were brave enough to read books had a mind that was exciting and filled with their own ideas. When Montag realized the magic of books, he began to preserve them the best he could and read them himself. At the end of the story, Montag joins a group of people that memorize books so even after they are destroyed they can never loose the the message and story they hold.
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William Watson
7/15/2016 03:59:54 pm
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7/15/2016 04:05:15 pm
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Jack Niesz
7/15/2016 04:21:09 pm
In the book, Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Montag, has a huge change of heart about books. In the beginning of the book, Montag is a firefighter in a futuristic world. In this world, instead of firefighters putting out fires, they light fires on books to burn them. Everyone in this world is obsessed with television and could less about each other. But then Montag meets a girl that lives near him named Clarisse. She seems like she is from another world to him, but she is the same as a person from 2016 would be if they lived in that world. She isn’t obsessed with television and cares about other people. Montag listens to her and is seemingly intrigued by what she has to say. She is surprised that a fireman talks to her regularly, she even states “You’re one of the few who put up with me. That’s why I think it’s so strange that you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow.” As the book goes on, Montag starts to wonder more and more about books. He is very shaken up when a women burned with her books. He says to his boss “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there.” This makes him spread the little knowledge he has on books, to other people. But that starts a whole big riot among everyone, especially the fire department. This makes him kill one of his fellow firefighters, and flee the city. He leaves the city justin time because soon after he left, it was bombed. But Montag doesn’t care one bit.
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Marc Brewer
7/15/2016 04:24:30 pm
Montag’s revelation holds importance in his acceptance of his actions over the past month. He thinks over his life choices and chooses his future while floating in the river. He thinks about how the past ten years have revolved around him destroying knowledge by burning it into oblivion. However he realized he wasn’t the only one burning his surroundings. The sun burnt time and time burnt years and people all the same. Too much burnt, “One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn’t, certainly,”(Bradbury 134) he thought to himself; he realized that his former coworkers would have to stop. Enough burnt on its own without their artificial fire. Time didn’t only burn years and his fellow man, but could also burn the knowledge. Reinvigorated by his new meaning in life “saving and putting away [knowledge] had to begin again… in books, in records, in people's heads, any way at all so long as it was safe from moths, silverfish, rust and dry rot,”(Bradbury 134) The importance of this was that he had redesigned his duty in life to preserve what up until now he was hired to destroy. The question is that will time burn him out of existence before he can save all the knowledge. Because no matter who you are or how important you are everyone eventually runs out of time. Just like that a short month had changed Guy Montag’s whole perception of his society and what his calling is to this world, and how this revelation will change his future.
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Tara Clark
7/15/2016 04:25:32 pm
In the Novel Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag's revelation while fleeing the city is significant because he realizes that for many years of his life he has done wrong to many people. For the longest time, the only thing Montag lived for was annihilating everything that was considered wrong. During his revelation, he came to realize that there are so many other important aspects to life that don’t have to do with destruction. For example, when he met Clarisse he began to look at life in a new way. He began to realize how blind everybody was to what was going on in their world. “When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon…the others would never do that…as he walked, he tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth” (Bradbury 23-24). This shows how Montag has changed because unlike others he would pay attention to his surroundings, and take everything in. To add, earlier on in their conversation Clarisse was talking about how the “rain even tastes good” (Bradbury 21). Montag thought it was so odd, but as he begins to talk to Clarisse more and more you see his behavior changing, and you see how he begins to question the world. In his revelation he talks about how things are destroyed saying "if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141). It is after this when he recognizes his new purpose. Montag no longer wants to destroy things, he wants to protect and save things. Before books were banned, learning and intelligence were passed on from person to person but once books were gone the flow of intelligence and learning came to a stop. Montag wants to go back to a better time. When things were preserved and not destroyed. Montag’s revelation shows that he no longer wants to destroy things for the rest of his life, he wants to help bring everybody back to a better time when there was quality to life, not just destruction.
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Gianna Pallante
7/15/2016 04:57:43 pm
The significance of Montag’s revelation is that time will go on and the sun will continue to blaze, no matter what happens. People have the choice to continue to make mistakes or change their ways for the better. On page 168, Granger, a member of the “the book people”, talks about how a bird called the phoenix used to build a funeral pyre, burn itself, rise from the ashes, and be born new again, repeating the cycle. He says, “And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them.” Granger is explaining that as human beings, many mistakes are made, and people are aware that they aren’t right. If people keep track of their mistakes, and the mistakes people have collectively made throughout history, they can learn from them and prevent them from happening again. Montag realizes the mistakes he has made as a fireman, but chooses to modify his life. He learns from his mistakes in the past and redefines his purpose, as well as himself as a person. He drastically changes his thoughts and ideas on life, changing from a fireman, whose soul purpose is to destroy books and the knowledge that they possess, to a book supporter who is attempting to rebuild civilization for the better. In the end of the book, a fire is ignited to Montag’s city. Although the fire brings the city to an end, but it opens a new beginning. It gives Montag the opportunity to start his life over and change for the better.
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Jack Borkoski
7/15/2016 05:47:51 pm
Guy Montag, the main protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, is faced with many mind provoking challenges. In this twenty-fourth century dystopia, media, censorship and overpopulation has taken over civilization. In this world, books are useless and they are burned by firemen. Guy Montag's job is to burn books and burn down any houses with books inside them. In the beginning of the novel he meets a girl named Clarisse. Her ideas break away from the day to day mindset. She likes to think about the little things people don't usually focus on. People don't know about the past or want to think about the future. Humans are controlled by television, which tell everyone about the present. No one has time to focus on the simpler things in life. Clarisse questions this mind set and gets Guy Montag to start thinking as well. No one in the world ever tries to have emotion, everyone wants to be happy. If people have books and learn new information about other countries, sports or hobbies, it will make people sad and people will become bored. But Guy is intrigued by books. One night at work he is forced to burn a house down. The house is filled with books and one woman. The owner of the house wishes to stay and die with her books. This takes Guy by storm and questions his thinking. He tries talking to his wife about books and that they could be important. His wife just wants to be left alone. This is when he says, "Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" (Bradbury 52). In this dystopia people don't like having arguments or fights or really talking about feelings. Everyone gets everything done by following rules. In the middle of the novel, Guy Montag starts to get tempted by some books. He steals some from other homes and hides them at his house. Because of this, his face is always riddled with guilt. His Fire Chief, Captain Beatty, becomes aware of this and starts to question him. And one day on the job, Guy goes awol. He turns his flamethrower towards Beatty and burns him to a crisp. Guy Montag has now become a wanted man. Soon after, he rushed to a close friend's house to seek aid. His friend told him to take the river to another town. The town would be full of people who want to help. As Montag floats downstream, he has a revelation. Guy has realized that back in his hometown, his purpose was to burn books. Books hold meaning, truth and facts. The people in his town had no purpose. People were ruled by television and censorship. Going down the river he realized why he must never burn. This is when he says, "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!"(Bradbury 141). This is one serious revelation. Guy Montag now wants to preserve books and save things. One day when you die, everything you ever owned doesn't come with you. You need to pass your things on. The novel ends with Montag meeting up with another group of people who like to read books. They read books and after reading, they burn them. They then memorize books and pass those books on down to other people through memory. If Guy Montag never met Clarisse, I don't think he would've started to question his past civilization. At the end of the novel, Montag's old city is burned down. I think this is a way for Guy to leave his old life in the past and ignite his new life in the present.
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Seamus Fields
7/15/2016 05:56:17 pm
During the novel Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, realizes that the world he sees is not the one he actually lives in. He first notices this when Clarisse, his “crazy” neighbor, explains her thoughts about everything to him. Over time she starts to get Montag wondering if his life really is happy at all. Clarisse shows Montag things that he would never think of, clearing his mind to the possibility that the world he sees in not a good one. For example in the book Clarisse says “Have you seen the two- hundred- foot- long billboards in the country beyond the town?”. Montag realizes he hadn’t, leading up to him realizing he misses a lot of things due to the “blindness” everyone has to the real world. When Montag had to burn down a house with books in it, an old lady wouldn’t leave her books and demanded to be burned alive with them. This showed Montag just how important the books were and that made Montag want to see for himself why they were so important, which got him thinking about his life. Another character, Mildred, is Montag’s wife and she is one of the people who are just plain and follows what everyone does. In one scene Montag shows Mildred his secret stash of books and her reaction shows Montag how blind the people in the society are and how blind he used to be. In the book it says “Mildred backed away as if she were suddenly confronted by a pack of mice that had come up out of the floor.” This was Mildred’s reaction to Montag’s book collection, making Montag want to read the books even more and really see what his life was missing. Seeing all this new things, and having it all explained to him, opened up Montag’s eyes to see what was really happening is the world he lived in.
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Matt Izzo
7/15/2016 06:02:08 pm
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag, the main character, works as a fireman, but he doesn't extinguish fires, he starts them. When Guy is in the river, escaping the Hound, he has a realization, "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time... So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141). That's bad because if everything burns, what's left? Guy soon realized that and thought that "one of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago" (Bradbury 141). This is a pretty big problem because Guy would have to change the mindset of billions of people, which alone, as he is at this part of the book, would be impossible.
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Nicholette Glenn
7/15/2016 06:02:13 pm
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Alex Wark
7/15/2016 06:09:29 pm
In the novel Montag had the job to destroy books until he had a connection to the books and wondered why he was destroying the books in the first place. When Montag Refers to the revelation "On either side of the river was a tree of life, which bare tweleve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healings of the nations" (Bradbury 165) The reason why Bradbury put this in the novel was that to symbolize the end and also the rebuilding of the nations like the fruit being yelled very month. So this revelation will help montag redefine what he did and actually find the true mean of his life and that testing the ending of the book.
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Aislinn Butler
7/15/2016 06:11:11 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag has a revelation on page 141 that changes the course of the book. "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury, 141) This quote signifies that Guy realizes that he is burning history by burning books, and that if the sun burns time anyway, then there is no point in burning the one thing that makes time valuable. In the beginning of the book, Clarisse makes Montag realize that he is not happy with his life, and he doesn’t want to believe that burning books is what is making him empty. Clarisse says on page 10 “Are you happy?” and Montag says, “‘Happy! Of all nonsense.’ He stopped laughing.” (Bradbury 10) This quote signifies the start of Montag’s doubt of his happiness. This doubt escalates into belief that burning books are taking away his happiness. His revelation not only restores his happiness, but it showed Montag that the firemen were destroying history by burning the only records of human history. “For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for good.” (Bradbury 152) Granger says this to Montag and it sums up the climax because it is showing Montag how important books are, and when the world is ready, the books that are being kept in their minds can be showed to the world. The end of the book is set up by this revelation because Montag now knows that if the sun burns time, then time will take its course, and everything will eventually burn, without the help of the firemen.
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Morgan Sluka (Cooper)
7/15/2016 06:14:54 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the main character, Guy Montag, starts his time as a fireman and burns books without question. As the story goes on the reader starts to see the revelation that he makes, and shows himself developing into someone who truly wants to change things. Originally a fireman who would burn books, Montag did not think much of burning books, but after meeting Clarisse, someone who starts to open his views and starts a series of events he goes through. When Montag’s views start to open up on the world, and realize that a change needs to happen, he starts despising the very thing he was. In this particular quote he thinks to himself, “I suddenly realized I didn’t like them at all, and I didn’t like myself at all anymore. And I thought maybe it would be best if the firemen themselves were burnt.” This shows a huge change in character, and the turning of events that set up the turning point in the story. The most important part of this novel is when he is fleeing from the city and redefines himself as a character. His goal is to preserve, not to burn and destroy. "One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly."( Bradbury 141). This is a quote from Montag that shows his change and new ideas towards the world going forward. It shows how he wants to keep preserving and stop burning books, knowledge, and ideas with fire. Montag at this point has realized that he needs to be the change and going forward he will have the books to share with the world around him, and make everything different
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Belinda Bohrman
7/15/2016 06:19:08 pm
It is said through ancient philosopher, Heraclitus, that “fire in its advance will judge and convict all things.” (Fragment 65) He thoroughly believed that flames are the one thing that can purify an item in this world. Guy Montag spent nearly his entire life believing this same thing and nothing else almost like a mantra in his mind. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, takes place in the 21st century, but was written in the 1950’s so most of the ideals carry a futuristic aspect, including that fact that a “fireman” actually starts fires instead of putting them out. Montag himself starts out as a fireman as well. What the men believe is that they must burn all the books they can find because they carry too many ideas that could upset people. For instance, Captain Beatty ( Montag’s boss) states, “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator…. Forget them. Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.” (Bradbury 57) So instead of letting people have a mind of their own and letting them feel emotions through literature, the firemen would rather let them maintain a false sense of happiness just so that they may never become upset. Montag slowly begins to “awaken” and realize this. He tries to convince his wife, Mildred, but she is too ensconced in what she thinks her life should be like in front of the television to notice. He once believed that he was “purifying” the books because of the fire, but when he eventually saves a book and reads he learns there is nothing wrong with them at all! This inspires him to save more and more books from the burnings which ultimately leads to his downfall. In an unexpected turn of events, Beatty reveals that Montag’s house will be the next to burn because of the books he saved. Montag, in order to flee and protect his books, turns his flame thrower on the captain and the other firemen, burning them alive, and then flees the city. He eventually gets out and says that he felt free for the first time in his life. All of this because he discovered that fire doesn’t purify an object; it incinerates it.
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Brylin Barnes
7/15/2016 06:24:22 pm
The significance of Montag's revelation is for 10 years he has been destroying something he has been missing by being a fireman. He burns and destroys books and the home of their owners. Books supply thoughts and idea and for some people happiness. But Montag and the rest of the firemen have ruined that for some people. As he becomes closer to his new friend, Clarisse, he looks at his life in a new perspective. Montag soon realizes that books have no danger. Therefore instead of burning the books, he steals them and reads them at home. Montag realizes that he is destroying all of the knowledge and happiness for everyone, including himself. But he is not the only one who is burning, the sun is burning the people and time. After Montag gets caught keeping the books, he leaves and meets up with "the book people". Granger says "long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something like you after you take your hands away." (Bradbury 157) Montag has completely changed the way he thinks about life. The destruction of the city at the end of the book, ends many lives, but it is a fresh start for Montag to redo his life.
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Nicholas Principe
7/15/2016 06:28:56 pm
Guy Montag had one job, to burn books. This act inexplicably kept the people of his city happy. Then Montag began to question his existence when he met a girl named Clarisse. Meeting Clarisse caused Montag to eventually flee his city, and the life he knew. After escaping the city Montag has a revelation which showed him a new purpose in his life. “The sun burnt everyday it burnt time… and time was busy burning the years and people anyway… if he burnt things with the firemen, and the sun burnt time, that meant that everything burnt. One of them had to stop burning. The sun won't certainly, so it looked as it had to be Montag.”(Bradbury, 141) at this point Montag realizes his new purpose in life which allows him to join Granger and his group. Montag also realizes his past actions of burning the books were wrong, but he decided to accept and learn from these past atrocities. He then decides that saving the books is a great way to make up for his past. Choosing to now help save the books from being destroyed did not absolve him of his past wrongdoings, but it was a start at redemption.
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Adeline Monfil
7/15/2016 06:32:32 pm
Guy Montag, the main character of ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ was always told that if he burned books it’d bring him happiness; he was taught that books were useless. He lived his day to day life with this fixed reality until he experienced people and things that tested his boundaries. He eventually comes to the conclusion, with the help of books, that there was more to life than just a fixed routine and humans could experience more by thinking. Montag’s revelation makes him come up with his new purpose; to stop the burning, to help preserve rather than destroy. Montag brings up the fact that, “One of them had to stop burning… Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping…” (Bradbury 141) he knew he had to be apart of something that would help rather than hurt. By burning books, he’d be burning memories and knowledge, he’d be shielding others from their reality.
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Penelope Buchanan
7/15/2016 06:45:26 pm
In the novel “Fahrenheit 451”, Guy Montag has a great revelation. He realizes that every aspect of life is constantly changing. Not one thing stays the same forever. The significance of this revelation is that he now knows that change is inevitable and that without change, life is boring. He spent almost all of his life doing what he thought was the right thing to do, which was being a firefighter and burning books. At the time, Montag did not know what the books contained, so he did not see a problem in his actions. Montag was forced to question the demeanor of his work when the life of a woman was taken by a fire he helped start. As the firefighters tried to get her out of the building, “the woman stood motionless”(Bradbury 39), which lead to her burning to death. His ideas about the fires continue to change as the book goes on. At the end of the book, Granger, the leader of a group of outcast from society, talks to Montag about the phoenix. The phoenix was a bird that “every time he burnt himself up, he sprang out of the ashes”(Bradbury 163). In a way, Montag has much in common with the Phoenix. He used to be a part of the problem, being a firefighter, but he was reborn into a man who wants change. Although the city was burnt down, society is now faced with the opportunity to accept change. That acceptance can lead to many great things. With all these new views on life, Montag is able to accept his past and look to his future, one full of change and growth.
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Murray Elinson
7/15/2016 06:54:54 pm
In the beginning of "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, Montag is very passionate about his job until a girl named Clarisse shows up. She realized things others did not and Guy began to notice many things. Montag's ideas relate to her death because her death was caused by her need for wondering and Montag wants to bring wondering and ideas back into his world but Clarisse paid the price for doing so. He ran into an English Professor who made him realize the corruption in society. Montag's revelation was significant because he was one in a few that understand that destroying literature causes humanity to crumble until they do not question, wonder, or think. This was very important because Montag realized that something had to be done to fix this issue. Montag was told that the reason books are burned is to keep people happy but Montag "kept sitting there saying to [him]self, [he] is not happy"(Bradbury 65). His new understanding of the world allowed him to accept his actions because he knew that it was the right thing to do in order to fix the society where literature does not exist. Montag's new understanding of society made him find a new purpose in which Montag needs to bring back literature and the ideas of literature back in his world. Towards the end of the novel, Montag runs into a man like him named Granger. Granger explains that the human race is like a phoenix in the way that humanity destroys itself but rebuilds and this pattern continues until humans "stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle"(Bradbury 163). Therefore, Montag sees that a change needs to take place and he finds it his duty to fix it.
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John O'Leary
7/15/2016 07:06:32 pm
Guy Montag, the protagonist, dedicated his life to the burning of books as a fireman, blindly following orders. But, during one such alarm, he "accidentally" reads the very thing he's supposed to destroy and begins to have mixed feelings about the life he is leading. He also meets a teenager, Clarisse, who opens him up to the beautiful world around them, she helps change Montag's entire view of the world which also helps him lead to his revelation. Near the climax of the book Montag confides in Faber, who is one of the firemen's targets, and explains "I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense." (Bradbury 89). Montag realizes how much of his life is controlled by forces other than himself which helps cause his revelation. Montag realizes how horrid his job actually was as described by the lines "What did you give to the city, Montag? Ashes." (Bradbury 156). Montag now saw his previous job as a way of annihilating knowledge and now only wanted to preserve it. This is why Montag's revelation is important, because it caused a major change on his views of knowledge and its preservation.
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Sophie Pouso
7/15/2016 07:13:22 pm
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury portrays Guy Montag, a fireman assigned to burn books, having a revelation about the reality of his job and the impact books have on society. A young girl, Clarisse, opens Montag’s eyes about the flawed world he is living in. Society is pushing the fact that change is bad and everyone should be equal and the same.The people are out of touch with reality. Mildred, his wife, lives her life through her television and seashell “listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at fathoms of blackness above her in the ceiling.” (Bradbury 42). Montag recognizes there is more to life than what he sees and does every day. Society has marked intellectual improvements as an unfair advantage. It becomes revealed to Montag that books should not be burned because they hold knowledge that needs to be spread. His purpose in life now is to save books and reveal the knowledge one gains from reading them. In his life, everything is burning. Time is constantly burning and things are changing. Montag connects to the rising phoenix, in which “every time he burnt himself up, he sprang out of the ashes” (Bradbury 163). Montag’s eyes were opened to the injustice he is doing by burning books, which contain valuable information to society. At the end of the novel when the city is blown up, Guy Montag wants to help rebuild and change. Montag’s revelation allowed for him to find a true purpose in life of saving important literature and questioning the way one carries out their life.
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Craig Scharmannn
7/15/2016 07:31:37 pm
In the novel, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, the main character Guy Montag is a fireman who's only job is to start and maintain fires. During the events leading up to the climax, Montag begins to question his way of life. For ten years, he never once challenged the pleasure that came from watching books burn up before him. All this changed after he met Clarisse, a very down to earth girl, who ultimately showed him the emptiness in life. After suffering from many disturbing events including Clarisse's questionable death, guy feels a sudden form of emptiness that he can't quite put his finger on. For example, guy states, "We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I'd burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.(Bradbury 82)"This shows how guy's opinion of books change drastically. Ultimately, by acknowledging books to be worthy as a whole, it makes Montag accept his action and redefine his purpose in life when he commits to this new lifestyle of appreciating books. With Montag's newly found lifestyle, fleeing the city and connecting with his new group becomes much easier. Ultimately, with the enemy jets obliterating the city, it provides Guy with an opportunity to find survivors and start a new way of life, which includes books within the culture.
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Hailey Chace
7/15/2016 07:33:58 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the protagonist is Guy Montag. Montag's revelation is that the world is burning as time is passing and that books are not a flaw in society. Montag believes that books will help his society and that they are the key to improving society. Montag thinks the phoenix is a symbol of his society, because it rebirths itself, like Montag's society. However, this time Montag's society has been rebirthed into a society where books are bad. "But every time [the phoenix] burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them.” (Bradbury 163). This shows that without books people will not know all the silly things they have done. Furthermore, people will not be able to move past all the silly things society has already done or messed up. Montag believes books help help his society move past these silly things and move on to greater things. Overall, Montag's revelation is knowing that books are the key to a more successful future.
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Summer Smith
7/15/2016 07:44:25 pm
In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury the main character, Guy Montag, has a revelation. His revelation is that he should start save books, not burn them. He realizes that books are very important and should be saved and kept safe. The significance of Montags revelation, after he flees the city, is to keep books safe from getting burned. He realizes that books are an important part of society and need to be saved. Montag changes throughout the book. In the beginning he did what he thought was right, and that was burning books. But then he came to a revelation that burning books was wrong. He begins to realize that burning books is wrong he and his fellow firefighters had to burn a women alive, in order to burn her books. After that incident Montag questions his actions. He begins to wonder why he has to burn the books, and realizes that they are important. After realizing that burning books is wrong, Montag changed his purpose in life. His new purpose is to save books and teach people how significant they are. After Montag flees the city, he starts his life over and changes his life purpose. This leads to the ending of the book, which is the city burning down. The city burning represents a new start, just like Montags life.
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Gillian Andresen
7/15/2016 07:55:41 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 we are faced with a main character, Guy Montag, who must burn books because he is a fireman, a man who starts fires to destroy books. As Montag escapes the city where he was once a fireman he has a subconscious revelation, “The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time . . . Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt” (Bradbury 141). His revelation is of the sun and how it burns years and people and so the firemen should stop burning. His entire identity and purpose are destroyed, for he was a fireman and discovered everything wrong with that occupation.
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Julia Rousseau
7/15/2016 08:02:25 pm
In the novel “Fahrenheit 451” Guy Montag has a very significant revelation. He realized that time is always burning away and he does not want to contribute to the destruction of literature anymore. Montag begins to embrace the knowledge and save ideas. He was not content with his life without intellect, it was restricting and boring. After fleeing the city, Montag floats down the river and realizes that the sun is burning time and the firemen burn books and "one of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with," (Bradbury 141). His new purpose will be to memorize books and teach them and help others. This sets up the ending of the book because Montag realizes he can rebuild the city from its ashes; the city can be reborn better to accept knowledge and literature.
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Emily Rothberg
7/15/2016 08:19:40 pm
"The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury 141) Montag spent his life burning, thinking of it as a fight. But now as he cleanses himself in the river, sheds the charred skin of his old life and is reborn into a new one he is rejecting the thought process and reverence of his old world he comes to the realization everything is already burning without him - nature needs no help. All this time he viewed firemen burning books as a necessary, adding some sort of value to the world by providing something to the universe that it couldn’t provide on its own - but the sun burnt time needing no help at all. Even his own life to this point was burnt away by waste - ‘all he gave to the world is ashes’. All this time thinking he was doing the burning that mattered turned out to be a lie, his years were burned away by his destructive and oblivious obedience to the state. “...They'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving.” (Bradbury 61) Montag was moving as he burned but he wasn't going anywhere, his life and his society had no direction. But now he has come to the revelation that the Universe does all the burning it needs by itself. And if both him and the Universe are burning then one of them needs to stop; “The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen, and the sun burnt Time, that meant.that everything burned! One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago.” (Bradbury 141) Montag is now aware that his decision to quit being a fireman and quit burning and start saving are justified. If he is better the world he lives in they must stop the endless cycle of the Phoenix, the pointless destruction and rebirth that is the practice of this society.They were just living day to day, nothing ever changed no matter how many times the world was reborn. Instead of simply rising from the ashes Montag realizes they need to stop burning and need to start remembering and saving, and writing it down and making sure it sticks around, and is not eaten by moths. And they must learn from their mistakes. Granger makes note of this as he speaks to Montag, saying “...Every time [the Phoenix] burnt himself up...he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them.” (Bradbury 163) Rebirth will always be a constant but people need to learn of previous mistakes and better the world from them. The ashes that Montag gave the world will be the nest from which he is reborn. He is reborn to remember, to know that burning is no longer something he needs to provide the world, the world does enough of its own burning. The sun burning time, the stars “great processions of wheeling fire” There is enough death and destruction and waste without him. He now finds joy and fulfilment in the remembering, even looking forward to remembering a passage from the bible “‘Yes,’ thought Montag, ‘that's the one I'll save for noon. For noon…’” (Bradbury 165)
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Luis Flores
7/15/2016 08:34:43 pm
The story of "Fahrenheit 451" revolves around a fireman names Guy Montag. His job is to start fires that burn illegally owned books and the houses they are hidden in. Montag lives a swell life until he begins to question why the burning of books came to be. This curiosity sparks a thought in his mind causing him to hide books and read them to find an answer. During the climax of the story, Montag finds out exactly why the firemen burnt books. Montag states, "The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!"(Bradbury 141). The books held meanings which some people did not agree with. And because books are everlasting they would never be burnt out with time. Montag realizes the firemen burn the books because the sun can't. With the books around making people unsatisfied with its meaning there would be no "peace". This is important as it is the reason the firemen burn the books to begin with. The country they live in wants peace, despite its constant involvement in war. Montag accepts that he had burnt books but, now knows he should write them instead. He is able to learn from his mistake due to remembrance. As Montag, Granger and friends were frying a piece of bacon, Granger comes out with the relation between a Phoenix and Man. He says the Phoenix always built a pyre up only to burn itself back down. He calls the Phoenix a cousin to Man as we do the same but, we have something the Phoenix does not. Granger states," We know the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we'll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them"(Bradbury 163). What Granger is saying is eventually Man will stop burning the books and just continue to write them. This in turn helps Montag realize he should begin to remember the books to begin printing them out again.
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Cristo Luna
7/15/2016 08:36:01 pm
Montag has been a fireman for ten years and he enjoyed what he worked as but when Montag notices all the knowledge lost from burning all that paper, he questions a part of his life and wants to find a new way to live, encounter, and preserve life. The whole time he thought he was happy but all he really was doing was waking up, wait for an alarm to burn books, go back to watching tv, and wait for another alarm. When he realized what was going on after professor told him about a future he knew what he had to do. As Montag travels more he starts learning more things and feels different. “He felt he had left a stage behind and many actors. He felt as if he had left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts.” Montag notices that the destruction of the city and lives lost was probably a very sad moment but was necessary for growth and development but for that to happen it had to be destroyed to be rebuilt. Almost as saying in order to learn, one must surmount to fear. Now that Montag has discovered the truth he can finally live free and normal and not in a pretend world.
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Sophia Morales
7/15/2016 08:37:41 pm
In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 Montag discovers that he is not truly happy in the futuristic world that he is living in where people believe in routine and order. They rely on this for happiness because there is no deep meaning in their lives. Since there is no room for new ideas people like Montag who is a firefighter must burn down books. With the help of a girl named Clarisse and some books he realizes that everybody has a purpose. He also realizes everything burns, but the burning lead to a rebirth of new ideas and thoughts. Montags' revelations led him to accept his actions of burning down the city because he realized that a fire causes burning and destruction, but it also means room for new ideas to grow and be discovered. This realization occurred when Granger explained what a phoenix was and its power. "But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes , he got himself born all over again" (Bradbury 163). Although Montag knew he had to take action to change the city this reassured him that the only answer was to burn down the city because just like a phoenix when the city rises from its ashes people will not know of the old ideas;the ideas of routine and having no purpose in life. Montag knew it was no way to live because people deserved true happiness and a chance to find their own personal purpose. That is why when he burned the city down he did not regret it afterwards for he knew his actions were justified and correct.
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Jack Farello
7/15/2016 08:41:09 pm
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Wyatt Knowlton
7/15/2016 08:51:50 pm
Montag's revelation, spurred by Clarisse's open-mindedness throughout the story, was instrumental in his understanding of life and purpose. Living a doctored life of false happiness and lies, Montag had no motive to question whether or not he was actually fulfilling his life. That was until Clarisse asked him a simple, yet important question. Was he happy? Out of instinct Montag replied with a yes, but pondered the question and realized he wasn't. With this and began to question. His questioning and skepticism caused his revelation. He understood that if he continued to burn books, the knowledge contained within them would be lost to history, so it was important that he would now work to preserve history, rather than destroy it. He had found his purpose, which was to pass on the stories of the past, to the generations of the future.
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Quinn Moore
7/15/2016 08:57:02 pm
Guy Montag lives within a futuristic society where the world around him is invested in technology and sees books of any kind as a crime. In the story Bradbury illustrates to the reader Montag's revaluation from first being a fireman who eliminates books to wanting to help make a change to open people's eyes to the true beauty of reading. Montag's revaluation began when he stands up to society and burns Beatty. After this Guy in a way forgives himself for what he had done while being a fire fighter and supporting the corrupt society by the words of "So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!". These words explain if he didn't stop participating in the burning of books a change would never occur, so this lead to his new purpose in life which was to save the books. After finding his new purpose he then ventured off to find the a group where they strived to bring back the love of books. This led to the ending of the story where the group of book lovers were tardily bombed.
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Shealyn Russell
7/15/2016 08:59:50 pm
In the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury the main character, Guy Montag, spent 10 years of his life setting books on fire. Throughout the book the phoenix is mentioned multiple times. Near the end of the book Granger states “There was a silly damn bird called the phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to man. But every time he burnt himself up, he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday will make the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation.” Montag throughout the book has changed from the guy who liked to start fires into a guys that doesn’t create them. Just like the phoenix does, it recreates itself to start again. And that’s what Montag did, he “burnt” himself and then “sprang” out of the ashes.
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Brigid Clanton-Calnan
7/15/2016 09:00:29 pm
The significance of Montag’s revelation is that even though we think we know everything we still have much to learn. With the burning of time and literature day after day any you shouldn't wait any time. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury everyone goes by a motto “Fire is bright fire is clean.”(Bradbury 57) Montag really just knew one thing until Clarece told him about the things that she had been thinking, how books and literature are good. Captin Betty of the fire squad said, ‘Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator…. Forget them. Burn all, burn everything.” (Bradbury 57) People didnt believe that books were good for anyone. Montag thought differently and went out to the world on his own to learn more about books and literature.
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Trinity McQuillan
7/15/2016 09:00:39 pm
Guy Montag, the protagonist in Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, always believed that he had one purpose in life until he realizes the truth of burning. During the novel Guy meets a couple people, Clarisse and Professor Faber, that start to change his view of the world. Clarisse shows him his right to choose and Faber teaches him about the value and power of books. His revelation was beginning before he started to change: "He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other." (Bradbury 24). At the end of his second conversation with Clarisse he began to feel himself divide into a curious half that wants to preserve books and a fireman whose only goal is to burn them. With the help of Clarisse and Faber he embraces his more intellectual side until he reaches his revelation: he cannot burn everything away, he needs to preserve what he has before it changes. "So if he burnt things with the fireman and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt! One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago." (Bradbury 141). Guy understands his new purpose in life and he was able to choose it for himself. He is also able to live it out with others that have come to the same conclusion.
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Lily Peña
7/15/2016 09:04:48 pm
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Kady Aguilar
7/16/2016 01:26:17 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag has a revelation that changes the course of the book."The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" (Bradbury, 141) This quote shows meaning on how Guy, realized that when he is burning books, he is also erasing history.
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Mia Conti
7/16/2016 01:32:51 pm
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag's perspective on burning books changes after meeting two important characters, Clarisse and Faber. Guy Montag's revelation is about how he shouldn't be burning books because they have sentimental meaning behind each book. He realizes that these books open up a truth about the world he is living in. This Utopia Guy thinks he is living in is completely different, and his revelation is all about figuring it out. When Guy flees, he decides to start over his life and create a new purpose for his life, and show other how important books are. To conclude, Guy Montag learns and realizes and new meaning to life and creates a new life with others who feel the same way he does.
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Salvatore Valente
7/17/2016 06:07:27 pm
In the book " Fahrenheit 451" Guy Montag is proud fireman. He loves to burn all books with gains a great joy from it. He thinks he is truly happy. Yet after meeting a young girl named Clarisse McClellan he begins to question if he is truly happy. Montag soon finds himself holding books to fix his life and teaming up with a well known reader to bring down the firemen he used to call friends. Though out his entire journey Montag is questioning all his decisions saying "Montag, your really stupid. Where do we go from here?" (Bradbury 74). Through all his doubt Montag is able to find clarity once pushed to far. Montag's captain Beatty forces Montag to begin burning his own house but instead of burning the house Montag turns to Beatty and burns him alive with a single moment of clarity. Montag realized that everything was always burning and there was no stopping the burning. This idea gave him the ability to forgive himself and move on after his acts. Later after escaping the hound Montag met with other run aways who were once famed professors. As the bombs fell and set the world ablaze one of the old professors told the story of the phoenix. Through the story and Montag's realization Montag finds his new propose of being one left to rebuild society. Create something better than before. Montag's revelation from this point shows how he has forgotten his own importance to now focus on the greater good. This is so important because of how self important others in the story hold themselves to be. Most often when terrible things happen to others characters in the story would often shrug it off as at least it wasn't me. With this former society crumbling Montag understands that the needs of the many outlay the needs of the few.
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Claire Lynch
7/18/2016 01:55:08 pm
Montag's revelation was inspired by a character named Clarisee. In the beginning of the novel Montag thought that all books had to be burnt, because that's what everyone else thought and did. He meets a young girl named Clarisse who makes him question things he had never thought about before, like what was in the books. He steals a book from a house where him and the other firefighters burnt down. It makes him change his entire perspective of books. He wants to read them and he wants the rest of the world to be able to read them also. The final destruction of the city represents the place where books weren't allowed being abolished and a place where books are welcomed is being built. A quote from the book that represents this is, "To everything there is a season. Yes a time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak," (Bradbury 165)
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Richard Bakalian
7/18/2016 03:27:03 pm
Guy Montag is an average man doing his job. Montag hadn't thought once about his effect on the world. Montag had never realized what the government was trying to do. Every day Montag watched fire tear through and destroy books. He would then come home to his wife who would be swallowing pill after pill. He was then given a great awakening by a girl named Clarisse, who is supremely different. She even stated " I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look and listen to them" Bradbury (31). While Montag is preparing to burn another house full of books, the woman living in the house refused to leave her books and after the house had been drenched in kerosene the woman standing with her books drew a kitchen match before the firemen could spark the fire, and the woman burned with her books. This to me, was the major turning point in the book. This event played a major part in Montag's revelation. In this place fire is the way change is taking place. Change is always present and it happens in many ways. When things are put through fire, they are changed, thus explaining the analogy made by Heraclitus. When a log is put through fire it becomes carbon and ash. When fire hits books, ideas are lost. People like Clarisse have ideas, and those people die, as we saw. These things showed Montag what he needed to do.
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Theresa Decker
7/18/2016 06:55:38 pm
In the novel "Fahrenheit 451" Montag lives in a world where being individual and intellectual is frowned upon. Books are burned, and people are taught to never disagree. Montag is a fireman, except these fireman are much different from todays fireman. Montag's job is not to put out fires, but to start them. He burns books for a living. Montag is living a content "happy" life until he meets this 17 year old girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is very different from the average girl. She was intellectual. Montag described her as "smarter than my wife." She watches things. She doesn't watch tv but she watches her surroundings and nature, and takes life in. She inspires Montag and makes him think deeper and differently. He starts to question the burning of books. Also a lady whose house is getting burnt down burns herself with the books. Montag says "There must be something in books, something we can't imagine to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." After that experience Montag starts to re-evaluate his life. He becomes interested in books, and becoming intellectual. People, like his boss Beatty try to stop him, but he rebels. His wife turns him in and his book collection, but Montag won't burn his books. He runs away to a group of other book lovers and lives the life he wants. He gains more purpose of living by rebelling. He choses to be unique and read books rather then live a "perfect', "happy" life the society tries to set up for every person.
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MichaeL Gilson
7/18/2016 10:04:49 pm
In Fahrenheit 451 Montag is a fireman that does exactly the opposite of what firemen do. He starts fires instead of putting them out. He meets up with Faber, a retired English professor. He teaches him the importance of books. A young girl named Clarisse brings up the importance of books to him. She states "I'm seventeen and i'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane." They need more people like this who have creative ideas and think on there own. Montag sees this and decides to help out the community to get people to read. He risks a ton by floating down a river to meet the intellectuals and create a new civilization
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Gavin Mahoney
7/19/2016 12:49:14 pm
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a fireman, who has been setting books on fire for reasons he did not understand. However, he still burned the books. When a retired English teacher, Faber, teaches him the importance of books, Guy Montag realizes that what he and the fireman do is wrong, because it prevents the people from gaining knowledge. Because of this, he starts a movement to get the people to read books.
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Allie Cohen
7/21/2016 11:38:15 am
Montag's revelation is the change in his beliefs, and the actions he takes amongst those changed views. To begin with, Montag is an ordinary fireman. The duty of the fireman in Fahrenheit 451, however, is different from a present day fireman. Montag grew up in a society where burning books was explicitly their only duty as a fireman. Books, and literature in general, was considered a crime due to the fact that the knowledge that these works provided were considered a "threat." To this, Montag saw it as an acceptable thing, because that was what he was taught. However, his point of view began to shift when he met a girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is a nearby neighbor who is labeled as psychopath in their society. Montag, knowing of her reputation, still took the time to talk to her out of his own curiosity about her views. He found himself, as he talked her more, questioning the lifestyle created for him by society. One of the first significant events where Montag begins to question everything, is when Clarisse says, "rain even tastes good," ( Bradbury, 51), and he refused to try it, but later on, "tilted his head back in the rain, for just a few moments, and opened his mouth." (Bradbury, 54). The significance of this quote is that it proves Montag has opened his eyes to other possibilities as he tried something he was once unwilling to try. Also, as Montag begins to breakthrough the barriers of his rigid ways, he becomes curious on whether the job of a fireman was beneficial or detrimental. Montag said to Stoneman and Black, "Didn't men prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?" (Bradbury 64). The firemen then showed him a firemen's rule book and looked at him like he was crazy. As the book continues on, the flaws of society become more transparent to him, causing him to take action by leaving the city and going out into the unknown. As he left the city, he became more and more determined to change the ways of society elsewhere, causing him to ultimately to burn down the city. Through burning down the city, he rebirthed new possibilities for a better life in the future.
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Donovan Turner
7/23/2016 06:49:27 pm
Montag's revelation was that he realized what he was doing was very wrong. Montag was a Fireman. The job of Firemen is to burn books outlawed by the government. Unlike his coworkers, Montag is not completely controlled by the system. Montag has books hidden in his house and when he meets Clarisse, she opens his eyes to the world around him. She makes him realize the things he is missing. When she tells him the rain tastes good, he does not immediately try it, but later he tilts his head back to catch the rain drops. After Clarisse opens his eyes, Montag begins to question the things he is accustomed too. At work, he asks two of his coworkers if there was ever a time where Firemen faught fires, not started them. They hand him a rule book that says the profession was started in 1790 by Ben Franklin. Their job was to burn English influenced books. As the story progresses, it becomes clear to Montag that things are not how they should be. He knew he had to do something to try and improve society. This is how Granger tells him about the Phoenix because the Phoenix burns itself and is then reborn. Through metaphorically burning the city, Montag lets there be a possibility of things changing.
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Abby Marascio
8/25/2016 08:45:56 am
In the book Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag lives in a society where where the world around him is all about technology only and sees any type of book as a crime. But, with the help of Clarise, Montag starts to realize that book are not a bad thing. This realization of his helps him open his eyes to see that people can have different opinions, ideas and knowledge and that is okay. In the book it says that books "show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, pointless, hairless, expressionless" (page 83). Montag decides to move on from his passed of trying to destroy all the books and works on keeping them. As soon as Montag realized the meaning and significance of books he did his best to keep them and read them all because in this society, everyone else has the same, bland minds and reading books made people have minds filled with imaginations and excitement.
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Erin R
8/25/2016 09:40:22 am
Fire is something that most of the time we can control. However, there are fires that we can’t control. Our world is a fire and will always be burning, according to Heraclitus. That fire is uncontrollable. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a firefighter that sets fires to books to keep the people happy. Beatty was explaining that if a certain group doesn’t like one book, “burn the book” (Bradbury 59). If they burn the book, people can’t be upset about it and therefore the people are happy. That is the role of firefighters. However, Montag realizes that this isn’t right. He realizes that the sun burns everyday and it burns time so if the sun was burning, and the firefighters were burning, one of them was going to have to stop or else everything would burn. He knows the sun won’t stop burning so that leaves them with no choice but to stop burning. Montag believed that his purpose in life was to burn things and keep people happy. However, on a ride back from one call, he felt empty and he realized that what he is doing isn’t right; burning knowledge and burning creativity. Their society now is so empty because all people do is sit in their parlors and stare at a wall sized screen or zone out while listening to their seashells. Montag thinks to himself, “How do you get so empty?” (Bradbury 44). Later on in the book, after he burned Beatty, escaped the Hound and the police, and made it to the railroads, he realizes that it’s not burning things that he lives to do, it’s to rebuild society the way it was meant to be: creatively, uniquely, and filled with profound thought. After the bomb was dropped on the city, Montag, Granger, Mr. Simmons, and other literary people set out to expose the truth of books and knowledge and help rebuild the city. The city is like a phoenix. With the help of those that remember some parts of their books and can help everyone find meaning, the city will leap from the ashes to become a beautiful and aspiring city just like it was before all the parlors and numb-minded people that occupied it for years. That is what his new purpose in life is, one that is fulfilling and meaningful; he must reverse the damage he’s done to make the world a better place.
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Jazmine Marshall
8/25/2016 04:41:26 pm
In the book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury Montag's revelation was inspired by a character named Clarisee. In the beginning of the book Montag believed that all the books had to be burnt, because that's what he believed was the right thing to do and everyone else thought it was the right thing to do because thats what the norm was. When he meets Clarisse he begins to question things he had never questioned before; why was every one so against books? He then decides to steal a book from a house that him and the other firefighters were going to burn down. After this, his entire perspective of books, and life in general was forever changed. Now, he wants to read them, and show the rest of the world how amazing the life of books are. "one of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with," (Bradbury 141).
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Isaiah Campos
8/26/2016 06:17:07 pm
As said throughout the novel, Guy Montag has to face many situations. He use to burn books as a fireman for a guy named Beatty, his prior chief. Doing so,he forgot his purpose in life. Montag is just like a phoenix, a phoenix comes from the ashes reborn as a new figure. Right after Montag found out his real purpose in life, he started to realize his main goal, to stop the firemen on burning more books. That’s why throughout the book, he gives up on being a fireman and tries to save the books he care so much about because if he kept on doing what he was doing, the world will be a dreadful place, "...with confused alarms of struggle..." (Bradbury 96). That’s why books are really important to have.
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Joseph Campos
8/26/2016 06:26:28 pm
“The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. [And] Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him.” Throughout the novel Montag realizes that while time passes, the firemen will continue to burn more and more books. Montag needed to stop the firemen from destroying the remaining books, this way the world would not be a distressing place.“Darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight” (Bradbury 96). This quote from the book connects to Montag's revelation, in the beginning of the novel Montag woke up every day and went to work. He later realizes that he doesn’t enjoy working as a fireman and his job doesn’t bring happiness to him or to people. People are scared of these firemen since they are known as for the destruction of books. Books are important to the world, since they help us gain knowledge and better understanding of our surroundings.
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Cori Martin
8/27/2016 01:03:58 pm
Montag is metaphorically the rebirth of Clarisse. Since she was accidently killed (as we think), Montag believes they have not really killed her and therefore has reborn her ideas into himself as he says, “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.” (Bradbury 82) Montag thinks that if he kills the brink of the fire, it might start to simmer down and grow into something new and better. At this moment, he realizes that there is actually a thing called "happiness", and he was never feeling it all along. He may have thought that maybe the books would give him some sort of happiness or even help him understand what true love actually is.
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Robbie DeMarco
8/29/2016 10:39:04 am
Montag needs remember Ecclesiastes and Revelation since they are the most illustrative books in the Bible in connection to this novel. Ecclesiastes is illustrative in light of the fact that its title signifies "to accumulate." Granger, Montag and The Book People toward the end should all assemble. They have gotten to be human books. When they assemble, they can scribe the memorized books into full text, for this situation , the Bible. Also, Ecclesiastes is symbolic to the flame or light imaginary in the novel. Toward the end of Fahrenheit 451, Montag has gotten away from the city , which has been demolished by bombs. He has joined a gathering of survivors who are dedicated to remembering and recounting books, and wants to end up like them with his recollections of certain Biblical works.
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Bella Fernandes
9/3/2016 11:40:08 am
Guy Montag’s revelation is important because it proves that the purpose of destruction is to improve what existed before it was destroyed. The destruction he caused created a clean slate for a new and improved civilization. This philosophical insight allowed Montag to redefine who he was and view himself has a hero rather than a villain. Before Montag realized that he needed to change his mindset, he viewed life as “like a land of dreams” (Bradbury 96). Post him changing his mindset, he thought life was “darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight” (Bradbury 96). This is because he realized that he was unable to improve civilization so the only productive way to improve it was to give it a fresh start, which can only be done by destroying the corrupted civilization first. In the end of the novel, enemy jets drop bombs on to the corrupted civilization and destroy it. This created an opportunity for Montag to make up for all he had destroyed by not only rebuilding civilization, but creating a new and pure one.
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Isabella Scheider
9/5/2016 07:15:15 pm
In the beginning of the book when Guy Montag is on his way back home from burning down a house, he comes across Clarisse, a seventeen year old girl who has a love for nature and books and all the things that are prohibited in their society. Clarisse starts questioning Montag’s satisfaction in life saying things like, “‘Are you happy?’” (Bradbury 7). He pays little attention until things start going wrong around him and then, Clarisse dies in a car accident. Throughout the book, Montag starts questioning and discovering why books are banned in society and why firemen burn knowledge and beautiful things. When Montag meets Granger, Granger says, “‘It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away…’” (Bradbury 150). Montag realizes through talking to all these different people that firemen are actually doing the wrong thing. And it all started with a 17 year old girl named Clarisse...
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Paul Bikker
9/13/2016 12:36:13 pm
This revelation is so monumental to Montag because he finally understands why he shouldn't burn the books. Before, he understood that he couldn't, but didn't quite get the why. Now he understands. The whole premise is that if TIme is burned by the Sun, and Time burns people and ideas, what's left? The books are the only thing that's left from the old times, and they need those to preserve those ideas and people. If they burned all the copies of Hamlet, what would be left of Shakespeare? Nothing of Hamlet, that's for sure. That's the whole cruz of the story, that's the poignant nature. Bradbury, while also making a fantastic universe, also is warning us to not befall the same fate.
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Paul Bikker
9/13/2016 12:39:32 pm
Also, the whole premise of learning from our mistakes goes down the drain, because there are no mistakes to learn from. If "books... [are] dishwater" to us, then there is no purpose for them. That is why we, as the new generation becoming more and more technologically oriented, we kids must fight to keep the books, or at least copy them before we get rid of them. Otherwise, we have little of the past to hold on to.
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