Guy Montag as a Hero
From Guy to Hero
When we hear the word ‘hero’ we think about those who fight for our country out at war or those who put their lives in jeopardy everyday protecting their community like a police officer or fireman, all of these citizens doing this for a small wage in comparison to Rap artists who rhyme profane words making millions of dollars. However you don’t have to live on the streets or have more money than sense to be a hero, you just have to make a difference. In the end identifying someone as a hero or a villain is up to you, it’s in the eye of the beholder. Guy Montag was a fireman for his community and made his mark as a hero through countless acts of courage, bravery, and emotion in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Montag stood up for his rights on books and defied his government, even if it meant losing hisfamily, friends, job, and property all in order to do what he believed in.
Bradbury symbolizes Montag as a sympathetic hero through the use of diction. Montag is one of the only characters in the novel to actually feel an array of different emotions and understand them. For instance, after the old woman had stood atop the pile of burning books and burned with them, Montag pondered what he saw, “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.”(51) and for the first time Montag was exploring feelings he was not very familiar with, like curiosity and sympathy. For the first time the reader gets the feeling that Montag acts differently to the rest of the characters and may be on to something due to his curiosity. Montag shows sympathy in a conversation with Millie, “A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper”(52) referencing the author of the novels that he and his fellow firemen had burnt. Montag gradually becomes a hero however this results in getting himself into trouble. As the book progresses it is fair to say that “Curiosity killed the
When we hear the word ‘hero’ we think about those who fight for our country out at war or those who put their lives in jeopardy everyday protecting their community like a police officer or fireman, all of these citizens doing this for a small wage in comparison to Rap artists who rhyme profane words making millions of dollars. However you don’t have to live on the streets or have more money than sense to be a hero, you just have to make a difference. In the end identifying someone as a hero or a villain is up to you, it’s in the eye of the beholder. Guy Montag was a fireman for his community and made his mark as a hero through countless acts of courage, bravery, and emotion in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Montag stood up for his rights on books and defied his government, even if it meant losing hisfamily, friends, job, and property all in order to do what he believed in.
Bradbury symbolizes Montag as a sympathetic hero through the use of diction. Montag is one of the only characters in the novel to actually feel an array of different emotions and understand them. For instance, after the old woman had stood atop the pile of burning books and burned with them, Montag pondered what he saw, “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.”(51) and for the first time Montag was exploring feelings he was not very familiar with, like curiosity and sympathy. For the first time the reader gets the feeling that Montag acts differently to the rest of the characters and may be on to something due to his curiosity. Montag shows sympathy in a conversation with Millie, “A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper”(52) referencing the author of the novels that he and his fellow firemen had burnt. Montag gradually becomes a hero however this results in getting himself into trouble. As the book progresses it is fair to say that “Curiosity killed the