I'm not sure what to think about this novel, honestly. I've read several dystopian novels and short stories before, but never one this well-thought-out. The character development, imagery, and overall emotion in the text is fantastic, even if it is a little bleak.
Montag appears to be the struggling I-want-to-change-the-world character, and I can't help but feel for him a bit because the majority of his ideas are rejected. He doesn't want to live an ignorant, distructive, TV-driven life. However, Montag is far from perfect. He comes across as self-obsessed at times, and he is often very easily influenced. But what I find most concerning is his occassional detachment from himself; there are times when he, himself, does not even know what he's doing or why he's doing them. He sets his boss on fire almost unconsciously. Let me repeat that: He sets his boss on fire and has no conscious thoughts about what he's doing. It is obvious that this is his way of expressing his unhappiness and thirst for rebellion, but for goodness sake, that was a very morbid way of going about things.
I have officially come to despise a character: Mildred. There are times when I've been reading and I've found myself gripping the edges of my book, knuckles white and anger surging through my veins. She cares for no one. She feels nothing. She is sadistic and cold and impossibly selfish. I get that she has buried her emotions infinitely deeply within herself, and that in doing such, she was probably just acting out of self preservation, but I still can't bring myself to find any good in her or her soap opera family.
So, all of this being said, I conclude that, thus far, I am quite enjoying this novel, even if the characters are hard to handle at times. I hope this lasts through part 2 as well. I'm eager to see where Montag's craving for rebellion/revenge lands him.
Interesting quote that can be applied to dytopias:
“The greatest guilt of today is that of people who accept collectivism by moral default; the people who seek protection from the necessity of taking a stand, by refusing to admit to themselves the nature of that which they are accepting; the people who support plans specifically designed to achieve serfdom, but hide behind the empty assertion that they are lovers of freedom, with no concrete meaning attached to the word; the people who believe that the content of ideas need not be examined, that principles need not be defined, and that facts can be eliminated by keeping one's eyes shut. They expect, when they find themselves in a world of bloody ruins and concentration camps, to escape moral responsibility by wailing: "But I didn't mean this!”
-Ayn Rand
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