When everyone in the society has a different belief than you it can cause rejection against the society. Montag doesn’t question what is happening in his society and goes along with it. Montag questions his job and what he does in his society. Montag wants to know what his society is missing and it is driving him. Montag changes his beliefs about society and this causes him to reject it because he wants to know what his society is hiding. At first Montag went along with his society without questioning. Montag, being a fireman in his society where they burn books, is happy with his job and doesn’t even question it.
At is point in the book Montag follows commands to burn books without questioning it because society believes that books make people unhappy and people with books are considered crazy, “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all the singed and driven back by flame” (Bradbury 2). Montag loves fire and is not bothered when he burns houses and books. In Montag’s society he was taught to love fire and burning books, “It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 1). This shows his love for his job and that he hasn’t changed his beliefs about his society and hasn’t yet started questioning it.
Montag is not aware of what is happening to his society and people go to fast to notice most things. Montag is starting to become aware that, “Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out and take your blood,” (Bradbury 14). Montag isn’t worried about anything bad happening around him and nobody else in the society is noticing either. Montag talks to Clarisse and she tells him a lot of things she has noticed, “Suddenly he could not remember if he had known this or not, and this made him quite irritable”(Bradbury 7).
Montag is still just like the rest of his society, he doesn’t have a good memory and doesn’t slow down to notice or understand anything. Montag has accepted his society and didn’t question it or realize what has happened to the society he is living in. Montag questions his society and wants to figure out the truth. Montag questions what he is noticing about his society. Montag asks Faber for help because he has a lot of questions and Faber said, “And then the Government, seeing how advantageous it was to have people reading only passionate and the fist in the stomach, circled the situation with your fire eaters” (Bradbury 85).
Montag noticed that when people stopped reading as many books other people encouraged it by saying they were making people unhappy. Montag thinks about his connection to other people such as his wife Mildred, “‘For it would be the dying of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, it was suddenly so very wrong that that he had begun to cry, not at death but at the thought of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty woman, while the hungry snake made her still more empty” (Bradbury 41). Montag feels no connection with other people and he is trying to understand what causes this and what is happening to him.
Montag questions why books were being burned and why they were so bad. Montag saw a woman stay in a burning house with her books, “‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something in there”’ (Bradbury 48). When Montag sees the woman die because of books it really affects him. This experience makes him have doubts about his job and his society. Montag thinks about what he has done with his life and starts to question his job, “‘And I thought about books.
And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books’” (Bradbury 49). Montag questions what is in books and what his society is hiding from him. Montag has questioned his society and wants to know why people around him have a bad memory and don’t care about each other. Montag acts out against his society and rejects it. Montag stared to act out against his society and use his voice to stand up for what he believes in. Montag broke the rules and acted out by reading a poem and he got a strange response, “‘Why do people want to hurt people? ” (Bradbury 97).
Montag acted out by reading a poem and he started rejecting his society because when he read a poem he was accused of hurting people. Montag wants to be able to really think, be able to understand books, and be able to understand all the knowledge he gets from them, “‘I don’t think he knows which book I stole. But how do I choose a substitute’… ‘See what you’re doing? You’ll ruin us! ’”(Bradbury 72). Montag has a book and wants time to figure out what is so special about them so he starts to act out by switching the books.
After Montag acted out his wife, Mildred betrayed him by turning him in, in order to save herself. Montag was turned in and caught by his boss, Beatty, “‘Was it my wife that turned in the alarm? ’ Beatty nodded” (Bradbury 111). After Montag acted out his wife, Mildred betrayed him by turning him in, in order to save herself. Montag meets Granger he tries to tell him about Mildred but he can’t remember, “‘My wife, my wife. Poor Millie, poor, poor Millie. I can’t remember anything’” (Bradbury 149). Montag got away from his society and now he feels bad because he could make anyone in his society listen before they all died.
Montag acted out against his society because he wanted to know if there was something more to life and what his society was missing. Montag has a lot of questions about his society and wanting to know what his society is missing is driving him to reject it. Montag notices how everyone in his society is very selfish so he acts out to figure out what his society is missing. Montag is curious about books and the things he is noticing about his society. In the beginning Montag didn’t question anything he notices about his society. Benjamin Franklin said “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.
