Guy Montag

Guy Montag is the protagonist in Ray Bradbury's dystopian 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. He is depicted living in a futuristic town where he works as a "fireman" whose job is to burn books. 2Role in plot At the opening of the novel, he is happy in his work destroying books and never wonders about his role as a tool of thought suppression. Several events cause him to question his existence: First, he meets Clarisse McClellan, a 17 year-old while walking home from work. His talks with her are thought-provoking and assuage Montag's loneliness. Her death spurs him into becoming a radical. Second, he discovers his wife, who prefers watching "The Family" her favorite program on television or the parlor walls, and radio or "seashell earbuds" to human interaction, has overdosed on sleeping pills. The callous behavior of the paramedics makes him feel very alienated, while his wife's emptiness disturbs and angers him. Third, he has a call to go to a house owned by an old woman who hid away a library of books. Rather than be led out of the house before it is burned, she decides to set the fire herself, and burns alive with her book