Fahrenheit 451 - 9

During the first 145 pages of the book Fahrenheit 451, Montag had only seen fire used as a bad thing. Montag even once speaking of fire, said, "Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you're a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean quick sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical." (Bradbury 115.)

Montag has always seen the negative connotations when it comes to fire. He sees that it destroys responsibilities and it destroys consequences. He says that if a problem gets too burdensome, then people literally burn their problems. In the society that Montag lives in, nobody wants their house to be burned, but if a neighbors house is burned, everyone stands in the streets and gawks at it. The burning of a house is made into a sort of neighborhood festivity, which helps keep the people afraid of fire and it puts extreme social pressure on people to never let their house get burned.

After Montag fled from the mechanical hound, and got away from the people that were chasing him, he was left in the forest. When he was there, he saw his world from a whole new perspective and was able to see things more clearly. After Montag was in the wilderness for some time, he finally found people. They were men gathered around a small fire. Their hands were out, and the fire was warming them not burning them. At this point, the book says that "He hadn't known fire could look this way. He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take. (Bradbury 146.)

Montag had no idea that fire could be a good thing, not just a harmful thing. I find it so neat that he was able to see that. It was not until he saw things from a different perspective that he was able to realize that. I think sometimes, we get so wrapped up in situations in life that we often do not realize the good things in life. It is so easy to be focused on yourself and the bad things that are happening in life. But if we take a step back, away from our self-centered focus, and try to see the bigger picture and others in it, we may find that things are not as we had thought they were.