Saturday, August 21, 2010

Fahrenheit 451: Captain Beatty

So, then there is this man named Captain Beatty. Captain Beatty is sort of a good fireman. He does not let his job and his emotions run together, but, apparently, he once did; he has a very vast, wide knowledge of books. He knows a lot about what the stories are like and why all the books are banned and illegal now. He most likely once cared very deeply for books. Maybe he was a librarian before the books became illegal. It does not tell me directly about Captain Beatty's past, but I can make these assumptions because of the answers he gives Guy Montag when Montag first wants to know more about the books he has been burning for so many years. During that same talk with Montag, Captain Beatty tells him a grand, elaborate, and yet strangely also sarcastic and ironic story about the past of the firemen breed. He tells him all about when firemen were first started and how they used to put out fires instead of starting them. He talks about when books were still extremely legal and his some of his knowledge of the books. Now, however, since the law has changed, Beatty calls books "treacherous weapons," but he uses them against Montag to control him and keep his life tangled in despair. Okay, so far, Beatty sonds like a pretty bad man, whic he is, but I do not think he is all bad. For instance, he lets Montag have a book, knowing it is against the law, and he tells him to bring it back to the firehouse in a day to burn it. He wants to give Montag a chance. This pretty much shows me that not everything is bad inside him. He obviously cares at least somewhat about the sanity of his friend. If Beatty was all bad, he would not have given permission to Montag to have the book. He also, in the speech he gives Montag, shares an emotional and compassionate side of him with Montag.

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