FAHRENHEIT 451: A SAMPLE ESSAY BY MR SIM JOO JIN

QUESTION:
Do you find Guy Montag a likeable character?
Support your answer with evidence from the text.

In Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, we encounter many interesting characters with
compelling personalities, but no one stands out like its chief protagonist, Guy Montag. In my
opinion, Montag is indeed a deeply likeable character, chiefly because of some very endearing
personality traits: he is compassionate, loving, and most importantly, willing to reflect on his
flaws.

Firstly, Montag is likeable because of his sincerely compassionate nature. He has a deep respect
for the lives of others, even when he does not know them. We can see this from the way he
treats the old woman who owns the house he has been sent to burn. When the woman refuses
to leave her house even though the firemen are about to torch the entire place, Montag tries
hard to convince her to leave with him. None of the other firemen do this, and Montag is the
only one who tries to bring her to safety. This episode clearly shows how deeply Montag cares
for the lives of others even though he does not know them. Montag's compassionate nature
becomes all the more precious given how uncaring the other characters are. Captain Beatty
speaks of how “these fanatics always try suicide”, and sees no reason to stop he from doing so;
Mildred says “She's nothing to me” when Montag talks to her about how they burnt the old
woman. Both these characters only care about themselves: in Beatty's case he only wants to get
the job done with, while Mildred is only bothered by how Montag must go on earning money to
support her expenses. When we know how selfish the other characters in this society are, we
start to see how rare and admirable Montag's compassionate nature really is. Therefore, Montag
is likeable because he is a truly caring person.

Secondly, Montag is likeable because he is a loving person. Even though he seems to have lost
his love for his wife, he still tries hard to find it back. We can see this from how earnestly he
tries to remember where and when he had met Mildred. While he tries to do so, he feels that it
it “suddenly more important than any other thing in a life – time that he knew where he had
met Mildred”. Perhaps of he can remember the details, then the feelings he had when he just
met her and fell in love with her would return to him. The fact that this little detail matters so
much to him tells us just how desperate he is to reclaim the love he once felt for her. This
shows how loving Montag is. Montag's loving nature is all the more precious given how distant
his wife has become. Instead of talking to her husband and listening to his problems, she
prefers to play the role of the “missing homemaker” in a script for the wall television and
imagine that she is talking to fictional characters. This must be a hurtful thing to Montag, but he
still tries to find back his love for her despite the growing emotional distance between the two
of them. Montag's loving nature is therefore another reason why he is a likeable character.
Finally, Montag is likeable because he has the moral courage to reflect on his personal flaws. He
is not content to simply live from day to day being the same kind of person he has always been.
Instead, he responds to events that stimulate him to look at his actions and reflect on whether
he is right or wrong. After witnessing the suicide of the lady at the house he burnt, Montag
reflects on what he has been doing in his job, and realises that “a man was behind each one of
the books” that he burnt. He realises that he has been destroying precious things that deserve
to be preserved. This shows that he is not content to simply go on being the same person he
has always been even is a job that gives him a job that gives him a comfortable life. It also
shows that he is able to chastise himself for the wrongs he has done. When Mildred asks him to
stop bothering her about such things, he tells Mildred that “we need to be really bothered once
in a while”. Again, this shows how willing he is to go through the pain of self – criticism so as to
arrive at the truth. He is a likeable character because his willingness to change himself is a truly
admirable trait.

In conclusion, Montag is a likeable character because he is compassionate, loving and willing to

reflect on his flaws. I am grateful for having read about a character like him because such
character traits are truly worth emulating in my own life. The thing I like the most about him is
his willingness to keep looking at his own life and bear the pain of searching for a meaningful
existence when everyone else seems to want him to stay the same. I only wish that, if I were put
in the same circumstances, I would have that moral courage to do the same.

© 2008 MR SIM JOO JIN

SEC 3 EXPRESS LITERATURE ELECTIVE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
ST. ANDREWS'S SECONDARY SCHOOL

This sample essay has been composed specially for educational purposes and should not be
reproduced in any manner or form without express permission of the writer.