Final written for English class this year (grade nine).

The Quondam Comrade

The foil character of Professor Faber in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is none other than the notorious Captain Beatty. He is well known as an antagonist whom Faber suspects may privately be a supporter of the freedom of expression, and also has a proclivity to be a biased pedant when lecturing other people (such as explaining to Guy Montag the deterioration of the necessity for literature) even if he should cease with his looping, meaningless circumlocution. And as readers peruse the paperback to interpret Beatty's true intentions, they are led down complex and confusing paths, until the reader can ask only this question: is Beatty truly an ideologue, or is he hiding an allegiance to freedom of expression? However, the answer is intrinsically simple: the fire captain of Montag is an overzealous idealist who, unaware of his own myopic views on literary works, follows the cadenced dictum of his society to such an extent that he pays the ultimate price for it.

"Beatty stood there looking at him steadily with his eyes, while his mouth opened and began to laugh, very softly." One could perhaps be enticed to believe Beatty is tempting Montag to either expose the truth, that he had clandestinely accumulated hardbacks over the many years of his firemen activities, or to bait him into preserving several, thus revealing whether Montag would join the movement for the right cause; but one may also forget that Beatty is an astute man who simply loves taunting people. In such circumstances, there is more of a chance that Beatty suspects Montag's intentions than otherwise; not for the reason of assimilating him onto the minor side of nonconformity, but to show him the obvious explanation as to why books would prove to be a tangible, depreciatory exemplar. His austere judgment has been gravely impaired due to his likeness of the portrayed society in Bradbury's bestselling novel, and that, upon initial observation, simply reveals the nasty nature of Beatty on a preliminary basis – but which also is his genuine personality.

"'Let's have your hands in sight, Montag. Not that we don't trust you, understand, but-' They all laughed." The fire chief plainly, yet surreptitiously – insofar as to the actual denotation of his remark – affirmed his real opinion of Montag to all members of the table, as proven in the quote. Beatty is a supporter; however, not of the freedom of expression, but of the conformity of his culture. The general populace, unaware of the event's particulars, only requires the conforming of a universal indifferent image to be content. So complacent with their dreary, minimal lives have they neither the ambitio n, nor desire, to modify their existences. Meanwhile, Beatty, insidious as he seems, is no less a victim to this contagious disease than others are – the disparity is he acts upon the conformity – for the conformity – rather than do nothing.

"In the middle of the crying Montag knew it for the truth. Beatty had wanted to die." This sentence explains the essence of Fire Captain Beatty's misery: even in his complete espousal of orthodoxy, subconsciously, he had felt the aspiration for death. Certainly, one could say Beatty was truthfully encouraging the liberty of expression, and had known it all along; after seeing the poignant status of Bradbury's portrayed society, he would naturally have wished to commit suicide. However, the captain of the fire department could not have thought as such, for what use is secretly hiding such an allegiance if it remains a furtive concept? No, Captain Beatty must have been an ideologue, because never once did he give indication of being otherwise, nor did he approve at all of literature. Perhaps Beatty was a supporter of literature on a subconscious level, but he can no less support it willingly than Faber can burn a book purposely. The very topic on the doubt of Beatty's true intentions is ridiculous.

"I lay down for a catnap and in this dream you and I, Montag, got into a furious debate on books. You towered with rage, yelled quotes at me. I calmly parried every thrust. Power, I said." During his taunting of Montag prior to his death, talking of his dream, Beatty was able to successfully counter every single one of dream-Montag's rebukes and fend him off. Sure this may prove Beatty as knowledgeable, and that he read books since his intelligence seems to be above average (at least when it comes to quoting), but one cannot deny the fact that Beatty stands for everything Montag and Faber do not. Whereas Faber shows his fanatic approval and love of books to Montag, Beatty shows his extreme disapproval and hatred of them. Beatty practically thinks the same way as everyone else in the society – not at all.

Beatty can never be an enthusiast for freedom of speech and expression, as he differs too much from that notion. As Bradbury stated in the afterword, the play adaptation by the Studio Theatre Playhouse of Los Angeles wrote some new scenes, depicting their version of the reason Beatty chose to become a firefighter; Bradbury himself admitted the scenes were "good stuff!" In Beatty's newly made scene, Montag is shown Beatty's house, which houses a plethora of books. However, when inquired as to why he could have so many, Beatty simply replies that it is not so much a crime to have books, as it is to read them; and that once he, too, was a radical who supported books and the knowledge they contained within. But in his time of despair, he found no assistance in books, no comfort at all… and became his motive: burning books was a sort of revenge. Even Bradbury confessed, these scenes were to his liking, and he "had to fight not to stuff it in this new printing of the novel." Truly, Beatty can never truly be portrayed as a man surreptitiously allying with the minority group of freedom of expression.

Even though Beatty seems like he hides a suspicious allegiance to the freedom of speech in Fahrenheit 451, Beatty is, in reality, not. I understand why people who say he does, as he is enticingly deceitful, and tries on many occasions to lure Montag to divulge with the captain his secret; but Beatty obscures many things from Montag too, and confuses the protagonist and readers, indicating he is not as simple as he may seem – which, again, may bring up the argument of whether Beatty is as villainous as he may give the impression of being. I am willing concede that point, of arguing that Beatty does not support the freedom of expression, if I would rather articulate on the fact that Beatty definitely is a zealous enthusiast of his the views of Bradbury's society. Through careful construing over the course of the past few days (working on this paper), I have concluded that, while Beatty may or may not be an enthusiast of expression, he unquestionably follows the standpoints of his society, effectively proving my point.