Guy Montag demonstrates massive growth as a character throughout Fahreheit 451. A wise adage says, “You are the average of the people you spend the most time with.” Montag starts out as just another member of society, but by the end of the novel, he has rebelled against the majority of his world.In doing this, Montag has become part of a “minority”, something his former friend and fireman Beatty looks down on. Montag is now odd, like Clarisse; he is a thinker, like Faber; he is part of something larger, like Granger. By the end of the novel, he no longer fits in with most people in his society (the majority), who seem intent on regressing in societal terms while advancing on technological ones. The majority is now acting as a roadblock to …show more content…
He was perhaps an outsider from the very beginning. When Clarisse says “so many people are…afraid of firemen” on page 5, it’s easy to imagine that Montag was already on the fringes of that society because people feared him. Perhaps he was even ostracized, and that may have been why it took so little for him to be pushed over the edge. Through the perspective of an outsider, Montag realizes that his world is simply numb to the violence and cruelty it commits every single day. In a place where wrecking cars and smashing windows is entertainment, burning “a woman alive” is just barely problematic to anyone but the perpetrators (47). When Montag expresses guilt and regret for his actions, his wife Mildred expresses frantic worry for their finances. Material objects are simply more highly valued than anything else. Most of all, unlike the majority, Montag decides he no longer wants to obstruct the “truth and freedom” Faber references. His last act as a fireman is to burn his own home, perhaps representing a new beginning, a chance for him to rise from the ashes like the much referenced phoenix.His next act is as a human being, and it is to spread knowledge and stories to the very people that have rejected them for decades but now need them.

Guy Montag, by the end of Fahrenheit 451, has evolved into a nearly unrecognizable person. He has learned patience and restraint, something he lacked earlier. He thinks freely—and the fact that he thinks at all in that society is a feat of itself. The former fireman thinks about other people and the effects those actions will have on others,Compassion has been gained while a connection to society has been lost. Montag has become the “other”. That is hardly a bad