Fahrenheit 451: : What are the causes, gains, and losses of the conflict dealt with in this book?

The main conflict in this book is that Guy Montag wants to find truth by stealing and reading books, but this is against the law and could cost him his life.  He had to face many obstacles: from his fire chief, to his own fear, to his neighbors, to his unsympathetic wife, and even though his crime at first is just stealing books, he has a much deeper want than just that.

There could be several named causes of the conflict in this story, but I believe the real start of this conflict was Guy Montag’s own curiosity. Montag used to never question why life was the way it was. Why literature was outlawed and why people spent more time inside with their TV “families” than with their own real family. He never used to question why he burnt books and even sometimes the people who owned them, or why socializing was an extinct practice and observing the world around you too much could be considered a crime. He just floated through life thinking he was truly happy until he met Clarisse who by asking him, “ Are you happy?” (Bradbury pg. 7)  caused him to realize “He was not happy” ( Bradbury pg. 9) at all. I also think his own want to find out why things were the way they were and his want to discover the truth of his life were also what drove him.

Montag did gain a lot of things while overcoming this conflict. He gains the knowledge that his life and the world he lives in is far from perfect and severely corrupted.  It shocks him from his dreamy sleep. Before he started reading, “He wore his happiness like a mask” (Bradbury pg.9) but then he begins to realize that he isn’t happy at all. The signs are all there. From the raging suicide (Bradbury pg 13), to the ignorance of his own co-workers (Bradbury pg 32), the out casting of a girl who sees through the fog (Bradbury pg 21), and to the corrupted mind of his fire chief (Bradbury pg. 55-59), Montag realizes because he never searched for the truth, he never saw that it was right in front of him, and the truth of the matter was that he was being lied to and allowed to live in an ignorant state. But Faber helps him realize it wasn’t really the books he needed, but the truth that was inside them (Bradbury pg 78). This conflict that Montag endures wakes him up. It makes him see that just because you have  everything you think you need to be happy doesn’t mean you really are happy. Even though Montag gets his spirit crushed by it all and his house and collection burned, he knows what he needs to be happy is the ability to tell truth from lie. So in gains knowledge, truth, and the ability to be happy.

With every conflict there are losses too. Montag does successfully read and collect some books, and he gets snapped into reality and realizes the truth, but he loses major things in the process. One thing he loses is his job as a fireman. He gets confronted by the fire chief and actually ends up losing  his house because the fireman make him burn it to the ground along with some of his books (Bradbury  pg.110). He also loses his wife Mildred, and she runs away and drives off, leaving him utterly alone (Bradbury  pg.108). Every conflict has his losses, and Montag ends up loosing everything that used to matter in his life. His home, his books, and his wife: all gone because of his decision to steal and hide books.

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