"Guy Montag loved his job. He had been a fireman for ten years and had never doubted the joy of midnight racing, nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames... he never questioned anything until he met a seventeen year old girl who told him of a past where people were not afraid. Then he met a professor who told him of a future in that people could think of…and Guy Montag suddenly knew what he had to do! (Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451)". Was Guy Montag the same person at the beginning and end of Fahrenheit 451? The answer to this question is a definitive no. Montag has transformed dramatically over the course of the story. He began as an ignorant person, but ended up as an enlightened and intelligent man. Montag embarked on his journey as a fireman who lived to burn and destroy books, but returned a crusader who lived to save them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With brass in my fists, with this great python spraying its poisonous kerosene upon the world, the blood throbbed in his head, and his hands were the hands of an extraordinary conductor playing all the symphonies of fire and conflagration to bring down the tatters of history on his stolid head, and his symbolic helmet numbered 451 eyes all blazing orange at the thought of what would come next, he lit the igniter and the house blew up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red, yellow and black. (Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451, page 3) ". At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag was happy outside. He enjoyed burning books for a living and believed that his marriage and well-rounded life satisfied him. However, deep down, Montag wasn't really happy. His marriage was far from perfect. He and Mildred rarely talked about anything meaningful. They showed little to no love for each other. They apparently had little in common. Deep down, Montag knew something was wrong. What pushed Montag to change was Clarisse, who was the catalyst for Montag's enormous transformation. Clarisse brought questions and emotions into Montag's life that he had never experienced or seen in anyone before. She questioned things like society, the world, other people, and everything around her. He thought about life, searching for true answers and meaning. She noticed small everyday things like the rain or the moon, and it seemed surprising to her. He possessed intuition and intellect. All of these elements were missing from Montag's life, and deemed wrong or "antisocial" in the world in which he existed. Clarisse's imagination, intelligence, and questioning personality rubbed off on Montag as he too began to stop and look at the world around him. This marked the beginning of Montag's great change. Many things pushed Montag to further change. The second of these events was the alarm at the old woman's house. When Montag saw the old woman burning herself with her books, he realized that perhaps the books were really worth reading. After this significant event, Montag decided to contact Faber, a retired English professor he had met in the park. Faber, much like Clarisse, challenged Montag's mind, questioning the world and searching for real meanings and solutions to the problems faced by society. Faber educated Montag in books and introduced him to the hidden world of conformity, dishonesty, and degradation that surrounded them. Faber was truly the.