sample final essay

At the beginning of the book, Montag seems happy.  When we first meet him, he is burning books and smiling: “Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.”  He really seems to take pleasure in his job.  Burning people’s houses and all their books doesn’t bother him.  But when he talks to Clarisse, Montag realizes that there’s more to life than he thought.  When he goes home and sees that his wife has overdosed on sleeping pills, Montag realizes that she’s unhappy and it gets him thinking about his own life: “He felt his smile slid away, melt, fold over and down on itself… He was not happy.”

When we meet Montag, he doesn’t think for himself and he has an unhappy marriage.  When Montag became a fireman and got married, he made those choices without really thinking things through.  In fact, at some point he even says that he became a fireman because his dad and grandfather were firemen.  Neither Montag nor Mildred can even remember where or when they met.

Clarisse changes Montag’s mind and he starts thinking differently.  Clarisse tells him that she goes slow and notices things.  Montag starts listening.  He notices colors.  He tastes the rain.  Most importantly, we see Montag steal a book from the old woman’s house and we realize that he’s hiding books at home.  He asks Faber what the books mean and wants Faber to help him understand.  Montag also realizes he’s miserable in his marriage, and he won’t settle for the way Mildred treats herself or him anymore.

It would be easy for Montag to realize all of this and do nothing about it.  Not only is he a fireman, but reading is illegal.  Even when Montag reads poetry, the women get hysterical and turn him in.  The riders on the subway call the cops when Montag pulls out a bible.

Montag does the hard thing and takes action.  He reads.  He steals.  He actually murders Beatty, with a flamethrower, in front of witnesses.  He tells Faber that he wants to plant books at the firemen’s houses and turn them all in.

All of Montag’s actions are things that he couldn’t do at the beginning of the book.  At the beginning, he was smiling when he started fires.  He couldn’t keep doing this and feel good about himself.  So, he read, he challenged authority and his marriage, and eventually he took action to become someone new.