Fahrenheit 451: Montag’s Transformation and Rebirth
Montag’s Transformation in *Fahrenheit 451*
While floating in the river, Montag suddenly realizes the change that has taken place: “He felt as if he had left a stage behind him and many actors. . . He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new.” Montag recognizes that many people, including himself and Beatty, were forced to play an assigned role in their lives. The stage imagery implies that Montag actually realized that he was merely acting for a long period of his life, and that he is now entering into an entirely new stage of life.
From City to Country: A Spiritual Awakening
Montag emerges from the river transformed. Now in the country, his first tangible sensation — “the dry smell of hay blowing from some distant field” — stirs strong melancholic emotions. Though Montag may be a man who has trouble articulating his feelings, one learns that he is a man of deep emotions. The entire episode of him leaving the river and entering the countryside is evocative of a spiritual transformation. He has sad thoughts of Millie, who is somewhere back in the city, and has a sensuous fantasy of Clarisse; both of which are now associated with the city and a life that he no longer lives, to which he can never return.
Whereas the city was metaphorically associated with a stifling and oppressive technology, the countryside is a place of unbounded possibility, which at first terrifies Montag: “He was crushed by darkness and the look of the country and the million odors on a wind that iced the body.” In his earlier life, recall that Montag could smell only kerosene, which was “nothing but perfume” to him. The forest into which he stumbles is rampant with life; he imagines “a billion leaves on the land” and is overcome by the natural odors that confront him.
The Familiarity of the Railroad Tracks
To underscore the strangeness of this new environment, Bradbury makes Montag stumble across a railroad track that had, for Montag, “a familiarity.” He is, ironically, more familiar with an environment composed of concrete and steel than he is with grass and trees. Because he is most familiar (and comfortable) with something associated with urban life (the railroad tracks), Montag remembers that Faber told him to follow them — “the single familiar thing, the magic charm he might need a little while, to touch, to feel beneath his feet” — as he moves on.
Fire as a Symbol of Warmth and Renewal
When he sees the fire in the distance, the reader sees the profound change that Montag has undergone. Montag sees the fire as “strange,” because “It was burning, it was warming.” This fire doesn’t destroy but heals, and by doing so, it draws Montag to the company of his fellow outcasts, book burners of a different sort.
Becoming the Book of Ecclesiastes
Curiously, Granger was expecting Montag, and when he offers him “a small bottle of colorless fluid,” Montag takes his final step toward transformation. Not only is Montag garbed in clothes that are not his, but the chemical that Granger offers him changes his perspiration. Literally, Montag becomes a different man.
When Montag expresses his prior knowledge of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Granger is happy to tell Montag of his new purpose in life: Montag will become that book. Not only does Montag learn the value of a book, but he also learns that he can “become the book.”
Finding Hope and Community
Talking with Granger and the others around the fire, Montag gains a sense of warmth and personal well-being and recovers a sense of faith in the future. He begins gaining an understanding of the fire of spirit, life, and immortality, as well as forgetting the fire that destroys. Notice that when the campfire is no longer necessary, every man lends a hand to help put it out. (“We are model citizens, in our own special way,” Granger says.) This action is further proof of the things that Granger has been telling Montag: Group effort is necessary if a positive goal is ever to be reached.
Letting Go of the Past
When the commune moves south (due to the war threat), Montag associates Millie with the city, but he admits to Granger that, strangely, he doesn’t “feel much of anything” for her. That part of his life, as well as everything relating to the city, seems distant and unreal. He feels sorry for her because he intuitively knows that she will probably be killed in the war. He is also ashamed, because in all their years together, he was able to offer her nothing.