Fahrenheit 451: Montag turns to books to rescue him; instead they help demolish his life -- he loses his wife, job and home; he kills a man and is forced to be a nomad. Does he gain any benefits from books? If so, what are they?

“I’m going to do something, I don’t even know what yet, but I’m going to do something big.”—Montag (Bradbury pg. 62)

“There must be something in books, thing’s we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing” –Montag (Bradbury pg. 48)

This question was something that really made me think. It was the single, most nagging question that got me when I was reading this book. In the end, after reading the entire novel, I realized that Montag lost EVERYTHING. Everything that ever mattered to him was gone, physically gone. Completely. And it was his entire fault. He did it all himself. He CAUSED himself to lose everything by bending into curiosity. It came to the point when I asked myself, “What DIDN’T he loose? What did he even GAIN from reading those books that was worth this? Yes. He achieved his goal. He stole books. He read them. But he lost everything. What did he gain from such a horrible end?”  And the answer simply is Truth. He no longer was living a lie. Before, he just did what everyone else did. He went to work. He came home. He went to sleep. He did it all again. In and out he did that, with no meaning, no purpose. He didn’t know anything about ANYTHING! He didn’t know any history, or facts, or common knowledge we know today. Life was worthless, and he had this nagging feeling that he was MISSING something. He even says, “You ever seen a burned house? It smolders for day. Well, this fire’ll last me the rest of my life. God! I’ve been trying to put it out, in my mind, all night. I’m crazy with trying,” (Bradbury pg. 48). He later says something about Beatty, “He knows all the answers. He’s right. Happiness is important. Fun is everything. And yet I kept sitting there saying to myself, I’m not happy, I’m not happy,” (Bradbury pg. 62). He then openly says why he wants to read the books to Mildred. “We’ve got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we’re in such a mess, you and I and the medicine nights, and the car, and me and my work. We’re heading right over a cliff, Millie. God, I don’t want to go over,” (Bradbury pg.64) He reads them because he wants to KNOW THE TRUTH. He wants to find out what’s missing in his life. Why a book would cause a women to kill herself. And in the end, despite everything he goes through, despite everything he loses, he finds out. He finds the truth. He finds what is missing and why everything is so messed up in the world. He no longer has to LIVE THAT LIE. He doesn’t have to PRETEND everything is okay because now he KNOWS that it isn’t. He gains, I believe, some peace of mind. He also gains a true friend, and friend who thinks like him and will protect and stand up for him: Faber. He later gains more friends that will watch his back and he doesn’t have to worry about. He finds safety with the nomads and knows that he found a place and a group of people that are REAL. That know truth from lie and that aren’t going to make him live in that veil of uncertainty anymore. Reading books replaced his fake life with a real one. They separated lie from truth for him. That is what he gains. He gains the truth, peace of mind, a friend he can really trust, and a place where he can belong.

Honors American Literature. "Fahrenheit #3: Discussion Questions through Part Two: The Sieve and the Sand." Web log post. Blogspot.com. 24 May 2011. Web. 8 June 2012. <http://montagrules.blogspot.com/2011/05/fahrenheit-3-discussion-questions.html>.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.