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Aniya Waller

Mrs.Traylor

English 10

31 January 2020

The Change in Guy Montag

In the book​ Fahrenheit 451​ by Ray Bradbury, the Bradbury really makes the reader think

about who or what caused the main character, Guy Montag, to gradually change. As you read the

book you start to notice a shift in Guy’s thoughts. A character in the book, named Clarisse

McClellan, is the catalyst for the change in Montag’s life. This is because she gives him new

ideas about the world, she makes him realize the problem with their society, and lastly makes

him understand that books are the key to a better society.

Clarisse gives Montag's new ideas about the world. Before meeting Clarisse, Montag

looked at the world from only one perspective. He didn't really recognize the beauty of it.

Montag also never tried anything new. He kept the same routine every day. He was not living in

the world he just merely existed. The quote,“He suddenly couldn't remember if he had known

this or not and it made him quite irritable… He hadn't looked for a long time (Bradbury, p. 7).”,

expressed how Montag learns something new about the world from Clarisse that is usually

overlooked by him. From this event on forward he starts to become observant. He then starts to

question his state of happiness. Montag compares his life and family to Clarisse’s and he comes

to the conclusion that he is not happy living by the ways they were taught to live.

Montag is starting to truly see the problems in his society. One of the main problems is

that people are being deprived of their rights as an individual for “peace”. When thinking of this
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it makes a person think about how African Americans were deprived of their rights as an

individual while being enslaved. They were not able to read books or write because the slave

owners knew if they read they would gain knowledge. Knowledge is power and they wanted

them to be powerless. The society that Guy Montag lives in is a similar society where the people

are powerless over their lives because they lack the knowledge to be. There is minimal diversity

in society which Montag sees and he learns that the key to a change in their society is to read the

books. He starts to understand the true value of books and why the women in the house died for

her books. Montag is determined to change his society and therefore he quit his job to do so.

McClellan helped shape the thoughts that Montag has. She introduced him to the thought

of reading books. Clarrise, being different from everyone, else helps Montag see the problems

with everyone else. “But Clarisse's favorite wasn't herself. It was everyone else and me. She was

the first person in a good many years I've really liked (Bradbury, p. 68).”, this quote is from the

book and Montag is reading a book and connecting what he has read back to Clarisse. This

shows if it had not been for Montag meets Clarisse then he might have not taken steps to find out

what is in books. Montag asks his wife to help him on his journey in searching for the meaning

of books. Although she helps him, he noticed something he hadn't noticed before. She is too

stuck with doing the social norms that she wasn't able to see the bigger picture to the purpose of

books. He starts to see that she's not who he thought she was and that loving her was just an

illusion. The quote “He felt he wanted to cry, but nothing would happen to his eyes or his mouth

(Bradbury, p. 73).”, showed this.

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People could argue that Montag was already different from the rest of the society and

Clarisse was not the reason for Montag’s change. This is because ultimately you can't make a

person change without there being a desire for change. A quote from Huffpost states,

“Unfortunately, there are limits to what you can change about another person without

their cooperation. Unless someone is willing to really commit to a new goal and make

plans that will help them achieve that goal and turn it into a habit, that individual is

unlikely to make lasting changes in her life (Markman),”

which expresses that even though you can not completely change a person yourself. If the

person is willing, the change will be made. Montag is willing to make the changes to his life that

were influenced by Clarisse. Montag would still be following the laws if it had not been for

Clarissse’s influence. He just needed motivation and McCllean gave him this.

In Conclusion, Clarisse McClellan is the catalyst for the change in Guy Montag’s life.

She makes him realize that books are the key for the betterment of their society. She opened his

eyes to a different aspect of life by accomplishing things he never knew he could and noticing

things he hadn't noticed before in the world. Last but not least, Clarisse showed Montag the

problems in their everyday life and because of this, Montag tries to fix these problems starting

with reading books.

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Work Cited

Bradbury, Ray.​ Fahrenheit 451. 6​ 0th Anniversary Edition, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks,

June

2013.

Markman, Art. “Can You Really Change Someone?”, HuffPost, 25 January 2014,

www.huffpost.com/entry/can-you-change-someone_n_4619249​.