By: Elainah Connolly

A person who has courage, is noble, brave, does good deeds, and stands up for what they believe in even if other people don’t agree. Someone that is admirable, and a role model.

Setting: if the setting is a dangerous or bad place in need of a hero. Censorship is one of the major themes in the book (Harris). Conflicts: conflicts make the person on the hero’s journey step up and want to take action. Antagonists: this is the opposite of what the hero wants to be so it pushes them to do better.

Montag lives in a dystopian society. “People were unhappy and discontented, so the government acted to remove the sources of their unhappiness and to enhance their lives with activities which would prevent them from thinking and, thus, being unhappy” (Harris). At first Montag supported his society, but then he started realizing how many things were wrong with his society like the censorship, a major theme in the book, the entertainment, and the political correctness (Harris). Discovering the problems within this culture Montag changes his ways and makes him overcome the man he used to be. When Montag meets Clarisse she awakens him to the, “irrationality of his world,” and makes him question his society (Camara).

Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, toward the end of the McCarthyism and at the beginning of the Cold War (Harris). Fahrenheit 451 takes place in the future the 21 st century and in a large American city (Bradbury “In what city”). Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is, “an American society of the 24 th century in which books are outlawed,” (Camara).

Heroes are sometimes rewarded by their society by getting awards or being recognized for their actions. Sometimes heroes are self-rewarded by knowing that they achieved what they wanted to do or become. At the end of the book, I think that Montag does feel some self-rewarding because he felt that he had finally started to do the right thing and he found people that enjoy the same things he does and they trust him.

I think that Guy Montag is a rogue hero. He saves his own day but not necessarily everyone else’s (From Sarah). He is intriguing and goes through a lot of transformation to become a hero. At first Montag is like every other firefighter, loves his job of starting fires, burning done houses and loves the smell of kerosene. But, he soon realizes that the dystopian society in which he lives in is not the type he wants to take part in, which turned him into a hero.

I believe that Captain Beatty, the chief firefighter, is the villain. Beatty is said to be “disturbed”, “the novel’s villain- Fire Chief Beatty” (EBSCOhost The Life). “Captain Beatty adores the destructive power of fire; he allows himself to be literally consumed by it,” (Powerful Themes). “the reader can see how improbable it is to associate Beatty with anything other than destruction,” (Powerful Themes). Although not the main antagonist in the book, the mechanical hound is also a villain along with the government. “The mechanical creation has gained control over the natural being” (Powerful Themes). The mechanical hound has taken over. “, a robotic beast with prodigious powers of detection, speed, and destruction, sniffs out offenders for the burning” (EBSCOhost The Life).

If Montag’s society was different I don’t believe he would considered a hero because books wouldn’t be contraband and there wouldn’t be a problem with firemen burning books and people wouldn’t be getting in trouble.

Clarisse McClellan helped Montag to become a hero. Clarisse is a seventeen year old girl that introduces Montag to the corruptness of their society. “Clarisse: she is a catalyst for his moral-questioning mind” (Powerful Themes). Clarisse represents the ideal (Powerful Themes). Faber helped Montag become a hero because he had the same ideas as Montag but was too much of a coward to say anything about it, he didn’t want to be put in danger because he had some of the contraband books. Mildred helped Montag to become a hero because from her he realized how much his society wasn’t concerned with death. Montag thought this was extremely odd. Mildred represents the actual (Powerful Themes). Captain Beatty showed Montag what he shouldn’t be. He used his knowledge of books against people and he was detructive. Montag didn’t want to become like this.

Montag relates more to a hero because he kills the villain which is Captain Beatty and escapes from the mechanical hound. When Montag and Beatty had their confrontation at the end of the book it is questionable as to if Beatty actually wanted to die., “one senses that a part of Beatty actually wants to die- as if the honesty with which he is ‘arm’d’ is the honesty of confession and remorse” (EBSCOhost The Life). If this is true Beatty knew that he was doing bad things. And by killing Beatty, Montag was doing the rights things because he saved more people from getting in trouble by having book and getting their houses burnt down.