Main Characters in Fahrenheit 451

Sorry it's so long!

Guy Montag
Montag is a fireman who is married to Mildred. I like Montag but then I don’t like him. I like that he is trying to find answers because he isn’t satisfied with what the world says/does. I like that he actually thinks on his own and that he isn’t like a ‘robot’ like all the other people. However, I don’t like the way he tries to find answers; he is too impulsive and angry. For example, when Mildred had friends over Montag stormed in and started angrily reciting poetry because he was sick and tired of their useless chatter and thinking. That then got him into trouble.
However, Montag has something special about him. He questions things, and he wants answers; deep, accurate answers. (This fire for knowledge was sparked my Clarisse McClellan) This seems normal these days but in the book that is something else.
Guy reveals to us, about the universal human experience, that one stage in our life we are going to question life and our beliefs. I have already done that. Some days I’ll just be thinking and then all a sudden I would wonder “Is Christianity true? All the other religions believe that they are correct and not the others. So what if Christianity was fake...?” I do believe wholeheartedly that God exists and that Christianity is real, I just sometimes think about it and question it. Just like Guy Montag questioned his life.

Mildred Montag
Mildred is the wife of Guy Montag. I don’t like Mildred. To be honest, I think she is stupid, brainless, and uncaring. She never thinks for herself; she just follows what the rest of the world is doing. For example, watching the TV/’family.’ She represents the people in the world who know the truth but chooses to ignore. Instead of standing up for it, she lives for fun and ‘happiness.’ Therefore, she is brainless. She is also very uncaring. When Guy, her husband, was sick she didn’t care, she even told him to go to work! Come on, that’s seriously not nice.
Mildred reveals to us, about the universal human experience, is that at some point in our life we will get so caught up with what the world wants/idolizes, we won’t even recognize what is happening around us. For example, a lot of people want to be popular. Some won’t even care if they hurt people in the process to becoming popular. Or what I really should say it that they don’t notice. They could have hurt their best friend, yet they wouldn’t notice because they are so caught up in trying to be popular. That is what I think Mildred reveals to us.

Captain Beatty
Captain Beatty is a fireman and is Guy’s boss. He is in control/the leader or the fire department that Guy is in. Once again, I don’t like Beatty. He is so smart, and has all this knowledge about books at his finger tips, yet he doesn’t use it for good. He ignores all that knowledge and just lives like everyone else. He is like a smart student who is just too lazy to work. He is also really mean to Guy, very provoking too. In fact, Beatty was so mean to Guy that Guy killed him!
Beatty reveals to us, about the universal human experience, that sometimes we, as humans, know something is wrong, yet we don’t stop doing it. Beatty knew (I think so anyways) deep down that what he read in the books was true but he never believed it. A modern day example would be a person who smokes. They know its wrong but they still smoke.

Clarisse McClellan
Clarisse is Montag’s neighbour. She is 17 years old and very smart. She didn’t act like the other people in her world. She was different; she thinks for herself. I like Clarisse. She lives her own life and is very independent. Clarisse always enjoys and notices the small things in like. For example, she noticed that the rain tastes good. How many actually taste the rain? Especially in Korea.
Even though Clarisse died early on in the book, she is a very special character. She is the one who starts the search for truth in Montag.
Clarisse reveals to us, about the universal human experience, that we often label the different ones as rejects. When someone is different we often don’t want to be seen with them and talk about them behind their back. Isn’t that true? Clarisse was different and considered a total whack, but she was correct. All she believed in was true, the people just couldn’t see that because she was different and therefore a reject. That is what also happens in today’s world.

Faber
Faber is an old man who Guy meets in a park one day. He is a retired English Professor. I like Faber. Even though he is afraid he wants to help Montag. He is also very smart. He would have to be to invent the ‘Green Bullet.’
Faber reveals to us, about the universal human experience, that sometime we will do something that we think we are too afraid to do. We will step out if our comfort zone. Just like Faber finally stepped out of his comfort zone and from hiding, we will too. For example, someone might step out of their comfort zone and stand up to a bully.

There is also the Hound, who sort of is a main character. He is a mechanical dog who hates Guy and wants to kill him. He can track down anything and destroys them with a long, poisonous needle. I reckon the Hound represents the people in our world who are just out to kill. That is all they know. For example, terrorists groups, dictators etc.

Ok my first entry for Fahrenheit 451...

I personally didn’t really like this book. I thought it was pretty boring and Ray Bradbury’s writing style was…strange. But there were some exciting parts amidst all of that ‘other stuff’. Anyways, a passage that is significant to me…

Page 144, paragraph 9…
“There must have been a billion leaves on the land; he waded in them, a dry river smelling of hot cloves and warm dust. And the other smells! There was a smell like a cut potato from all the land, raw and cold and white from having the moon on it most of the night. There was a smell like pickles from a bottle and a smell like parsley on the table at home. There was a smell like carnations from the yard next door. He put down his hand and felt a weed rise up like a child brushing him. His fingers smelled of licorice.”

This passage sounds kind of weird. I mean its all about smells and that’s pretty weird. But even though it’s a tad bit weird, this passage is significant to me.
Guy Montag described these smells when he first enters the forest after exiting the river. (When he was running away from the Hound because he murdered Captain Beatty). This reminds me of when I first came to Korea. Just like Montag noticed all the new and different smells in the forest, I noticed all the new and different smells in Korea. It was quite bizarre really, because that was one of the first things I noticed about Korea: its smells. I can’t really explain the ‘smell’ but I know what it is and could recognize it anywhere. This passage is significant and meaningful to me because it reminds me of a big chapter in my life…moving to Korea.