It is easy to identify who the “hero” is in this book. We follow Guy Montag throughout the whole book and since the narrator is only a third person limited, he is the only character in the book whose thoughts we can hear, so the hero is clearly Guy. Another easy way to determine who the hero is by process of elimination: Mildred left Guy and turned him in for his books, Clarisse died very early on, Faber was kind of a coward because he stayed back safely in his own home while Guy was a walking target, and Captain Beatty basically taunted Guy to reveal his stash of books and his guilt.
It is hard to sympathize with Guy though because he second guesses and doubts himself all of the time and he makes stupid mistakes, like reciting poetry in front of his wives friends, which eventually leads to burning of his house and his wife leaving him.
He shows that he is not like everybody else when he listens to Clarisse and how he did not turn in Faber even though he knew he had books. He’s been sneaking books before he burns them because he feels that there must be a reason why all of these people are willing to die just for these books. He shows that he has a heart when he can not stop thinking about the lady that died defending the books and whenever he asks his wife, she does not care one bit and tries to talk about her “family” on the television.
He also shows that he have determination because when the hound gives him a shot of poison in the leg before he blasts it with the flamethrower, he keeps going on, even though he says that the pain in his leg feels like somebody is driving nails into it.
One thing that he did that I did not think was heroic at all though was when he planted books at a fellow fireman’s house and then called an alarm so that his house would get burned down. Not a very nice “Guy” when he’s angry.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print.
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