"Fahrenheit 451" Question 4

Who is the "hero" in this book and what are some of his/her traits?  What does he/she accomplish, and how is he/she portrayed?  Does the hero represent an abstract idea such as goodness, truth, courage or evil?  Guy Montag is the hero in "Fahrenheit 451."  He is a firefighter.  Firefighters in this book are a little bit different however.  They start the fires.  Montag has an inkling that the world he lives in just isn't right, but he's not sure what to do about this idea.  He feels like a traitor to his community before he meets Clarisse.  A kind-hearted seventeen year old next door who begins to show Montag little things in life he never notices or thought about.  Montag already had a tiny little seed in his mind floating around, a suspicion that things just aren't right, meeting Clarisse just plants that little seed in his head once and for all.  Our protagonist is a very confused one, but who is out to do the right thing, ultimately.  Montag accomplishes, in the end, finding others like himself in the forest (definitely wanted to put two r's in 'forest' like Forrest Gump...).  They may not have much, but they intend to start a new society and get the world back to were it was, with literature and freedom and actual relationships to be had.  Our protagonist is portrayed as very human.  He has an inkling that something isn't right, but at the same time does not want to be any different from his peers and go against the crowd.  He consistently doubts himself through out the novel, but is always trying to do good, like most people.  Everyone can relate to Montag and his situation at least a little.  He is confused and having a mid-life crisis.  He isn't sure what's right and what is wrong any more.  We all have or will have that happen to us in some sense.  It is not possible for us to always be 100% sure of ourselves, it's just not.  I believe Montag represents goodness.  He is stuck in an extremely corrupt situation and has every reason to just go with what is going on around him, but he doesn't he is the tiny light of good in completely dark room, anyway.    

  

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.