Who is Captain Beatty?! One character that was really a
hit-me-in-the-face kind of guy and stood out was Fire Captain Beatty. This is
my own personal analysis on him. Though Montag only saw him from one side, his
own, I think there was a lot more to Beatty than we saw. At first, I thought
Beatty was a good guy. When we first meet him, he tries to sooth Montag when
Montag complains about the Hound growling at him (Bradbury pg. 24). I thought, “Oh,
he seems like a nice guy, watching out for his workers, being all friendly.” Then
Montag tells Beatty about the possibility that someone gave his scent to the Hound
and that it has been happening for a while now. At least far back as a few
months. Beatty then says, “You haven’t
any enemies here, Guy.” (Bradbury pg. 24) He then asks Montag if he has a guilty
conscience about anything (Bradbury pg. 25). As I read, I started to catch on a
bit, and when I finished the book I knew. I started to think, YES! Beatty MUST have
known the whole time that Montag had stolen books!
When he comes over to Montag’s house to give him a
speech, he seems so unsurprised that Montag asks about the consequences of a
fireman taking a book (Bradbury pg. 59). I thought that unconcerned attitude
Beatty had was very odd. He talked to Montag so nonchalant, so cool, like
nothing was wrong, and he took a very long time to explain, drawing it all out.
So, at this point, I was really thinking: MAYBE BEATTY IS A BAD GUY! I never
thought it before. He seemed to nice and caring. But he acted funny when Montag
discussed the Hound, and he was nonchalant with Montag about book steeling!
Then, on page 101,
when Montag returns and gives Beatty back the book, Montag describes him as waiting
but trying to look like he wasn’t. But it was the book quoting that really
confused me. He starts quoting Philip Sydney and Alexander Pope right in front
of Montag (Bradbury pg.102)! It started to sound like BEATTY was TRYING to trip
him up! Beatty says “Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you’re
ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children,
destroy authority. I know, I’ve been through it all.” He then, on page 103
starts quoting off the WAZOO and I start getting REALLY confused about who
Beatty really is.
But, after Beatty makes
Montag burn his own house down and busts him bad, I KNEW. I came to the
conclusion on my own. Beatty knew all along. He KNEW that Montag had stolen
books WAAAAAY back, and hid them in his house (Montag already had books he
stored in his vent). I don’t know how he knew, but I think it was Montag’s own edginess
that tipped him off. Beatty gave Montag’s scent to the Hound as soon as he
found out Montag had first stolen books, and had the Hound scare him off and
on, making him even more edgy, he payed attention to Montag to see if the Hound
could make Montag reveal his guilt. If Montag thought he had an enemy, Beatty
thought he might give himself away. AND HE DID. When they burned the lady alive
with her house, Beatty knew it would eat away at Montag. And Montag ended up
giving himself away when Beatty came to talk to him. IT WAS ALL PART OF THE
PLAN. But Beatty knew all along that Montag was a book thief. But why’d he wait
so long to burn Montag’s home?
Then there was the other thing. After Montag
killed him he thought, “Beatty wanted to die.” And then said “How strange,
strange to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then
instead of shutting up and staying alive you go on yelling at people and making
fun of them until you get them mad, and then…” (Bradbury pg. 116) So Beatty was
a bad guy. He knew Montag had stolen books, hired the Hound, dragged out Montag’s
edginess by freaking him out, made him return one of his books, and then burnt
his house down. But was he a good guy too? He knew so much about books and was
FULL of knowledge, and Montag even described him like he wanted to die. Like he
wasn’t happy with his life without books. And he waited so long to bust Montag.
Did he think Montag would change his ways? Was he secretly GOOD or BAD? I guess
no one will really know.
Bradbury,
Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.
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